Expense Reduction Analysts can help businesses find extra profits by reducing expenses. The document provides several case studies of companies that achieved significant savings through working with Expense Reduction Analysts: - Careander saved 70,000 Euros annually on their 650,000 Euro food budget by centralizing suppliers. - Kalmar Länstrafik achieved over 40% savings on travel cards and 20% savings on printing through new suppliers. - Haaga-Helia University saw average savings of over 30% through competitive bidding for office supplies led by Expense Reduction Analysts. - Telcabo achieved annual savings of 176,000 Euros, over 21% of the costs investigated,

1. C
ST SAVINGS TODAY
Watch our Mini-Video!
In this issue:
3’30 video explaining how Expense
Reduction Analysts can help your
business find extra profit.
- Case study: Careander – Significant Savings and Decrease of Administrative Burden, p. 1
- Case study: Kalmar Länstrafic – Savings and Simplification of Processes on Travel cards, p. 2
- Case study: Haaga-Helia – Groundwork Essential in Competitive Tendering, p. 2
- Case study: Telcabo – “The Client Can only Win with Expense Reduction Analysts”, p. 3
- Client interview: Mediq Finland’s Premises Service Costs Controlled and Processes Streamlined, p. 3
- Case study: Substantial Savings and Structural Improvements for Mieres Tubos, p. 4
- Client interview: “Generating Confidence through the Working Approach”, P; 4
- Case study: Samsung Achieving Higher Cost Efficiency with Expense Reduction Analysts, p. 4
- Emporium: Expense Reduction Analysts Launches Emporium Supplier Database, p. 4
Europe 2014: Some Signs of Thawing but not yet Spring
W
hilst in January, it is
customary to assess
the year past and to
try and forecast the 12
coming months, the picture today
is still not as rosy as we would wish
it to be, though there are now signs
showing that the economy in Europe is slowly gaining pace.
Though 2013 was yet again a difficult year for the global economy,
the two main threats predicted by
Euro-Cassandras have been avoided: the Euro currency has not imploded – and even gained an 18th
member state with Latvia joining
the Eurozone on the 1st of January
2014 – and there have been no government shutdown (all eyes were
turned towards Cyprus or Greece).
And, according to the European
Council President, Herman Van
Rompuy, we will see an “economic
revival in Europe in 2014”.
Some signs of an anaemic recovery
are showing, with minimal growth
and minimal inflation. However, after over ½ decade of austerity and
recession, this is welcome news.
Fundamental problems remain:
- nemployment remain rife all
U
over the Eurozone (over 12%) –
and the European Union (10.9%),
which represent 26.6 million
people out of work. These average figures hide huge discrepancies e.g. between Austria (4.8%)
or Germany (5.2%) and Greece
(27.4%) or Spain (26.4%). However, it is not expected to worsen
in 2014;
- ublic debt levels remain high;
P
- ow consumption due to wage
L
stagnation;
- ow level of investments and ausL
terity measures still into place;
- ow competitiveness due to high
L
labour cost and strong currency;
- ow inflation – and risk of deflaL
tion of the Euro.
Milestone events will also take
place in 2014 that may impact on
the European economy and businesses:
- mmigration: Legal, with the reI
striction lifted for the free movement of Romanians and Bulgarians in the E.U. and illegal, with the
desperate attempts of asylumseekers to cross the Mediterranean at all costs; at the same time,
many Europeans from countries
deeply hit by the recession are
migrating to find jobs in former
colonies, now emerging markets:
Portuguese to Angola or Brazil,
Spaniards to South America …
- lections to the European ParliaE
ment, in May, will occur amidst a
rise of Euro-scepticism and rightwing political parties (UKIP in
the U.K, FN in France, PVV in the
Netherlands, etc.).
A feeble growth is expected to benefit mainly countries outside the
Eurozone, with the United Kingdom
and Sweden forecasting growth
figures of respectively 2.2% and
2.8%. The average GDP growth in
the Eurozone is expected to reach a
modest 1.1%, an improvement from
the previous years.
Latvia’s GDP, thanks to a recent
access to the Eurozone is forecast
at 4%, which, along with the two
other Baltic countries Lithuania
and Estonia will make Latvia the
fastest-growing country in the E.U.
will not alleviate the pain for millions of jobless people in the E.U.
There is a dire need of structural reforms to boost the economy in Europe, i.e. investments in capital and
human resources. However, due
to the very slow growth rate and
Poland, which accessed the E.U.
just a few years before the recession, and is a close neighbour of
Germany, destination of a quarter
of Polish exportations, has benefited from E.U. subsidies at the
right time to boost domestic consumption, strengthen the country’s
growth to catch up with the rest of
the Union and avoid the crisis.
to the uncertainty of markets and
currencies, businesses are wary of
going forward with these investments. Cost management will, in
2014, be at the core of businesses’
strategy to help them plan human
and material investments.
Source: Eurostats
Worst performers will be in the
Eurozone, with Cyprus’ GDP expected to fall by -3.9% and Slovenia by - %. And Germany, the
1
biggest economy in the continent,
is expected to grow by 1.7%. One
of the biggest European partners,
France, carries on struggling with
public debt, unemployment and a
government with one of the highest unpopularity record.
Altogether companies in Europe
can expect a weak recovery, which
Source: European Commission
CASE STUDY
Careander – Significant Savings and Decrease of
Administrative Burden
C
areander is an organisation with 24 locations spread across the
Veluwe, providing care
for mentally disabled people. Approximately 350 clients are permanent residents, and 400 clients
daytime visitors. Aside from this,
Careander offers at-home support to a large group of adults and
children with their parents. The
organisation has 850 employees.
Obviously nutrition is an important operational element for Careander. Since the organisation was
founded in the 60s, the number of
locations has increased, though
they differ very much from one
another: some are inpatient sites,
others are only used for daytime
activities. There are also the support centres where outpatients
can have dinner together. This
meant that in practice, each individual Chef does their own shopping, choosing their shop and
products, without much attention
to spending patterns. As a result,
the organisation found budgeting
virtually impossible and keeping
financial records a time-consuming and complicated matter. Careander felt the need to investigate
this cost category but there were
too many variables and internal
stakeholders to set up an in-house
solution. In short, this was the
typical situation in which an outside approach is needed to put
things into perspective.
Expense Reduction Analysts consultant Kees de Dreu, who had
already completed a passenger
transportation project for Careander, agreed to investigate the food
cost category. De Dreu asked his
colleagues Arjan Schoonderwoerd
and Simon Postma to work with
him on the project. Schoonderwoerd has a lot of experience in
food and catering, and Postma is
a financial expert. Postma: “There
proved to be many variables that
needed to be taken into account:
dozens of locations, regional
managers, team leaders, chefs,
counsellors, permanent residents,
outpatients, a clients’ council,
a number of existing suppliers,
menu cycles, diets, different ways
to prepare meals, different kitchen
supplies, new construction, renovation, expansion, and so on. In
addition to that, there is the complicating factor that shopping with
small groups of clients in preparation for the meal is part of the
daily activities.” Schoonderwoerd
and Postma therefore devoted a
large amount of time to consulting
many internal stakeholders, and
made a thorough inventory of the
possibilities and (sometimes very
specific) needs.
After that, a proper market consultation was launched for a
‘basket’ of approximately 350
regularly purchased items. Based
on quoted prices, reliability, food
safety, quality, continuity, flexibility, lead times, management information, account management and
CSR, ultimately a – new – global
supplier was selected. Given the
fact that the quality of the bread
was considered to be very important, a similar path was followed
for hot bakery products, and a
baker covering the entire working
area of Careander was selected to
supply all those products.
Every three months, an update
was presented to a delegation
from Careander, and every time
Expense
Reduction
Analysts
checked if certain matters should
be adjusted. “Given the complex
organisation, there were some difficulties at the start. Sometimes
we had to improvise”, says Simon
Postma. “For example, the new
central supplier delivered products two or three times a week, instead of every day, and not all pan-
tries could handle that. And Chefs
had to get used to a slightly less
flexible kitchen and more planning. But after six months, there
were barely any complaints.” And
now Careander works with a budget module per location. To further
implement all new changes within
the organisation, the board of Careander decided to maintain the
services of Expense Reduction
Analysts for another six months.
The changes did not only save
Careander 70,000 Euros a year,
out of a total budget of 650,000,
but also offered more insight
into what exactly is going on in
the kitchens. This enables sound
budgeting as well.
“We lack the time and expertise to execute these kinds
of complex processes, which is why we made the most of
the expertise of Expense Reduction Analysts. They did an
amazing job.”
Jan ter Steeg, Director Careander

2. CASE STUDY
Savings and Simplification of Processes on Travel Cards
for Kalmar Ländstrafik
K
almar Länstrafik (KLT) is
a public organisation in
Kalmar County, Sweden,
in charge of public transportation in the county – buses,
trains, medical transportation, etc.
The company’s turnover is around
800 million SEK.
Jan Hägersand, partner at Expense
Reduction Analysts, met the KLT
management team in the spring of
2011 to present Expense Reduction
Analysts and the way it works. KLT
soon became interested and decided to work with Expense Reduction Analysts.
KLT’s core business is the procurement and management of public
transportation, which is why they
found it appropriate for Expense
Reduction Analysts to investigate
two cost categories, printed travel
cards and plastic travel passes
(these smartcards – i.e. electronic
travel tickets - are now used as a
means of payment on most buses
and trains). In these two categories
KLT’s staff had a lot of knowledge,
but no procurement expertise.
Public procurement takes much
time and effort, as it must comply
with strict regulations. Regardless of the volume of purchase, it
requires a lot of work to ensure
the best outcome for the client,
and a contract compliant with the
law. These smaller categories were
good for KLT to outsource.
Based on his long experience as
purchasing manager, Jonas Scherp,
partner at Expense Reduction Analysts Sweden, was commissioned
to analyse the smartcards. Jonas
chose to investigate the supplier
market carefully to understand this
rather complex category.
As KLT is moving towards cashless
travel, the volume of smartcards is
continuously growing, amounting
to 1.2 million SEK/year.
There are not many players in the
market, but Expense Reduction
Analysts managed to find over
40% savings.
Implementation and further development of the electronic smartcards was an important part of the
investigation. The implementation
proved difficult, with many prob-
lems to solve, and Scherp had to
provide much assistance to both
the supplier and KLT, in order to
overcome initial difficulties.
Marketing manager Christer
Olson shares his experience
KLT’s printing consists mainly
of different types of timetables,
brochures and marketing material, amounting to about 800,000
SEK/year. For this category, Jan
Hägersand collaborated with Bert
Kuypers from Munich, one of Expense Reduction Analysts´ best
print experts, to investigate print
and find the right supplier. He
eventually recommended a print
management consultancy, which
provided around 20% in savings.
Why did you choose to
work with Expense Reduction
Analysts?
KLT now has one single supplier,
instead of the previous ten providers.
Expense Reduction Analysts
works hard and carefully, and
We did not have the time to do
this job ourselves, and because
Expense Reduction Analysts has
a relatively risk-free offer, we quickly decided to let them do the
work for us.
How was it to work with
Expense Reduction Analysts?
strives to do the best job for
their client. They do not waste
the client´s time with numerous
meetings and are results-oriented.
Are you happy with your new
suppliers and your savings?
We are very pleased with the new
provider and the opportunities
we encountered through this
new cooperation. Of course we
are also pleased with the savings,
as well as with the simplification
of our internal processes.
CASE STUDY
Groundwork Essential in Competitive Tendering
H
aaga-Helia University
of Applied Sciences
wanted to improve cost
management at all of its
six operating locations. It decided
to review travel costs and office
supplies and to outsource the task
to Expense Reduction Analysts’
experts.
Effective competitive tendering
requires much groundwork and
commitment of human resources.
Haaga-Helia does not have its
own procurement organisation
for these cost groups; financial
management is responsible for
procurement at all operating locations. The Act on Public Procure-
ment obliges universities to handle
the procurement process in specified ways.
“The Act requires public competitive tendering in the case of large
purchases. This demands careful
preparatory work, because planning competitive tendering and
scoring the offers of participants in
the tendering process depends on
the client’s needs and the nature of
the purchase. Precise specification
of the selection criteria, as well as
transparent and well-justified scoring are of key importance for the
success of competitive tendering.
These ensure that the client not
only obtains a good price but also
finds the right service and goods
supplier in terms of quality,” explains Jari Hailikari, Expense Reduction Analysts’ expert responsible for the project.
“Our cooperation with Expense
Reduction Analysts was very clear.
Their experts carried out the planning of the competitive tendering
process, ensuring that the scoring
criteria for the tender met our real
needs. Our cooperation model involved risk-free work on a success
fee basis; i.e. Expense Reduction
Analysts’ invoicing was based on
the savings achieved”, adds HaagaHelia’s Chief Financial Officer, Jorma Alkula.
The competitive tendering of office supplies has been completed
and a two-year monitoring phase
is now under way. Expense Reduction Analysts’ experts will track the
realisation of savings during the
monitoring phase to ensure that
the savings are not of a one-off
nature, but become permanent.
Average savings of over 30% were
achieved as a result of competitive
tendering.
Knowledge of the present cost
structure is the basis of cost
management
The next step is the initiation of a
cost management process for travel costs. This also involves an Expense Reduction Analysts expert
first making a detailed study of the
present cost structure.
“Very few organisations can show
as much involvement with these issues as the experts from Expense
Reduction Analysts, who have the
experience and do so routinely. We
collect data from various sources,
analyse them, form an overall picture of the cost groups and identify
savings targets. Then we proceed
to competitive tendering and the
selection of new suppliers. To ensure quality and savings, we track
the prices of products and services
as well as service quality during
the monitoring period,” says Hailikari.
A common error in cost management is to launch a competitive
tendering process with inadequate
information about the current situation; in other words, not knowing
what the purchase really consists
of and where the costs arise.
“Ultimately, it is just as much a
question of quality as cost savings. When you know what you
need, then the supplier can safely
offer precisely the right service.
Both parties benefit and customer
satisfaction improves,” concludes
Hailikari.
Barometer
Cost Management
Top Management Study:
Barometer Cost Management 2013
Cost Management in Times of Crisis

3. CLIENT INTERVIEW: TELCABO
“The Client Can only Win with Expense Reduction Analysts”
F
ollowing an incontestable proposal, much exchange of information
and a remarkable understanding, Expense Reduction Analysts consultants have achieved
positive results in the Telcabo
project – with annual savings of
176 000 Euros, i.e. over 21% of the
costs investigated.
Luis Azevedo, controller for the
Alenquer-based (Portugal) company, reports on his experience and
looks forward to further projects
together.
CST: What made Telcabo go for
Expense Reduction Analysts’
proposal?
Azevedo: At Telcabo, we receive over the years many proposals
from consultancies in many areas.
However, Expense Reduction Analysts had a different approach, very
different from the usual offers.
And here in the company, it was
very well accepted. This was the
first time consultants submitted a
proposal without requesting upfront payment, instead proposing
to split the savings achieved. It is a
model without expenses, presented by professional with knowledge
of companies’ needs, which could
result in competitive advantages
for us.
CST: How did the first meetings
go?
Azevedo: We met with a team that
was experienced and dedicated,
which always followed negotiations
closely, displaying great availability
and eager to deliver. The team’s
ability to ask questions has rubbed
off on our employees who developed constructive criticism, which is
a positive thing.
CST: How was the understanding
between the employee and consultant teams?
Azevedo: It was very good, the results of many meetings and many
exchanges by email or telephone. I
must highlight the inquisitiveness
of the Expense Reduction Analysts
team which resulted in a very good
understanding of our business.
CST: What were the areas investigated by Expense Reduction
Analysts?
Azevedo: We define these categories as fuels, mobile communications, outsourcing services as well
as cleaning and hygiene services.
CST: Which is the category that
most surprised you before
savings?
Azevedo: In a few cases, the work
was more qualitative than quantitative. This is what happened for our
“outsourcing” services, allowing us
to standardise our price structure
after a thorough review of our price
lists. For any business, savings are
always important, but the Expense Reduction Analysts team also
provided subjective benefits which
helped us improve our relationship
with trading partners.
CST: Are there any other areas
which could, in the future, benefit from an investigation by
Expense Reduction Analysts experts?
be undoubtedly achieved.
Azevedo: Definitely. We will try
and find areas where we can continue our collaboration. We have
structures abroad, with limited
management experience, where
we could counterbalance the inexperience factor with an outside
point of view. New savings would
Azevedo: I have already spoken to
other people about our experience,
because this business model is very
interesting and it is a challenge to
test the existing skills in companies. Because there is no payment
if there is no profit, it’s a win-win
situation for the client.
CST: Would you recommend Expense Reduction Analysts to
other businesses?
Telcabo
Based in Alenquer, Portugal, Telcabo is a company specialising in
telecommunications and energy
networks, providing services in
design, engineering, construction, installation, operations and
maintenance. Founded in 1986,
the company has followed the rapid development of the telecommunications sector – from the
installation of overhead copper
lines for TLP in the 80s, to “turn-key” project developments with
the latest technologies in landline
and mobile networks. Vodafone,
Portugal Telecom, Alcatel, Ericsson and Brisa are amongst the
Telcabo customers. The construction of high and very high voltage lines is another activity of the
company.
With an extended technical team
and the corresponding industrial facilities, Telcado employs
around 300 people – and three
other companies of the group
provide over three hundred jobs
and an extended group of subcontractors employs several hundred people, providing services
in Portugal (mainland, Azores
and Madeira), Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Morocco, Timor, Ireland and France.
In 2013, Telcabo achieved a turnover of around 80 million Euros, and it is estimated that this
will be maintained in the current
year. With their main outlet in
Portugal, the company intends to
reverse this trend in the coming
year betting on the development
of their activity in markets like
Brazil, Asia, and the USA.
CASE STUDY
Mediq Finland’s Premises Service Costs Controlled and
Processes Streamlined
H
ealthcare supplies and
medical devices expert
Mediq Finland’s challenge was to control the
costs of facility services at its operating locations in Finland. An ineffective service process obscured
costs and hindered overall control.
Expense Reduction Analysts’ experts helped specify a new service
process and initiate a competitive
tendering process for service providers.
“The project covered an annual cost group item of around
225,000 Euros, which included,
for example, cleaning, property
management, waste management, security, reception services
and hygiene services. In these, we
achieved annual savings of over
23%. Even greater savings were
achieved in property maintenance
costs,” says Expense Reduction
Analysts’ Jyri Haapalahti.
Mediq Finland’s biggest problem
in controlling the costs of facility
Two-year monitoring
secures savings
period
“Our savings targets have been
exceeded, which has been a very
The latest annual study on
cost management is available
to download:
http://expensereduction.eu/
en/download-barometer-costmanagement
services was an ineffective service
structure in which the division of
tasks and responsibilities of different service providers was unclear. As a result, costs also lacked
transparency and were difficult to
evaluate.
“Facility services are clearly a nonstrategic aspect of our business.
The less time and money we commit to them, the better. To begin
with, our costs were simply too
high and the additional administrative work devoted to making
sense of them took up too much
of our time. That’s why we called
upon Expense Reduction Analysts
to help,” says Mediq Finland’s
Chief Financial Officer, Kari Vuorenlehto.
Expense Reduction Analysts’ experts Jyri Haapalahti and Jukka
Aromaa analysed the startinglevel costs, helped Mediq find the
right service model and initiated a
competitive tendering process for
new service providers.
“They began by collecting data
about the starting situation and
by carefully analysing all costs,
agreements and service instructions associated with facility services. The experts’ study of the
starting situation and the smooth
launch of competitive tendering
were of great value to us,” continues Vuorenlehto.
“Tendering was handled very professionally and in an entirely good
spirit: even candidate suppliers
who lost in the competitive tendering had a positive view of the
process,” explains Vuorenlehto.
The new service agreements specified clearly the work included the
basic agreement and the content
of services to be ordered separately. Costs were brought under control through a clear service agreement and by transparent invoicing.
Moreover, the new service provider’s ability to provide services
with its own personnel reduced
costs significantly, as the amount
of work ordered from third parties
declined.
positive surprise, of course. Even
so, I consider the greatest benefits of our cooperation to be
the improved transparency and
the monitoring stage conducted
by Expense Reduction’s experts,
during which the new operating
model will be firmly established,”
says Vuorenlehto.
“Operational transparency and
monitoring play a key role in ensuring service quality and cost
savings. Expense Reduction Analysts’ operating model therefore
includes a long monitoring period
during which these aspects are
closely tracked,” says Haapalahti.
“Tendering was handled very professionally and in an
entirely good spirit: even candidate suppliers who lost in the
competitive tendering had a positive view of the process.”
Kari Vuorenlehto, Chief Financial Officer, Mediq
Mediq
Mediq is an international provider of pharmaceuticals, healthcare
supplies, medical devices and associated services. The company operates in 15 countries: the Netherlands, Poland, the USA, Denmark,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and France. Founded in 1899, Mediq’s head
office is located in the Netherlands and the company has approximately 8,300 employees. Net sales in 2012 totalled 2.6 billion Euros.

4. CASE STUDY
Substantial Savings and Structural Improvements for Mieres Tubos
F
ounded in 1953 Mieres
Tubos was part of the
Arcelor Group until
2004, when it was integrated into Condesa, a group of
Basque origin. The company is one
of 12 manufacturing companies in
Europe and specialises in the production of steel pipes and various
items of equipment and road safety
systems.
Currently, and after partnering
with Arcelor-Mittal, in the 130-staff
Mieres business has mainly focused
on steel pipes and various elements
of equipment and road safety systems. In addition, the company is
now doing research in the field in
order to find new security systems
to improve protection for road users.
Expense Reduction Analysts, led
by Luis Miguel Jauregui, Project
Manager, investigated the cost categories of security and surveillance,
cleaning, transport and energy;
thanks to a rigorous approach based
on the analysis and comprehension
of Mieres Tubos’ actual requirements for each category, significant
savings were found in all.
The successful work of Miquel Viure,
expert in security services, can be
highlighted both in terms of results
and in terms of the process of study
and implementation of options.
The starting point was a security
service 7 days a week and 24 hours
a day for the Mieres Tubos premises, based on security staff. In a
first analytic phase of the functions
developed for the security staff, two
distinct function blocks were identified:
- Daytime, Monday to Friday where
the main functions for the security staff are to grant access, check
visitors and telephone.
- Night time, weekends and bank
holidays where the security staff
need to develop basic activities
of control and supervision for the
operation of the various pieces of
equipment and machinery.
The main conclusion, in view of
these results, was that the security
staff did not exert these functions
and that they were allocated to
over-qualified people, with consequent over-costs, tasks that could
be done by more adequate professionals.
Those tasks of reception, greeting visitors and answering the telephone done in daytime, Monday to
Friday, were contracted to a specialised employment centre. The solution was found thanks to the special
interest Mieres Tubos has for the
employment of people with physical
disabilities, allowing the contracting
of workers perfectly trained for the
tasks required.
The monitoring and control requirements needed at night and
24 hours a day on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays were met
thanks to a video surveillance linked
to a Central Alarm Systems, and to
maintenance assistants who were in
charge of the control and supervision of the operation of equipment
and machinery.
The options that were implemented
not only enabled important savings
but also included process optimisation and quality improvement in the
performance of the tasks. The entire
process of analysis, of search and
implementation of options would
not have been done without the
full involvement and mindset of the
client who was, at any time, able to
review and question what was being
done so far.
Savings achieved
Security 48%
Cleaning 19.4%
Transport 8%
Energy 5.9%
CLIENT INTERVIEW:
“Generating Confidence through
the Working Approach”
Samsung Achieving Higher
Cost Efficiency with Expense
Reduction Analysts
F
or over 70 years, Samsung has been active in
diverse businesses that
today span advanced technology,
semiconductors, skyscraper and
plant construction, petrochemicals, fashion, medicine, finance,
hotels, and more. The flagship
company, Samsung Electronics,
leads the global market in hightech electronics manufacturing
and digital media.
In order to receive specific additional expertise on different
expense categories, the Samsung
Benelux subsidiary has retained
Expense Reduction Analysts to
implement a variety of cost reduction studies in the Netherlands and
Belgium.
“The Expense Reduction Analysts
team provided us with specific
expertise and additional time, enabling us to achieve cost reductions
that were beyond our reach.” says
Lourens Schouwink, Finance Director Samsung Benelux.
Even with a strong (and very successful) focus on business growth,
Samsung finance management felt
the need to increase spend visibility and the purchasing value of indirect expenses.
In close cooperation with the various the various Samsung managers in charge, new quality specifications and process requirements
were defined, before launching a
deep market study.
“Planning of savings without followup monitoring is useless. Expense
Reduction Analysts showed active
ownership and ensured that the
full saving potential was realised
after implementation.”
The project with Samsung resulted
in sustainable double digit savings.
“The clear commitment of Samsung management allowed for a
smooth process and constructive
cooperation” says Peter de Heer,
Expense Reduction Analysts partner and project manager.
Project Information
Industry: Electronics
Cost Categories:
Insurances
Office Supplies
Facility Cleaning
“We have learned a lot from the
thorough and detailed work carried out by Expense Reduction Analysts to find saving potentials.”
Félix Gonzalez, Managing Director
at Mieres Tubos, shares his experience of working with Expense
Reduction Analysts.
CST: Why did you decide to work
with Expense Reduction Analysts?
Gonzalez: We had very satisfying
references from previous projects
achieved by this consultancy for
other companies in the group. All
comments agreed on the high level
of efficiency and effectiveness displayed by the Expense Reduction
Analysts experts, as well as on the
strong technical knowledge of the
categories investigated that they
had.
Another important part was the
remuneration system proposed. In
the current economic climate, the
philosophy of “no savings, no fee”
facilitates start-up for projects of
this size.
With Expense Reduction Analysts,
we were certain that the analysis
and investigation work would be
detailed and thorough, thus interesting, as this is the source of the
consulting fees.
CST: What would you highlight
in the work achieved by Expense
Reduction Analysts?
Gonzalez: First, the seriousness of
their approach and methodology at
all stages.
Expense Reduction Analysts conveys assurance and confidence,
a result of broad experience and
exhaustive knowledge of the analysed subject, the conditions of
the market, the sector peculiarities, suppliers, options, news, etc.
Another important aspect is the
critical sense with which they
tackle the cost category analysis,
which enable them to develop
practical and highly efficient solu-
tions, that maybe we would never
have implemented and in view of
the results obtained, have led to
significant savings.
CST: Have you previously undertaken a cost reduction process?
Gonzalez: Like most companies in
Spain, we are constantly analysing
our expenses and trying to find
optimisation solutions. The difference is, once again, the thorough,
detailed and committed approach
that Expense Reduction Analysts
provides in the project.
The benefits of working with Expense Reduction Analysts go far
beyond the savings achieved, as,
thanks to this process, we have
also learned to approach this continuous optimisation process in a
deeper and more comprehensive
way.
“Expense Reduction Analysts’ working approach for the
project and the process of implementation show great
experience, which generate confidence and trust.”
Félix Gonzalez, Managing Director of Mieres Tubos
“The Expense Reduction Analysts team provided us with
specific expertise and additional time, enabling us to achieve
cost reductions that were beyond our reach.”
Lourens Schouwink, Finance Director Samsung Benelux
Expense Reduction Analysts launches
Emporium Supplier Database
On the 1st of January 2014, cost
management consultancy Expense Reduction Analysts launched
the supplier database “Emporium
–
Understanding
markets”
(www.era-emporium.com). This
supplier database is meant to become a communication platform
for exchanges between suppliers
and service providers and Expense Reduction Analysts cost category experts and analysts.
“With Emporium, suppliers have
the opportunity to showcase
themselves to our experts”, says
Fred Marfleet, Founder and
Chairman at Expense Reduction
Analysts. “Through a further professionalisation of our supplier
management, we want to deliver
our customer even faster and
better results.”
The supplier database gives service providers and suppliers the
opportunity to upload their portfolio including case studies, references, etc., and to explain their
services in webinars organised
by Expense Reduction Analysts
experts. “This allows us to make a
targeted use of suppliers and service providers in our projects and
aim to obtain better savings for
our clients, without reducing our
service providers or suppliers’
margin”, concludes Marfleet.
Suppliers who have not been successful in the tender will get feedback as to the reason why they
did not get the contract. Marfleet: “This enables suppliers to
improve their offer for upcoming
tenders.”
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Frequency of Publication: quarterly
Editor in Chief: Emanuele Maindron
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Pictures: European Commission, Careander, KLT, Mieres Tubos, Telcabo, Samsung, iStock
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