Many companies still underestimate the impact of a good indirect spend manager. Someone who focuses on monitoring and optimizing the company's indirect costs.

By indirect costs, we mean the costs that are not linked to the business-critical activities and that we therefore usually find in class 61 of the accounts. Examples include fuel, energy, facility, HR costs, telecom and fleet costs.

While indirect costs do not affect your core business, they do have a significant impact on your bottom line. As with any other cost, the theory is simple: reduce costs means increase profits.

The benefit of reducing indirect spend

Reducing indirect costs does not have to directly affect your business processes. You can realize quick wins by optimizing current collaborations, modules and rates without changing services. Our indirect spend managers search daily, at the request of customers, for savings that are not detrimental to existing service conditions and that will not involve (large) administrative costs. In other words: achieving savings, based on your literal consumption and without changing suppliers.

By quick wins we mean the quick savings that do not require you to make major adjustments internally and for which you do not lose a lot of time or have to make major investments.

You can make savings with current, but also with new suppliers. Our analyses can show, for example, that a change of supplier is better for the customer. Better for the price and the service.

Because we sit around the table with different suppliers on a daily basis, we quickly know which suppliers are the best fit for which companies. So it happens frequently that we find that a particular customer would be better served by another supplier.

With our help, the customer then evaluates whether the benefit of changing suppliers is great enough. If they find it worthwhile to explore the market openly, we help the client in this entire process. From negotiating with the various suppliers and possible implementation, to verifying correct implementation. However, we never work with mandates. The customer always makes the final decision himself.

Still, many companies do not see the importance of a (periodic) optimization of their indirect costs. Our experience shows that this is purely due to ignorance. Most do not have the time to monitor their indirect costs, let alone the resources to hire someone full-time for it. This lacks awareness of how much impact savings and the right choice of services (with current or new suppliers) can have on your business.

Spendless' indirect spend manager unburdens

Most companies initially enlist our help to achieve short-term savings through an audit. We analyze all indirect costs, compare the costs and optimize where possible. Our clients receive detailed consulting plans and quotes and choose which savings they want to implement.

An audit is a snapshot and allows us to advise companies on how to save now, in the short term. However, many costs are influenced by a variety of (external) parameters including market trends, evolutions and own company growth. In addition, the terms and new contracts of most costs always have to be renegotiated at contract end. Think for example of energy and printer contracts.

So it remains important to monitor indirect costs at all times and then check them against prevailing trends so that you can always make a “best buy.” This refers to the rates and modules that best suit your current needs and consumption. And to the assurance that you never pay more than a market-based price.

To track indirect costs and optimize them periodically at the right times, you need experience and time. That's why many companies ask for our long-term help. For this, we work with a subscription.

Through a subscription with Spendless, you get the help of one of our indirect spend managers for a certain number of hours per week. As standard, he or she analyzes all costs each year to proactively advise and possibly implement savings initiatives. All contracts are renegotiated with current and/or new suppliers at contract end. You can engage us at any time for analysis, negotiation and even support solutions.

Because our compensation is determined in advance via a fixed fee, the indirect spend manager can also initiate non-saving-related projects. Consider, for example, the study for charging stations, device management and spot buying.

Would you like to know more about our possibilities and different subscriptions? Then feel free to send an e-mail to info@spendless.be or call us on 055/75 75 50.