Procurement Transformation Case Study: Finance

See How Source One's Procurement Transformation Consultants Support Businesses Like Yours

Learn more about how Source One’s Procurement Transformation team supported a member-owned federal credit union. 

Source One’s Procurement Advisory experts help clients to establish a baseline for their Procurement maturity and craft a long-term vision to support value generation across all functions. Our Procurement Roadmaps provide a business case for building a solid foundation with Procurement’s People, Processes, Tools & Technology, Metrics & Reporting, and most importantly, its Role within the organization.

This case study is an example of how our Advisory team assessed the Procurement function’s current state, built a detailed roadmap, and supported a federal credit union in realizing the opportunities presented.

Company Profile

• Member-owned federal credit union.
• Branches and ATMs throughout Pennsylvania.
• $15M in annual revenue.

The organization approached Source One for support in optimizing its Procurement function and empowering it so serve as a trusted business partner.

The Challenge

New leadership within the organization’s Procurement department wanted to revamp an outdated procurement policy. The policy could no longer support the business and was ignored by stakeholders across the business. The new leaders were also interested in introducing technology that would modernize Procurement’s operations. To secure the necessary investment, they needed to build a compelling business case. While the current sourcing team was respected by stakeholder community, unclear processes and misaligned priorities made it difficult to collaborate effectively. Additionally, the organization’s structure led to misalignment between Procurement’s job descriptions and its actual day-to-day responsibilities.

The Solution

Source One initiated the project with a rigorous data collection process to attain information relate to Procurement’s People, Processes, Tools, Metrics & Reporting, and Role. These included:

• Current policies and procedures.
• Job descriptions and responsibilities matrices.
• Existing Procurement technologies.
• Samples of Procurement and Sourcing metrics.
• Organizational chart for the full organization.
• Historical spend data.

Source One reviewed this data alongside the credit union’s Procurement team in preparation for an on-site kickoff. During this week-long visit, Source One presented the project’s goals to all relevant parties including Procurement, Executive Leadership, Finance ans other departments like Internal Audit, IT, HR, and others.  They ensured alignment on the project’s objectives, gained the necessary support, and clearly communicated new roles and responsibilities.

The next step was a series of interviews with relevant personnel to understand how Procurement and Sourcing was leveraged and determine the root cause for the organization’s concerns. The data collection and interview processes provided Source One with the fodder needed to:

• Establish a baseline for Procurement’s current maturity level.
• Perform an in-depth benchmark against industry best practices.
• Define capabilities gaps as well as corresponding opportunities.

The result of the next phase was a customized gap assessment and recommendation report to align Source One and the functional leadership team on the most promising opportunities for improvement.

The final milestone of the assessment phase was a detailed Roadmap that associated the identified gaps and opportunities with the custom recommendations. Some of the key recommendations included:

• Tailored training programs for the Procurement and Sourcing team based on specific goals and day-to-day engagements with stakeholders.
• A Supplier Relationship Management program customized to the credit union’s industry and leveraging a robust segmentation model.
• A best practice led Procurement and Sourcing process with standardized templates and guidelines.

After gaining alignment from Executive Leadership on the plan of action, Source One worked closely with the Procurement and Sourcing team to act on the roadmap’s recommendations.

Results

With support and collaboration from the Procurement and Sourcing team and functional leadership, Source One implemented recommendations across all of the function’s pillars. Some of these achievements included:

• People: We refined existing documentation to clarify roles and responsibilities and build programs to ensure the team was able to deliver on those responsibilities.
• Process: We streamlined processes by reducing redundancies and creating clear and concise documentation.
• Tools & Technology: We embedded efficiency and logic within toolsets and technology solutions to support collaboration across business units.
• Metrics & Reporting: We created a foundation for demonstrating the value of Procurement and providing for more informed decision making.

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