Centric

In Search of Value

A large financial services corporation sought to completely restructure its procurement organization, recognizing an opportunity to create greater value for shareholders. Specifically, executive management wanted to:

• Increase the ability to deliver against both near-term and longer-term savings expectations.
• Increase the ability to sustain and grow savings for the corporation.
• Develop a “world class” procurement and supply management organization with up-scale capabilities which would inspire all business units to utilize available services and contracts.
• Increase collaboration and partnering with suppliers

A Strategic Partner

Centric was engaged in a multi-phased project to restructure procurement operations. Centric conducted an end-to-end assessment of current operations, redefined the organization’s strategy and value proposition, and developed a new operating model which would be attractive to various corporate business units. The work focused on the following imperatives:

• Understand, reposition and expand the organization’s value proposition.
• Develop a framework and governance structure that clearly articulates business unit roles and responsibilities for managing commodities.
• Align the procurement organization and business unit goals and objectives, and drive continuous improvement via an agreed upon performance management framework.
• Adopt a prospective vs. retrospective approach to sourcing and supply management.
• Harness the full power of the Company’s spend via “strategic” category and commodity sourcing.
• Fully leverage suppliers to identify and drive ongoing improvements.
• Upgrade core capabilities to better deliver on its value proposition—tools, methods, processes, skills and organizational approach.

Results

The project was completed on-time and on-budget, and met executive expectations. The work provided the procurement organization with an effective long-term blueprint for migrating its strategic role within the Company. The organization continues to drive significant value to the business across multiple categories and continues to improve upon its service offerings.