Expediting A Large-Scale Vendor Evaluation Program Amid Tariffs

Business Challenge

Expedited Vendor Analysis Fueled by Tariff Impacts to Business

As a leading global steel company that manufactures, recycles and markets steel and metal products, our client partners with thousands of vendors to help ensure they have the materials and support needed for their operations.

To make certain their robust vendor ecosystem was optimized for the greatest efficiency, cost savings and data accuracy to inform buying decisions, the client’s Procurement team launched several new supply chain and procurement initiatives. These programs aimed to evaluate their vendor partnerships across three business lines: reviewing RFPs, analyzing incoming bids and quotes from new vendors, examining existing contracts and rates, and identifying opportunities for vendor consolidation. The magnitude of the assessment process was immense, requiring tedious, time-consuming and data-intensive work spanning months.

But amid a volatile economy, supporting the launch of a new plant and keeping regular day-to-day responsibilities on track, the client’s Procurement team didn’t have the in-house bandwidth to fully support the evaluation process.

Additionally, with the increasing uncertainty of the business and financial impacts of newly imposed tariffs, the Procurement team was under added pressure to expedite their evaluations. They lacked the budget to add any new full-time resources to their team, so they knew they needed outside support to keep their analysis program on track.

Our Solution

Analyzing a Daunting Magnitude of Vendor Documentation to Derive Insights

Having previously partnered with Aston Carter for more than eight years — receiving a wide range of accounting and finance resources to support their AR, AP and billing teams — the client was confident in our ability to find the skilled talent they needed, quickly.

We initially provided six procurement analysts who were focused on data-driven clerical and organizational responsibilities tied to the evaluation program. However, due to the complex nature of the analysis and need to expedite the overall program, the client requested additional support.

We provided three additional consultants who not only had experience with the client’s software platforms (e.g., SAP, Coupa), but also possessed higher-level data processing and analysis abilities needed to analyze and review the high-volume of vendor documents. Their ability to derive insights from the data enabled them to make informed recommendations to executive leadership on areas for contract revisions and vendor consolidation to drive substantial cost savings.