KREO – data-driven procurement optimisation

The need for relevant KPIs, transparency around the P2P process and any discrepancies in your own supply chain can be driven by different things. New members of management and procurement, falling margins or non-organic growth are some of these. With millions of items of data available, there are almost infinite ways of processing them. Mixed ERP systems make a high-level overview more difficult. They demand a lot of time to process the large volumes of data and then analyse them.

Without skills in data analytics and a data store that permits an overview, potential opportunities are missed. Even if a measure originally served a purpose, there is frequently no opportunity to follow up on its success and build on that. The wish for greater transparency often comes paired with a drive to find more ways to improve efficiency and costs and reduce risks. Suitable benchmarks and relevant recommendations are the focus here.

But what happens if there is no confidence in the data because the different data silos do not match each other, and may use different languages, currencies, product groups or inconsistent supplier naming? How to deal, for example, with only invoice information but no order data being available, and there is no information from Purchasing? In particular, spending that is not processed through or recorded by the procurement department – the “classic” maverick buying – offers an area with huge potential for improvement. This potential for improving both costs and process efficiency is often as hard to identify as it is promising.

Based on our decades of experience in audit and consultancy with clients from a wide variety of sectors and sizes of company, KPMG has developed a method for the standardised extraction and processing of data. The method is easy to follow and immediately highlights potential savings. Data from SAP and other ERP systems are processed on secure KPMG servers and are enhanced and evaluated as a whole. These analyses allow you to draw conclusions based in reality about how you can lower costs, reduce risks and increase efficiency.

By using the KPMG databases, we significantly improve the data quality and enable comparison with independent benchmarks. Based on over 6,000 successfully completed projects, KREO can analyse and demonstrate possible improvements in a way that is clear and easily understood. You decide whether you yourself, KPMG bots or a team of KPMG experts should implement the changes.

If you do not have the resources yourself to analyse the opportunities for improvement and implement them successfully, you can also involve our flexible Managed Service.

KREO shows you where action is needed and the potential benefits for your company in the core areas of costs, risks, compliance and efficiency, and supports you in their implementation.

Reduce costs: for example, by standardising payment terms and suppliers, improving the product groups or claiming back invoices that were paid twice

Improve efficiency: for example, by reducing the elapsed process time for Procure-to-Pay (P2P) per sourcing channel, or the Cost-to-Serve (C2S) in relation to product profitability

Minimise risks: for example, by screening suppliers for CSR compliance, using one-time vendors, or respecting the rules relating to changing master data

Through the Managed Services that we offer, KPMG experts can work actively with your employees to implement potential improvements. Our task force will support and reduce the strain on your procurement department in the performance of operational tasks. By applying continuous screening of the data, we can also ensure that many inefficiencies are caught as soon they first appear. We can thus proactively prevent unnecessary costs from arising. Leaving procurement with more time to dedicate to strategic tasks.

We would be happy to answer any questions you may have or organise an initial discussion with you. Get in touch.