Ascertain

We highlight areas for improvement and in partnership with our clients, we create a procurement vision producing a realistic action plan for the goals to be realised.

Sourcing Audits & Opportunity Assessment

A recommended first step in the improvement and development of a client’s purchasing function is to carry out a quick review and prioritise those areas of procurement that should be addressed. Depending on the client’s determinations, we offer various arrangements: a single diagnosis Sourcing Audit, is done in about 2 weeks while a more thorough Opportunity Assessment will take 8-10 weeks. Selected deliverables in an Opportunity Assessment can be spend analysis, contract review, vendor market analysis, and priority purchasing categories. Staff evaluations can also be an important part of an assessment and incorporated, if required.

Spend Analysis

After an in-depth review to gain understanding about your company’s purchasing and procurement programs, process, and track record, our consultants will present a thorough, focused analysis of your current pain points and purchasing spend profile history.

By obtaining both your input and the input of your procurement associates, our consultants will facilitate and build internal support before moving forward to the next phase of each initiative. We will work to build trust and teamwork between your purchasing and procurement associates.

Contract Analysis & Creation

A powerful approach to contract management through a combination of the following services:

• Contract Inventory Assessment : We conduct a thorough analysis of your contract inventory
  
• Agreement Development Process: We outline your business’s agreement process and benchmark it against industry best practices.
• Pro-Forma Agreements: We work with your legal team to create a series of easy-to -understand pro-forma contract documents.

Our unique commercial model

We put our money where our mouth is. We charge 50% of the savings we generate for our clients during the 'relevant period' (usually the first year following delivery of our results).

Our services are therefore fully self-financing and do not need a budget in the way that most investment does. Hence, our interests and our client's interests are perfectly aligned. We succeed and grow together.

Contact us now

Cost Reduction

Procurement should be a profit centre for your company. Our cost reduction specialists use tested cost reduction techniques, strategies and tactics. Starting by identifying your top expense areas, we will review current contracts, vendors and products to identify where your company’s best opportunities for reducing cost are.

Reducing costs to meet or exceed budget should be part of company’s continual improvement mindset. Many times, associates have great cost reduction ideas that simply haven’t been mined or shared. Our cost reduction specialists will help you to create the environment where listening and timely idea development and implementation will build your team’s enthusiasm and involvement.

Listening is one the most effective tools of our cost reduction consultants. We will listen to you, your associates and your vendors to identify, develop and harvest low hanging fruit. Mentoring, celebrating successes and the sharing of ideas that become actionable cost reduction initiatives is a great way to get your team involved and even in friendly competition and partnering to strengthen your company’s bottom line.

Effective business cost reduction strategies will produce measurable, long-term results. The main areas of expenditure on which we work tend to be indirect costs. This is because, in our experience, these often have the greatest potential for cost reduction. However we also frequently identify savings from clients’ direct inputs.

Examples of categories that we address include:

    accommodation
    banking
    catering
    cleaning
    fuel
    general stationery
    insurance
    IT
    leasing/financing
    marketing
    merchant card fees
    packaging
    photocopying/reproduction
    plant hire (FLTs, skips, cranes)
    postage and couriers
    print/printing
    professional fees (audit, legal)
    protective clothing/equipment
    recruitment
    rent and rates
    road freight
    security
    telecoms (fixed line and mobile)
    training
    travel
    tyres
    uniforms
    utilities (electricity, water, gas)
    vehicle hire and maintenace

This list is not exhaustive. We consider any areas of expenditure except wages and salaries.