Injecting procurement transformation skills and market knowledge into the in-house team
Landscape
This market-leading travel technology solutions provider has systems that process in the region of $90bn of travel expenditure annually.
Challenge
Despite being a leading provider of travel services for the past 25 years, our client’s growth had started to slow. This was due to a lack of new product innovation, extended development timeframes, and a loss of discipline with respect to product launches and updates. The organization had an aging workforce and little to no process with respect to knowledge capture and management, leaving it exposed to various operational risks.
The client decided to investigate moving high-risk technology services to externally managed service providers. However, the necessary commercial knowledge and capability did not exist in-house to investigate the market, build strategies, and execute the projects.
Our Approach
The client engaged Proxima as a capability partner, asking us to parachute in a procurement specialist team that could run multiple work streams and reflect the best solutions in the market back to leadership. We augmented the client’s Procurement team who would continue to focus on business as usual, and we would knowledge transfer as part of the engagement and handover.
We developed a four stage procurement transformation approach:
- Identify and baseline the current services (and internal delivery impact)
- Build a set of future requirements based on key client challenges and opportunities
- Create sourcing strategies by working closely with the technology team
- Engage the market and execute the projects as part of a flexible delivery program
Outcomes and Deliverables
Our procurement specialists delivered a program of work that drove significant transformation in the clients’ business model, moving a number of in-house roles and processes to suppliers. These supplier solutions were able to offer predictability, scalability, and innovation, supporting the client’s development and growth aspirations.
Through engaging with Proxima, our client benefited from proven program management experience. They also gained the ability to draw on category and commercial specialists as and when needed, and at different points during the sourcing process.
A key example of the value add of the Capability on Demand program was Applications Development, where Proxima ran a program to select a managed service provider to deliver;
- A five year service with material cost savings of $28m (against the previous in-house model), with a phased ramp up to support budgeting and transition planning
- Dedicated innovation and R&D services, powering a continuous improvement program that accelerated the speed to market of applications development
- Support to understand and embed Agile practices, with a vendor-led Agile Transformation over 18 months, including Agile coaches
About Proxima
We work hard as a leading procurement consultancy firm to understand your business and your needs. By working closely together, we create trust, using insight and knowledge to come up with creative yet practical solutions that move you forward.
Get in touch with our procurement specialists to transform your procurement team, achieve business growth goals and save costs.
