Delivery of Significant Cost Savings to a Large UK Retailer
Utilising our significant experience in procurement and contract management, Cambridge MC delivered £10m of savings on an addressable budget of £80m
A large UK online retailer went through a downsizing exercise in the early part of 2023. This caused significant changes in demand, meaning that expenditure in many areas was far more than the business requirement.
There were also instances where certain technologies were no longer required, but long-term contracts were in place that needed to be negotiated out.
The goal of the project was to review all current vendor and supplier contracts, identify where savings could potentially be made, and then work with the procurement department to reduce the current level of expenditure to meet current business requirements. Our team was given a three-month deadline to make savings to the bottom line.
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Project
Overview
Cambridge MC was engaged on a three-month project to perform the following:
- Perform a deep dive on all vendor contracts against the current business.
- Establish priority saving areas and launch projects.
- Challenge demand and specification requirements.
- Build a cost reduction report.
- Engage in supplier negotiations in conjunction with the client's own procurement team.
- Produce weekly reports on cost savings achieved.
Our experience in procurement, contract, and vendor management enabled us to completely meet the brief set out by the client which was to deliver significant bottom-line savings in a three-month turnaround.
Specific Challenges
- Client had lost control of spend across the business.
- They had no awareness of what contracts had auto-renewed.
- They had signed long-term contracts.
- Some contracts had recently been extended for 24 months or longer.
- Due to downsizing, the volume of licenses for certain technologies were way above the actual requirement.
- Client had an inexperienced procurement team.
- Recent staff turnover meant that contract owners were no longer in the company.
- They had no contract management platform in place, resulting in contracts not being readily available.
- Most vendors were reluctant to renegotiate contracts at a lower cost to the business.
- Procurement had a process—not price—focus.
Solutions
- Cambridge MC employed a data-driven analytical approach which prioritised target spend and volume data.
- All existing agreements and contracts were 'fair game'.
- We challenged what was the actual demand and specification, questioning whether what they have today is still relevant to what is needed now and in the future.
- After performing a deep analysis of all contracts, we entered into negotiations with vendors where the existing contracts did not meet the business requirement due to downsizing.
Approach
- Vendors were allocated across the Cambridge MC team.
- Weekly all-day meetings at client's offices.
- Regular video conference calls to update progress.
- Engaged department heads as required.
Outcomes & Results
The benefits of the joint partnership between Cambridge MC and our client:
01
Cost Savings
In excess of £10m savings achieved off the bottom line.
02
Knowledge
License requirements reduced to the correct level for the business.
03
Diligence
Contracts managed far more closely.
04
Efficiency
Procurement team coached to function more efficiently.
05
Commitment
All contractual obligations were met.
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Industry insights
We were approached by a global networking systems, services, and software company that specialises in optical and routing solutions. Their technology helps carriers, enterprises, and governments build more efficient and scalable networks, particularly for high-bandwidth applications like 5G, cloud computing, and AI-driven networking. Africa is a key strategic market for this client. They are also playing an active role in advancing outlined 5G technology on the continent, emphasising a focus on routing and switching aggregation components, network slicing, and monetisation. The Opportunity The client engaged Cambridge MC to provide external insight and support to augment and accelerate the progress of their Go-to-Market plans for Africa. We proposed our in-house rapid Strategy Stress Test that delivers key insights across areas of your strategy using a 1–5 health-scoring matrix. The client's aim is to grow market share in the region with a precisely focussed strategy that targets their market with key propositions and solutions. We were engaged to review this strategy and their plans for the region, identifying critical opportunities and gaps with a quick turnaround. Approach We used our Rapid Strategy Stress Test methodology which provides: Target geographies, opportunities, and partners for resource effectiveness and success maximisation Assessment of client's Go-to-Market Strategy including identification and testing of key assumptions Identification of new opportunities and any gaps in the strategy Recommendations on how best to capitalise on the market and accelerate their route to success This included carrying out target addressable and client-addressable market sizing by country for the Optical, Data Centre Interconnect, Routing and Switching portfolios; competitor market share analysis; analysis of current and planned data centre build in the target countries; future trend analysis, including Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental trends by country. We put their GtM strategy and plans through our Stress Test framework, scoring capabilities against best-in-class – across 11 parameters such as Market Potential, Adaptability to Local Needs, Pricing and Marketing & Demand Generation. Recommendations were made against each of the 11 areas relating to opportunities to accelerate their GtM strategy. In order to support effective targeting of resources into key countries, we developed a country prioritisation framework across 15 parameters, such as GDP growth, energy supply, stability of regulatory environment, and ease of doing business. This quantitative assessment was supplemented with the real world experience of our Africa experts.
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