Achilles, the leading supplier information management company, has announced the results of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on its behalf entitled ‘The Total Economic Impact of Achilles Supplier Information Management Solution’ (August 2011).
Through a series of in-depth interviews with an Achilles customer using the Total Supplier Management Solution, the study identified significant gains within the procurement department.
According to the study, the Achilles solution reduced supplier pre-qualification efforts by 41%, which translates into average time savings of 2.45 days of work per sourcing event during the supplier pre-qualification process.
Pre-qualification is a labour intensive process; a company before going to tender typically has to conduct desk research, speak to different subject matter experts, come up names, put together a pre-qualification questionnaire, gather the required information, and evaluate, verify and score the responses. Forrester found that selecting a list of potential suppliers through Achilles can become a relatively easy task.
Forrester Consulting also evaluated the effectiveness of Achilles solution in terms of reduced supplier risk; using a systematic and thorough supplier evaluation and onboarding process enables customers to identify suppliers who meet their procurement standards without exposing them to risk.
The key findings indicate that the Achilles solution delivers:
Rapid ROI and a short term horizon for achieving payback - the company experienced a three-year, risk-adjusted ROI of 346% and a payback of 8 months.
Significant productivity gains – 77 people use the solution for all critical tenders, they can conduct a higher volume of sourcing events, and they avoided hiring a full-time person.
Reduced supplier risk – a systematic and thorough process for supplier evaluation and onboarding enables companies to mitigate the risk of dealing with suppliers who don’t meet their standards.
Adrian Chamberlain, CEO of Achilles said, “The TEI framework established by Forrester shows that there is a clear business case for Achilles. In addition to reduced costs and greater productivity, the solution provides one central repository of supplier information that the entire organisation can access. It also reinforces our ‘be better informed, make better decisions’ philosophy which is key to mitigating risk through the selection of the most appropriate suppliers who can clearly demonstrate their compliance.”