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Category Strategy Development

Every area of spend should have a clear strategy for delivering high quality, consistent and competitive sources of supply.  Without it, you may be paying over the odds, receiving poor quality, or worst of all, may be exposed to interruptions of supply.  It is not uncommon for businesses to stop functioning completely because a single part or service is no longer available from a supplier. 

Is all your spend under control?  Chances are, you buy your most important items really well.  But what about the rest?  How much risk is there of a compromised supply chain?

At e-Three, we have great experience in defining category strategies that balance quality, supply reliability and cost to create the optimum Category Strategies for you.

Some questions to consider:

  • Should we consider consolidating volume?
    • Is there sufficient competition if we do consolidate?  ("Design for Sourcing")
    • How will contracts be managed?
    • What discount or rebate schemes work best for us?
  • Are there new suppliers in other countries we should consider?
    • Are we ready for low-cost country sourcing?
    • What is our perception of the risk?
  • What level of contract granularity do we want?
    • Do we want to manage lots of smaller contracts with each constituent supplier?
    • Are we looking to consolidate big chunks of spend?
    • Should we consider outsourcing the whole contract to one consolidated supplier?

e-Three's category strategy process poses these questions and more, and helps you make the right decision on every area of spend you manage.

Results

  • Know what you're doing with every pound you spend.
  • Create consistency and discipline in your category management.
  • Realise best commercial position on everything you buy, based upon your robustly defined criteria.