Cost Analysis

A detailed cost analysis and report that we prepare FREE of charge for customers who spend in excess of £100,000 per year on non-core products and services (ie not including wages, rent and stock/raw material costs).

The report will show what you currently spend and provide like for like quotations from alternate suppliers showing the savings that can be achieved. All pricing and contractual obligations will be included.

The initial report usually covers 3 or 4 key areas – often the ones you feel are costing the most or are offering you the lowest value for money. We analyse these areas and present the report to you.

We speak with you about Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and the specification of what you need. We look at the invoices you are currently paying and we then take that information to the market. Thanks to the group purchasing power of our clients, we are able to negotiate rates far below those available to most business owners. We are able to offer suppliers a source of business that costs them nothing to tap in to. They have no sales or marketing costs and if they keep offering the best deals they are assured of high volumes of business.

We present our findings to you and you choose which suppliers to use. You are under no obligation to use any if you prefer not to, or you may choose to use the report as a tool to secure a price-match reduction from your current supplier. If you do switch we will monitor the invoices to ensure you are paying the agreed rate and look for any areas where your requirements might have changed and where necessary, re-negotiate on your behalf.

Our support doesn’t stop there, as once we have secured savings from the initial report our clients often ask us to look into other areas, or perhaps a one-off purchase is being planned and you will need our expertise.

If we don't identify any savings we don't charge you a fee and you would be secure in the knowledge that your purchasing systems were already operating at a high level of efficiency. In which case, you have just received some valuable and gratifyingly FREE consultancy.

You get a detailed report showing the areas you have asked us to look into. We provide a detailed breakdown of each product and the quantities of them that you purchase with columns for current prices and for the prices from alternative suppliers. Each column is summed so you can see at a glance which supplier offers the best deal. Where possible we highlight who offers the lowest price for each line so you can take into account possible changes in usage patterns or even utilise multiple suppliers depending on who offers the best deal for that product. By drilling down to this micro level you will be able to see the cost comparison of every item you buy so you can see the current and future price for each paperclip or ream of paper or unit of electricity or litre of fuel or solicitor’s letter or day of insurance or letter posted etc etc

There will be a high level summary of the spend and the projected savings so you can see at a glance what the benefits are to your company.

You get all the contact details for the suppliers and where we have been able to source them, any account opening forms they may have, so you are ready to go ahead at your own pace.

Firstly, you need to be sure that you qualify and that comes down to how much you spend each year on purchases. If you spend more than £100,000 per year on your purchases (not including rent, wages or stock / raw material costs – please contact us for how we can help on these as a separate area) then we can prepare a report for you.

Initially, we will simply ask for the figures for each area so we can establish that savings can be made and that it’s going to be worthwhile for both of us. If you spend enough we will ask you to sign a letter of authority so we can speak to current and prospective suppliers on your behalf and we will ask to sign our contract that enables us to bill you for the savings we identify. Once we have these in place we will ask for invoices to show in detail what you currently pay and copies of any contracts and service agreements that might be in place. We will also ask what is important to you – do you need a single bill, what payment terms do you require, do deliveries have to be at certain times or a specified location etc – to ensure that the prices we obtain are on a like-for-like basis and a proper comparison can be made.

Once we have this information we will research the market and prepare the report – this usually takes about 4 weeks. Once we have it we send it to you by email or can arrange to come in and explain the findings to you if you prefer. Then it’s just a matter of you changing to the new suppliers we have found for you and to start benefiting from the savings we have identified. In most cases we even provide you with contracts or account opening forms that are pre-filled!

This is a figure that will vary depending on the deals you currently have in place, how much you spend, your purchasing patterns and what is on offer in the market. Typically you can expect around 25% across the board but you might get more or less – the report will show you!

Absolutely nothing! We will carry out the analysis and prepare the report for you completely FREE of charge. If there are no savings we will let you have the report and you will have received some free consultancy. If there are savings to be had, and we typically manage to save upwards of 25%, then we will take a percentage of the savings identified. The rate at which we charge depends on whether you are a consortium member or not. For non-members we charge 50% of the saving with the fees due quarterly in advance. For consortium members we only charge 25% and the fees are paid monthly in arrears.