Overview:
Large travel buyer with over $100 million in annual airline spend. Attempting to implement a more decentralized approach to sourcing its global program to empower local market talent to take ownership of their areas of responsibility. Most of the local market buyers had little or no exposure to travel, but were enthusiastic about the opportunity.
Approach:
The Data Insights team designed and delivered airline sourcing education sessions for the local market buyers and made themselves available for ongoing requests and education sessions. As this was the first time sourcing airlines for most of the buyers, the Data Insights team performed all of the proposal analytics and created negotiating documents for use with the suppliers. We held pre-calls to ensure that the buyers were well-prepared for the negotiations and then attended calls to monitor their readiness to hold negotiations on their own.
Results:
Lean global team was allowed to focus on its core suppliers and Data Insights helped them deliver $1.5 million in new savings. With the assistance of the local staff, Data Insights generated another $1.2 million in savings from regional and local suppliers in the form of expanded deals, as well as filling in gaps in contract coverage. The buyer now views its local teams as one of its procurement organization strengths.