How can Atlantic help you with areas of direct costs as Atlantic’s core competency is in areas of indirect spend?

Simple …..We have developed a partnership with a company with vast global experience of reducing direct spend.

We can provide you with a range of services from, Strategic Sourcing Projects through to Category Management Services. Many of our clients now see us as their total procurement partner.

Our role is to help solve your procurement issues and add real value to your business.  

The process………….for direct costs is however, very different

Working with our strategic partner, we assign a team of procurement specialists with vast experience of direct costs, to work alongside you using the latest tools and techniques to deliver the best possible supply options for your organisation.
 
Whilst cost reduction is important, much of the value we deliver comes from other benefits. This includes access to improved products, faster supply chains, streamlined procurement processes as well as introductions to new and innovative suppliers.

How could we start working with you?

Some of our customers want to make a dramatic change to the costs of their business as quickly as possible. Our Savings Optimisation Analysis which identifies the best savings opportunities and our advanced sourcing and tendering capability which identifies the optimum supplier globally and the best prices for their materials, components or services.

Many companies wish to benefit from some of the leading technology solutions that we have developed. These solutions include our:

Increasingly, companies wish to engage both our people and systems to manage some or all of their categories over the longer term. This Category Management Service is viewed as a way of providing very flexible and powerful additional capacity and capability to an existing procurement team, or to provide an effective outsourcing solution.

Companies also wish to engage us to effect a change on just two or three categories of spend where they have a specific problem. Within these Strategic Sourcing Projects we utilise the appropriate advanced tendering processes and a global supplier headhunting capability to help you find the optimum suppliers and the best value for money.

"The software used to communicate with companies through the competitive tender has been extremely useful. On a project of this nature and complexity there are lots of drawings, standards and other details that suppliers need to come up with definitive prices. These documents are also being updated as progress is being made. Making these available on the website and providing a question and answer facility for suppliers has been a big help in getting to a level playing field. We are sure that to a high degree suppliers are quoting against the same things."

Market purchasing and structured tendering are vital activities in the effective management of most purchasing portfolios. For many categories, the number of highly qualified potential suppliers that could be included within a tender, particularly within a global supply context, can be very large. When this is the case we regard the potential suppliers as the Supply Market and apply Market Purchasing techniques to determine Market Price.

Atlantic’s partner's expertise in Market Purchasing has been instrumental in delivering consistently eye-catching results for our customers, either as one off tenders or within larger programmes of work. This is not just about cost reduction but about finding and putting buyers in touch with the best suppliers in the world.

Three elements are important within a Market Purchasing approach:

CREATE: Supplier Headhunting
Using our supplier headhunting expertise and resources which includes access to experienced multilingual procurement specialists covering 15 business languages, Atlantic’s partner can help you to create an appropriate supply marketplace for your category needs. For an item with hundreds of potential suppliers, we will locate a representative sample of the total marketplace to ensure that true Market Price is eventually determined. For items with only a few potential suppliers in the world, it is essential to find them all so that a liquid marketplace is established i.e. a marketplace with multiple suppliers that are both viable and interested in your business.
Through our continuous headhunting activities particularly in the manufacturing market, Atlantic’s partner has compiled extensive supplier databases, a network of overseas agents and specialist resources with linguistic skills. With these resources, we can find the right suppliers and create the optimal supply market place for each tender conducted.

COMMUNICATE: eRFx; Contract Optimisation
Having identified the best potential suppliers and created the marketplace it is essential that a level playing field is created. Each supplier must have, and know that they have, access to the same information at the same time. Atlantic’s partner's leading eRFx platform supports simultaneous communications with each potential supplier during the tender. It provides an efficient method for the buyer to retain complete control and maintain detailed records of all communications. Without this tool, when running tenders involving larger numbers of potential suppliers, buyers risk inadvertently giving each supplier a slightly different picture or omitting relevant information.

With effective and efficient communication with the Supply Market, the “shape” of the market can be determined. This allows our team, when necessary, to adjust the contract terms and structure to suit the marketplace and thus leading to the best possible result.
NEGOTIATE: Online Negotiations [e-auctions; reverse auctions; value auctions; strategic negotiations]
Having communicated your needs and optimised the contract structure, if the resultant market place is liquid, an online negotiation is the only meaningful way to determine Market Price. If not liquid, Atlantic’s partner’s team have years of experience in face-to-face or structured strategic negotiations to ensure that the most appropriate supply option is achieved.
Online negotiations take a number of forms from the online reverse auction where a single parameter such as price is considered through to value auctions where multiple parameters such as payment terms, consignment stock, line-side delivery etc. can be negotiated simultaneously.

For a no-nonsense approach please give us a call to discuss the opportunities this service represents