Situation: A global consumer goods company needed to know how well its global technology procurement function bought technology, and what to change. It brought him in to assess the function, which sits inside its indirect procurement organisation. The work ran from July 2017 to March 2019 as five contracts in sequence.
Intervention: He began with a discovery phase, from July to November 2017. A Quick Wins phase followed, from December 2017 to May 2018. It covered the statement of work process, the master services agreement and its schedules, and the workflow and tools the function used to buy technology. Three further phases followed, to March 2019.
Outcome: The Quick Wins phase carried an expected benefit of about €1.7M. The assessment led to better processes, stronger internal and supplier governance, renegotiated contracts with key suppliers, and the adoption of an automation tool for contracting. The client kept the work going for almost two years, through five contracts in sequence.