July 13, 2020
Many CFOs are relying on business unit leaders to uncover and execute savings initiatives.
Last week, PAAS had the pleasure of speaking with 19 CFOs from multiple industries and sizes. The feedback was precisely consistent in that many of them are relying on business unit leaders to uncover and execute savings initiatives.
Many are still skeptical they are securing the best optimal deal for their companies. There is no need to emphasize expense reduction in this note, so let’s focus on maximizing the potential in savings with a proven recipe of success leveraging benchmarked data.
So, are you familiar with quicksand?
Quicksand is a mixture of fine sand, clay, and saltwater. Once perturbed, the mixture transforms from a loose packing of sand on top of water into a dense, liquid soup. Once you fall into quicksand the more you struggle to get out the deeper you submerge, and it takes a long time to get out…
The quicksand that PAAS is referring to is when companies fall in deeper with suppliers prior to negotiating more favorable pricing and terms. Remember, you’re negotiating with suppliers who are experts. Just like your sales team, who is charted for volume and long-term contracts, they want to make it sticky and hard to move and/or renegotiate.
Deals should be mutually beneficial and measured with value and ROI, right? Wasn’t that what your supplier told you when they sold the initial order? Trust us, we know — our team worked for many of the largest technology companies and have successfully negotiated $3B+ in technology agreements.
We understand that time, expertise, and resources are limited and more challenging with the COVID-19 business constraints. However, companies are partnering with organizations who have expertise in categories, discipline to scale all by achieving substantial results. Procurement teams are welcoming assistance from partners to maximize savings opportunities where they have gaps.
Companies are asking suppliers for a discount, but in many cases they are coming up empty-handed.
At that point, the procurement lead moves on to the next supplier as they need to achieve their internal savings goals. Then, that agreement gets renewed as the current or slightly increased pricing for 3-5 more years. The quicksand is in place with that supplier with no savings.
PAAS leverages procurement data, expertise, negotiation skills, and supplier relationships to reduce cost, time, risk, and provide visibility to when expense reductions will be recognized on your balance sheet. We are an extension of the procurement and technology team to drive results.
In addition to reducing your indirect technology spend by 15-30%, we will also provide you with a forecast on when to expect the savings for each of your suppliers in categories like Telco, Mobility, Cloud, Security, Software, Hardware, Print, Consulting, Staffing, Datacenter, and Networking.
PAAS is kind of like the Tooth Fairy.
Our 50M data points on 4900 technology suppliers/services identifies savings and, unexpectedly, money just magically shows up as an adjustment to EBITDA. We will not ask suppliers to do something that they have not already done. Our team of expert negotiators have executive-level relationships with suppliers and…
…we can reduce the procurement lifecycle up to 80%, providing faster savings for our clients.
CFOs have the ability predict spend reduction on all categories and provide discipline and accountability to savings forecast. So, let’s avoid the quicksand and set up a 30-minute discussion about how we can create savings for your business and share how we have saved organizations up to 30% on their technology spend.
David Krigger