CASE STUDY

Overview

As a company grows, there is often a drive to reduce its supplier base in order to minimise costs, lower the burden on Procurement and improve the quality of projects.  

If uncontrolled, a supplier database can have 100 suppliers for the same service, causing inconsistencies in results, as well as taking time and money to manage. An incorrect management system can also lead to invoicing and payment issues.  

Ideally, a company should simply have the minimum number of suppliers to efficiently support the business and use an efficient system that will aid the company’s growth by reducing costs and creating a higher chance of delivery. 

Challenge

Our client came to us hoping to find a solution for their supplier database management. They wanted to reduce complexity, minimise management costs and stop the overbilling of purchase orders (POs).  

They had previously been unsuccessful partnering with another company, finding there was a lack of competent project management support, little account management in general as well as major issues with financial control.  

In fact, multiple POs were being over billed, invoices were constantly being rejected and too much time was being spent investigating why this was happening and how best to resolve it.  

Solution

After fully understanding the company’s challenges and objectives with regards to their suppliers and freelancers, we decided to implement a multi-tier support model that we had successfully proven with other clients.  

Our Projekt Rising supplier model would give Medtronic access to a global pool of expert suppliers, managed under us acting as one master supplier. 

We would build a strong relationship with their procurement team and all necessary departments in order to offer the best support.  

The support was set out on two key levels:  

1. Simple supplier engagement and payment management
2. Fully managed project delivery with our team of experienced project managers 

As projects varied, our solution allowed our client to choose the level of support they needed for each one accordingly. We also provided them access to our online finance portal so that they could have full visibility and complete control on expenditure.  

To resolve the issue our client had experienced with their POs, we used our integrated purchase order management functionality, so that it was impossible to over bill. 

Results

The result was a well-designed supplier base system that allowed the procurement team and internal departments to easily manage and pay their suppliers and freelancers through one platform.  

Since implementation, successful project completion has increased by 75% and 0% of POs have been over billed.