How Market Intelligence helped Save Money, Reduce Risk and Set Strategy
"Sourcing turned to the newly-onboarded ProcurementIQ research to shed new light on various aspects of the sourcing process."
Procurement’s Challenge
Historically, a leading financial services company contracted with multiple security service partners across ten separate locations through labor and services agreements. In 2015, the sourcing team embarked on a project to consolidate these security services. However, they had limited market intelligence in that category, so the RFP process, internal knowledge and formal negotiations drove the selection and results. The company ultimately contracted with a single provider of security services, centralizing the program and realizing a cost reduction across the enterprise – a big win for the sourcing team.
Soon after the contract was signed, the financial services company upgraded its market intelligence suite by onboarding ProcurementIQ research. In 2016, when sourcing partnered again with the security team to revisit its services contracts, they had the benefits of fresh eyes, an established partnership with the security management team and the insights of ProcurementIQ’s independent research.
Working together, the sourcing and security teams decided they wanted the new agreement to “better align with Security’s strategic direction, including a greater emphasis on accountability, continuous improvement and efficient use of resources.” In other words, they wanted to set strategy, reduce risk and save money in this service area.
Solutions & Results
With those goals in mind, the groups identified an opportunity to further improve the security services program by filling service gaps in the single-source contract. However, prior to issuing a new RFP, it was critical for sourcing to document and vet specific requirements, including Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to ensure that the resulting contract would meet the needs of the company across all locations.
Sourcing turned to the newly-onboarded ProcurementIQ research to shed new light on various aspects of the sourcing process. The team leveraged a ProcurementIQ report that provided multiple insights into the security services industry, including:
- Validating major players in the market so the company could confirm that the appropriate firms were invited to participate in the RFP opportunity
- Ensuring alignment between the award’s decision criteria and industry standards
- Confirming that the vendor response weightings were appropriate for the industry and service
- Showing trends across the industry and geographic area, so the team could see how the service trended from one location to another. This certified that the company’s environment reflected the same trends across major locations.
Based on ProcurementIQ’s accurate data and insight, the sourcing team made an informed buying decision that resulted in a thoughtfully executed contract that included improved SLAs and performance metrics. The multi-year contract locked in pricing, resulting in lower costs and reduced risk for the enterprise.
Summary
After a big win in 2015, the sourcing and security teams knew they could take the achievement even further. With the in-depth knowledge provided by ProcurementIQ and the collaboration of the security management team, sourcing helped security set its strategy for years to come. Ultimately, the leading financial services company successfully executed a multi-year agreement with a top-tier national provider, reinforcing their strategy of maintaining a consolidated service provider across many locations with strict service requirements, saving money and reducing risk.
