Case Study: US Specialty Retailer Improves Sourcing With Automated Spend Analysis

Centralized strategic sourcing was just in its infancy at this large retailer and it was feeling the growing pains. Without an accurate and credible single source of spend data, it was difficult to justify many of the hard decisions required to move to the new model. As a result, efforts had stalled. It was at this point that the company turned to automated spend analysis to try and take control of spend, reduce the need for outside consultants, and conduct better leveraged negotiations. The project was a big success — mainly because of a few straightforward best practices: locking in the right resources early, taking ownership of the iterative refinement phase, and development of a hybrid taxonomy.