Procurement-as-a-Service: Concertiv’s Methodology to Driving Y-o-Y Savings & Efficiency

Driven by the dual benefits of cost reduction and easing back-office workloads, there is a definite trend to outsourcing procurement in mid-market asset managers and boutique investment banks. As this trend matures, there is a keen interest in grasping the mechanics of achieving ongoing, year-over-year savings. Concertiv excels in this domain with a proven methodology, focusing on a comprehensive understanding of procurement-as-a-service. This process promises immediate annual savings and fosters a more cohesive and strategic methodology for managing spend and vendor relations across travel, insurance, market data, and technology. With the 4 successive stages, Concertiv's approach is a streamlined solution for sophisticated procurement needs.

Centralize

Elite mid-market financial services firms experienced significant vendor sprawl during the COVID-19 years, driven by their growth and success. In today’s environment, the same firms struggle with the decentralized management of the many vendors across categories. For example, different front-office members may manage specific market data vendors. Similarly, the middle office or the technology team manages IT vendors, while the back office or finance and operations typically owns insurance, travel, and expense management. While understandable, this distributed approach prevents the firm from understanding all its vendor relationships and the scope and potential risks from these engagements. In this structure, firms often find it difficult to fully assess and control their overhead costs. Centralizing all vendor-related information into one integrated procurement platform is a crucial first step toward achieving savings and administrative relief. 

Concertiv's innovative procurement platform, Concertiv360, excels in its user experience by amalgamating various vendor information, including renewal data, contract terms, contract documents, license details, and user access. This allows the Concertiv team and firms to get a centralized view of a firm's total portfolio. This approach simplifies organizing and examining vendor contracts and enhances transparency and compliance. Consequently, clients and Concertiv can manage contracts more effectively, from ensuring timely renewals to managing scope, usage, and thorough oversight of contract details. This leads to significant risk reduction and enhanced administrative lift.

Negotiate

Once we've centralized a client's contracts, licenses, and entitlements, Concertiv initiates the process of securing optimal renewal discounts through expert negotiations and curating the right vendors and products for your evolving needs. Navigating the vendor landscape, evaluating new products, and determining their suitability for your company’s needs can be a full-time endeavor. That's where Concertiv excels. We craft a strategic roadmap to identify the most fitting products, harnessing our insider knowledge, peer-benchmarking insights, and exceptional purchasing power to negotiate the best prices, encompassing both:

• Renewal Management: Ensuring timely contract renewals, leveraging our best-practices playbook for preferred pricing and terms, while preventing service lapses and additional fees.‍
• New Sourcing Requests: Handling requests for sourcing new vendors or services as per firm needs, with curated vendor and product landscapes driven by feedback from your peer firms.

Manage

Concertiv takes its service beyond initial cost savings achieved by expert negotiations of renewals and new contracts. The next phase of the process centers on procurement management, an area often overlooked by firms who view procurement-as-a-service merely as a cost-cutting tool. Concertiv's management phase offers substantial administrative support, lifting a significant portion of the back-office load. This particularly benefits firms needing help allocating specific stakeholders for comprehensive vendor management.

The scope of Concertiv's procurement services is extensive and multifaceted, encompassing:

• ‍Invoice Reconciliation: Verifying invoice accuracy, and resolving discrepancies.‍
• Invoice Management and Allocation: Streamlining, managing and allocating invoices for precise financial tracking.‍
• License and Entitlement Management: Overseeing licenses, ensuring compliance and optimal utilization.‍
• Vendor Diligence: Conducting due diligence assessments and ongoing evaluations of vendors for compliance and quality assurance.‍
• Regular Reporting and Reminders: Providing timely reports and reminders for day-to-day, weekly, and monthly management activities, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
  

Through these services, Concertiv not only aids in cost management but also significantly reduces the administrative burdens on a firm’s team, enabling them to focus on core business activities.

Optimize

Concertiv's standout feature lies in its ongoing portfolio management and refinement, a process that consistently amplifies savings through astute recommendations for spend optimization.  The proficiency stems from our in-depth understanding of clients' usage metrics and needs, our unmatched expertise in the vendor landscape, and our insights into industry best practices and peer benchmarks.

The broader Concertiv's relationship with a firm's operations, the more effectively it can uncover hidden savings opportunities by suggesting superior products or adeptly renegotiating contracts aligned with the firm's evolving needs. The results speak for themselves: firms typically experience a doubling of return on investment (ROI) by the end of the first year (2x), which impressively escalates to a sixfold ROI by the fifth year (6x). This trajectory highlights Concertiv's unique ability to enhance value and efficiency in a firm's operations year after year.

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This overview captures the essence of Concertiv's procurement-as-a-service strategy, yet it merely scratches the surface of the full spectrum of possibilities and advantages available. 

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When firms engage in dialogue with a Concertiv expert, they quickly discern that what's presented here is just a glimpse of the comprehensive, dynamic solutions Concertiv offers. Concertiv's approach is more than just a cost-saving mechanism—it's a transformative tool that reshapes how firms handle procurement. From the initial centralization of vendor information to negotiation of renewals and new products to the intricate management of contracts and ongoing portfolio optimization, it's a partnership that enhances immediate financial outcomes and sets a trajectory for sustained growth and operational excellence. The real magic of Concertiv's approach unfolds in the ongoing dialogue, where customized solutions and untapped opportunities come to light, demonstrating why they are a leading choice for firms looking to elevate their procurement processes.

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Interested in learning more about procurement-as-a-service for your firm?  

Learn how leading firms are partnering with Concertiv to reduce spend, minimize risk, and save time across key spend categories.