The ISG Approach to Strategic Sourcing & Client Relationships
ISG blends the flexibility and focus of an entrepreneurial
firm with the professionalism and expertise of the large consulting
firms that are our heritage. Our collaborative approach and
commitment to delivering outstanding results foster long term
relationships.
Despite the significant impact of procurement on a company’s financial performance, it is an area often hampered by poor data visibility, uncoordinated efforts, underinvestment, and sometimes by a company’s culture and history. ISG brings objectivity and clarity to decision making through deep analytics, experience, and a rigorous methodology.
For any type of project, our unique decision support model
enables our clients to maintain full control of the process
while dramatically extending their ability to impact their
own organization. ISG performs the majority of the underlying
work, enabling our clients to accelerate achievement of objectives
with limited risk and a high Return on Investment.
Core Principles
We have built our business on three core operating principles.
- Integrity Above All
- Focus on Client Results
- Achieve Excellence in Execution
Why Companies Engage Us—The ISG Value Proposition
Our primary focus is on
Earnings Improvement.
Our clients tend to hire us for several recurring reasons:
- Flexibility & Collaboration: ISG offers a rare degree of flexibility that reflects our entrepreneurial nature. We work under multiple financial models from a traditional consulting fee basis (time & material) to a performance fee model where we are paid based on results. We adapt our working style and role to reflect our client’s needs and culture.
- Speed: Because of the time-value of savings, if ISG can accelerate our client’s timeline by just a few months, ISG’s costs are self funded, the client hits its savings goals sooner, and its staff is freed up to focus on other priorities.
- Expertise:
- Category Expertise: ISG brings deep expertise in many specific categories, such as Transportation or Temp Labor. A typical company may source a category once every few years while ISG may source it several times per quarter, gaining extensive market knowledge and building tools and capabilities to streamline the process.
- Strategic Sourcing Expertise: ISG has
sourced a vast array of different materials and services
for companies of all sizes. This creates a portfolio
of tools, approaches, and frameworks that can be applied
to unique situations and expenditures with consistent
effectiveness. While we frequently source categories
that are completely new to us, the underlying sourcing
dynamics are typically very familiar. Our experience
in other areas proves highly portable and can bring
a fresh perspective.
- Procurement Process Expertise: ISG’s experience with well over 100 companies gives us the ability to build procurement organizations and processes from the ground up or to elevate an existing team to best-in-class levels. It also provides us with the credibility to support the cultural change often implied by procurement evolution.
- Objectivity: Engaging an outside
partner like ISG signals incumbent and competitive suppliers
as well as internal stakeholders that a project is not
business as usual. This ‘Third Party Effect’
elevates facts and
logic to their proper place in decision
making and yields surprisingly strong results.
Sustainable Solutions
While total cost reduction is often a goal of strategic
sourcing, the lowest price with the wrong supplier will lead
to failure. We strive to find the right solution for
each client’s critical needs whatever they may encompass,
including:
total cost reduction, service, quality,
logistics, cultural fit, product aesthetics, and so forth.
In many cases, we actively participate in the implementation
of new suppliers and perform regular reviews to ensure on-going
success.
The Supplier Perspective
Many suppliers view strategic sourcing as a cold, often
combative process designed exclusively to beat them down on
price. Our methodology reflects our respect for suppliers
and their key role in our client’s success. We translate
customer needs into the suppliers’ language and then
address the suppliers’ critical needs as well, allowing
them to respond effectively. This philosophy differentiates
our services and produces superior results including stronger,
long term supplier relationships for our clients.
If you would like to learn more about ISG and how we work
with companies like yours, please Contact
Us.
