Reducing IT supplier costs across a fashion business.

Client context

The business context.

A fashion company reviewed spending across external technology consultants, telecommunications providers and software vendors. Each category had a different mix of supplier, demand and pricing opportunities.

The review had to address fragmented providers and service requirements as well as rates. A common percentage reduction would not reflect the different commercial and delivery conditions across the categories.

The work

How the engagement was delivered.

• Change the external-team cost base

  Increased the use of lower-cost providers and offshore resources. Benchmarked consulting rate cards and reviewed the long tail of suppliers.

• Simplify telecom sourcing

  Used consortium purchasing to access lower rates, removed unnecessary legacy telephony features and consolidated providers and services.

• Reassess software commitments

  Aligned rates with benchmarks, rationalized licenses and used competitive requests for proposals where appropriate.

What changed

Savings across three distinct spend categories.

Savings ranged from 10–15% on technology consulting spend and 10–15% on telecommunications spend. Software spending fell by 5–10% through pricing, license and sourcing changes.