Sustainability, digitalization and cost management – these are the topics that influence all companies and thus also the procurement consulting industry, whether SMEs or corporations, in today’s world.  The shoe pinches at all corners and ends and the legal requirements and changing customer requirements as well as the increasing cost pressure can no longer be ignored and force companies to act. Is your company positioned for the future in these fields – sustainability, digitalization and cost management?

Bringing transparency to the topic of sustainability

What are we talking about when we talk about sustainability? Everyone has heard about it, but few really understand what is involved and how extensive and in other places how simple it can be. We as procurement consulting bring light into the darkness and design with you your sustainability strategy as well as an action plan for the implementation – step by step.

First of all, it is important for all parties involved to understand what sustainability means for your company and where the sustainable journey should go. Are you directly affected by the Supply Chain Act or will emissions trading cause you problems in the future and force you to act? Or do you want to create a carbon footprint as a first step and create transparency for yourself first to decide what the new target can be?

Our objective as procurement consulting is to make sustainability measurable and to increase the company value together with our customers.

Increase process efficiency, push digitalization

Digitization, digitization, digitization… many people can’t hear it anymore and are rather annoyed when it comes to the fact that processes in their own company should be digitized. But why?

Often, digitization projects are approached incorrectly and not planned properly. The two most important questions „Where does digitization really make sense? Where can our processes be streamlined?“ are either not asked at all or are asked far too late.

Processes that are only semi-optimal are digitized and in the end everyone wonders why errors occur and everything is suddenly so complicated. Shit in – Shit out: No software can solve this problem. We as procurement consultants have made it our business to optimize processes in advance, to determine at which process steps a digitization solution makes sense and then to identify the appropriate software solution.

And what else have you forgotten? Your employees! Without involving your employees from the first step of process optimization, the new „super great digital solution“ will receive very little approval and acceptance. We also support you in change management.

Efficient and transparent cost management protects the future

Currently, procurement consulting in cost management is more in demand than ever. Covid-19 has caused supply bottlenecks and sales losses in many industries, so that cost reduction programs are being pushed through from the upper management levels. Many procurement departments are throwing up their hands and employees are on the verge of despair.

The quick savings from short-term commodity group optimizations, e.g. from regular tenders, have already been made – if rising raw material prices don’t throw a spanner in the works. Now procurement consultancies are coming into the game. Now it is more a matter of reducing costs in the long term and, above all, managing them. This requires a corresponding transparency in the data to be analyzed. Already at this point, the project is often doomed to failure.

Let’s assume that the necessary data and the corresponding data quality are available. For a detailed analysis, the employees need time and time is short in the daily business in which the procurement constantly has to play fire extinguisher. There is hardly any time left for strategic projects, or they drag on indefinitely and the pressure on the employees is constantly increasing, causing dissatisfaction.

We as procurement consultants deal with these issues on a daily basis and provide capacity, methodological expertise and a project management office (PMO) to our clients. Of course, we cannot do our work as procurement consultants 100% without the use of our clients‘ resources, but we keep this as low as possible.

You see a need for action in your organization? Contact us, we will be happy to support you in the areas of sustainability, digitalization and cost management!