Cost Control & Reduction | Process Improvement | Procurement Systems | Supplier Leadership

Utilities have undergone significant change in the past decade. Many transformed from government owned to private enterprises. This means Utilities are often caught in the middle: the industry faces the cost-pressures of the private sector and the compliance requirements of the public sector.

Cost control and reduction for Utilities often means obtaining a clear view of the end to end supply chain, optimising asset management and improving business planning processes. Sourcing is then just the next logical step to implement and realise the benefits. We also work with our Utilities clients to diagnose their internal processes, systems and people capabilities and guide them every step of their way to process improvement and better performance results through supplier leadership.

We are happy to dive in wherever you need us but no matter what your specific requirements maybe as part of any prospective engagement we offer an initial Situation Analysis.

In this consultation we analyse your current situation benchmarked against best practice and a roadmap of the options and activities that could be undertaken to improve your results.

We will also demonstrate how we have successfully worked with clients like Sydney Water, Icon Water and Ausgrid to deliver real change.

Case Studies

Resources

Is your Utility or procurement team facing the following challenges?

  • New to your position, looking for focus and some quick wins
  • Tasked with finding another round of cost savings
  • Trying to understand how procurement can deliver against the business strategy rather than being a reactive sourcing team
  • Struggling with procurement processes and systems that are just too complicated, time consuming, prone to errors
  • Not having the time to proactively fix the problems and are constantly expected to do more with less
  • Frustrated with contracts and suppliers that continually under-perform and give my team headaches
  • Procurement data is too poor for meaningful spend analysis
  • Our procurement systems are not fit for purpose

We help Utilities and their teams:

  • Analyse quickly where they stand in terms of procurement capability, systems and gaps to best practice.
  • Align the procurement function so that it delivers business objectives
  • Identify which categories present the most likely cost savings and bang for buck
  • Find the space to think strategically and add real value to your business
  • Improve existing procurement systems
  • Guide teams when selecting and implementing new procurement systems
  • Fix existing dysfunctional contracts and relationships with suppliers
  • Elevate the standing of the role of procurement within the organisation
  • Gain confidence and access deep expertise to tackle high stakes procurement in any category
  • Implement better practice contract and performance frameworks

We do this by:

  • Working collaboratively with you, your team and all stakeholders, from the start of the project to the successful implementation
  • Embedding our team of industry leading category experts into your project team for rapid upskilling of your procurement capabilities
  • Streamlining existing processes, policies and templates
  • Diagnosing problems with your contracts, systems, process and capabilities and implementing better practice
  • Benchmarking your procurement function with the leading Utilities in Australasia
  • Using artificial intelligence to categorise spend and use our experience to predict where savings are possible
  • Providing end to end change management support for procurement systems

Our Consulting Service

Cost Control and Reduction

When it comes to cost control and reduction there is more than one way to skin the cat. Procurement teams actually have 4 levers at their disposal - Pay Less, Buy Cheaper, Buy Less, Buy Smarter.

Our team will:

  • Help you identify and apply a 4 levers strategy to your procurement function and buying process.
  • Provide you with deep category insight that quickly identifies cost saving opportunities (including in construction, property, facilities management, professional services and ICT)
  • Give you on demand access to our resources to supplement your own team.

Process Improvement

Transforming the way procurement is done often receives internal resistance particularly if to date it has been ineffectual or an impediment to getting things done.

Our team will:

  • Assess the procurement capabilities of people, systems and processes.
  • Analyse your spend data with our proprietary tool SPAT, which is a machine learning tool trained on 50 million invoice data points
  • Diagnose exactly where the pain is, what is causing it and then implement the changes with you.
  • Give you the time to focus on the important not only the urgent through improved planning and better category management.
  • Streamline procurement policies, processes, guidelines and templates.
  • Coach and tailor training across the whole contract lifecycle.

Procurement Systems

Chances are your function can be significantly improved through better procurement systems. We offer truly independent and system agnostic advice on how you get more of existing systems and how to drive customer adoption of new systems.

Our offer:

  • Clearly identify why your existing systems do not deliver the benefits and efficiencies they should. Then we help you implement the fixes.
  • Use artificial intelligence to rapidly understand your spend even if the underlying data is poor.
  • Assess your readiness for the implementation of a new procurement system and develop the business case.
  • Support the change management that is required for any successful eProcurement system.

Supplier Leadership

More often than not service providers disappoint. Managers end up spending most of their time putting out fires and dealing with poor performance rather than making strategic decisions.

We help you:

  • Introduce a contract management and supplier relationship management framework to drive the required behaviour from your suppliers.
  • Determine if your contracts are on track and where they are underperforming and get them up to scratch through our contract health checks.
  • Fix a dysfunctional contract or relationship.

Insights & Resources

Choosing a suitable eProcurement system: What others had to learn the hard way

Unfortunately, not all procurement teams get to enjoy full benefits from their technology solutions. Why is that? Learn how to avoid missing out these crucial benefits.

What separates immature and mature organisations?

After learning about procurement’s maturity levels and how these correlate to strategic alignment, we can firmly say, that they go hand in hand. What separates immature and mature organisations?

Dealing with supply risk: becoming a customer of choice

Assuring the supply base and its viability is currently an important procurement goal. So how exactly are organisations dealing with mitigation of supply risk? What can you learn and adopt?

Where are the procurement “quick wins” for an incoming CPO?

As a new CPO you need to make an impact. Fast. Ideally within 100 days. This is important to win trust. Trust from the wider business that procurement will be better this time round. Better, in the sense of being able to help the organisation deliver the strategic goals. An enabler, rather than a roadblock. A coach, not a police offer.

Where to Start?
THE SITUATION ANALYSIS