Providing Specialist Procurement Support and Strategic Sourcing for a Global Investment Bank
Wavestone were consulted to work with a leading global investment bank to provide specialist procurement support. The client faced a vendor spend challenge around their IT infrastructure and enterprise software due to limited data centralisation which inhibited a holistic view to RTB/CTB leaders across various transaction cycles.
The client aimed to reduce spend by several millions (GBP) across their global technology budget with a specific focus on the top 50 vendors. This engagement predominately involved collaboration across Chief Technology Office (CTO), Chief Operations Office (COO), and various business functions.
How did Wavestone help?
Project Management
Wavestone were on-boarded (at pace) to manage the end-to-end category management process (which forms part of the procurement function within RTB). This involved complex project management of governance and reporting; active risk and issue (RAID) management; cross-functional resource management. The team provided subject matter expertise (SME) in strategic sourcing, category management, and supplier management. Working as one, Wavestone identified grounded (tangible) cost saving opportunities and strategies (aligned to AT Kearney’s Purchasing Chessboard) which were implementable (referred to as creating investment capacity).
Strategy Development
The strategy development process involved analysing vendor contracts, deep diving into historical vendor spend (up to 3 years) and mapping the commercial pipeline, which included major new deals and deals approaching renewal to understand what actionable opportunities existed to reduce spend. A strategy pack considering internal/external factors and categorising vendors as short/long-term invest or divest was produced for each of the top 50 vendors, along with ensuring the relevant teams were lined up to execute cost-saving transactions.
Process Design: Opportunity Tracking
Wavestone designed a comprehensive process to track and execute cost savings opportunities by sourcing data inputs from various business functions and systems. Throughout this process, opportunities were measured and benchmarked across various criterion before progressing to execution.
Due Diligence
Wavestone supported vendor blocking activities to achieve and maintain a reduction in vendor spend. Once a vendor was categorised as “short-term divest”, the team would manage the process to ensure the vendor could not continue selling products or services. This process also involved the identification of missing contracts through due diligence and implementing workflows to provide data visibility across the procurement function.
The Relationship with the Client
Wavestone have worked with this client for many years to solve complex problems across a multitude of business topics including strategic sourcing, technology change, cybersecurity, project and programme management. Wavestone provided two teams to lead and manage this engagement:
- RTB Tech Vendor Team: The first team comprised five Wavestone consultants who provided expertise in governance and reporting, programme and project management, change leadership and business and data analysis as part of the CTO Technology Vendor Management Programme. The team led the application simplification workstream within the broader programme.
- RTB Procurement Taskforce: The second team comprised eight Wavestone consultants with expertise in category management, supplier management, sourcing, project management and procurement optimisation. This team analysed top 50 vendors spend, analysed contracts, developed cost-saving opportunities and clarified commercials timelines to support deal execution.
The RTB Tech Vendor Team led the overall process to identify high level opportunities to save the client money. Whilst the RTB Procurement Taskforce deep dived into identifying credible opportunities and led the execution of creating bottom line savings.
Our Unique Approach
Wavestone demonstrated adaptability very early on and throughout the engagement given the scope was not firmly defined. Therefore, the team had to on-board at pace, understand the vendor landscape, and provide confidence to the client that they could accelerate savings.
To further demonstrate adaptability, Wavestone supported several supplier meetings (with senior stakeholders) where the team represented the client. This led to the team driving some of those ongoing activities (e.g. technology projects to be implemented and contract renewals to be executed in the short-term).
The client stated Wavestone collaborated in a positive way as various stakeholders were involved in agile ceremonies, demos and retrospectives, and strategy planning and execution sessions to reduce spend.
The Results
Wavestone identified over £20 million of potential savings across the top 50 technology vendors. Each of these opportunities were clearly articulated in a strategy execution pack and communicated to the various procurement and technology teams to implement.
Wavestone matured the procurement function from a category perspective by implementing governance, standard processes, templates and agile ways of working which was new to this part of the client organisation. Additionally, the collaboration between CTO and business facing teams was improved through the creation of regular communication channels.
The team identified a significant number of missing contracts, ensuring they were recorded on the system and supported short-term sourcing deals by defining a clear execution roadmap for grounded opportunities.
