Specialty retailer supports spin-off and rapid expansion with outsourced buying center from ICG Commerce

Situation:

Explosive growth left this large retailer, constantly faced with the challenges of maintaining supply continuity to existing and in-development, future retail locations. Recently spun off their parent company, they did not have an existing procurement organization, procurement technology or procurement policies tailored to support their unique business model. They quickly realized to that to control their spend and support and sustain their rapid growth they needed a solution to cost effectively manage procurement.

Solution:

While supporting current store requisitions, ICG Commerce worked with the company to build an outsourced buying center that could immediately leverage ICG Commerce's procurement infrastructure. ICG Commerce developed detailed procedure manuals that guide the buying center operations such as financial approval thresholds, new vendor add processes, compliance and approval policies. Automated solutions were created to support time consuming, manual processes such as email requisition submission, tracking orders, PO routing, approval and faxing to suppliers and enable remote support of buying locations. These solutions filled the gaps in the company's procurement architecture and allowed the company to keep operating efficiently while the procurement department was built.

Results:

The customer has been able to support a 150% increase in transaction volume in parallel with continuing to support the opening of over 12 stores a year. Manual processes have been greatly streamlined allowing the company's limited procurement staff to focus on strategic sourcing of the company's highest value categories. The buying center also provides comprehensive reporting and metrics that allow the customer to track realized savings, requisition and PO volumes and spending trends across the enterprise.