Companies are often in need of greater financial transparency, as well as a path for turning that knowledge into action. Serratus Management Consulting performs Expense Analysis, with a focus on Overhead, to develop first transparency, then insights and finally plans for making concrete and prioritized bottom-line improvements. An important early activity in this process is an assessment of the quality and detail of the existing data, as well as a review of current Financial Reports / Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Procurement has received a lot of overdue attention over the last 25 years, and with good reason: Purchased expenses often comprise a large slice of the expense pie, don’t usually involve personnel decisions, and most importantly, can yield rapid savings for clients. However, there are many layers to peel for this onion. Companies first need to understand both aggregate spending (with whom, for what and how much, among others) and the constraints which exist regarding actually capturing savings opportunities. Serratus Management Consulting has a wealth of experience helping companies in prioritizing opportunities so that they focus only on “drilling where there’s oil”, and “not spending more to drill than there is oil in the ground”. When the time comes to pursue the opportunities, Serratus Management Consulting can provide guidance and/or execution with regard to sourcing events, negotiation preparation and training, contract management, Category Management and Supplier Relationship Management.

Procurement has evolved over time from order execution to aggressive bidding events and now to major efforts in Category Management and Supplier Relationship Management. Companies have learned that a clear view of a spending / sourcing category is required to manage it, and a clear, flexible and forward-looking strategy is key to managing it well.

Negotiations Preparation and Contract Management are critical to capturing benefits and making them stick. Too often, companies enter into negotiations without the requisite preparation and training, and fail to achieve market levels or better with regard to pricing and/or service. Furthermore, some companies achieve excellent sourcing outcomes, but fail to lock them in via advantageous contracts. Serratus Management Consulting can assist your teams with these issues by developing negotiations strategies and preparing for negotiations. Additionally, we can dissect your contracts to gain transparency around pricing, service and quality, and evaluate what is commercially workable---not just when things are going well, but also when they go sideways.

Operations is about processes – defining them, measuring them, and managing them. And it is not just about inputs and outputs, but also about customer perceptions. The Lean Six Sigma (LSS) toolkit has an impressive array of arrows in the quiver,͟ but knowing which ones to select, how to shoot them and how to draw the bow effectively is not easy. Serratus Management Consulting can help you identify and understand what the issues are, the root causes, and determine which LSS tools are right for the job. Then we can either help transfer the skills needed to implement our recommendations or work side-by-side with your people to help make the processes more efficient, effective, and profitable.

Project success hinges on a number of factors, but the five pillars of successful execution are Senior-Level Sponsorship, Planning, Bandwidth, Communication and Follow-Up/Follow-Through. Failure to secure or empower any of these factors can cause initiatives to fail. Given the resource realities in most companies today, it is difficult to ensure that dedicated resources will be there. That is where Serratus Management Consulting comes in – we can help you scope the effort, identify the necessary resources and commitment levels, and develop stakeholder communications plans. Once these are in place, we can either support or lead the project as needed, helping to ensure that success happens.

Success in Lean Six Sigma is driven by picking your spots͟, or looking at the most troublesome processes that stand the greatest chance for significant improvement. Once this is done, having the requisite statistical skills is clearly necessary, but is not sufficient to ensure a favorable outcome with real, bottom-line impact. To reach that state, initiatives need leadership, the knowledge and support of the people on the front lines, and the transfer of new skills to enable execution. Serratus Management Consulting will craft a program for your organization that fits your process improvement needs.

Procurement Training is based upon a seven-step approach to sourcing, at a level of rigor commensurate with the tasks at hand. Serratus Management Consulting has been transferring knowledge and skills to its clients for the better part of 20 years. Whether your organization needs formal seminars / classes, or simply wishes to have skill transfer happen as an adjunct to the project itself, we can work with your staff to craft a training solution that upgrades your organization’s approach to procurement.