Improving Effectiveness of the “Not-for-Resale” Procurement Function Case Study

Client: A multi-billion dollar retailer

The challenge

The chief financial officer hired PwC Canada’s Retail Consulting Services practice to undertake an assessment in order to help manage strategic growth plans. One of the resulting opportunities was to use more efficient tools to procure and pay for not-for-resale merchandise. PwC Canada's Retail Consulting Services was engaged to design and then support the implementation of a procurement card program to drive back-office cost savings and more efficient not-for-resale procurement practices.

Our approach

PwC Canada's Retail Consulting Services worked with the retailer to:

• Design the program, select an appropriate procurement card vendor and support the negotiation of an agreement with the chosen vendor
• Test and implement new tools, processes and accountabilities to roll out a new procurement card
• Train the organization on the benefits of using the card for purchases
• Develop a plan to automate accounting processes to reduce work load in accounts payable
• Measure the benefits achieved from the program

The result

• Working closely with the client team, PwC Canada's Retail Consulting Services supported the rollout of the new procurement program. The client began to realize benefits shortly after rollout as every dollar of purchases that was migrated to the new program began to earn the retailer rebates from the card issuer. The retailer had migrated tens of millions in spend to the card within three months of the rollout
• In addition, the procurement card was a key enabler to reduce the amount of work in accounts payable by reducing the amount of manual work. The card also provided the retailer with improved information on the sources of spend so that its strategic sourcing could make more informed purchasing decisions