CUSTOMER SUCCESS PROFILE

East North East Homes Leeds (in cooperation with Sourcing Vantage)A cornerstone of the Sourcing Vantage offer is the ability to deliver procurement policy andstrategy as well as services such as e-Procurement and e-Auctions. The company recentlyworked with East North East Homes Leeds (ENEHL) to help them achieve their spendmanagement goals.

The ChallengeWith the recent economic downturn, many public sector,government, and not-for-profit organizations have beenrequired to do more with less and to re-think their spendmanagement strategies. East North East Homes Leeds (ENEHL)is no exception.

The ENEHL team needed help with its cost reduction initiativesand turned to David Turner, of Sourcing Vantage, to assist.Many of the commodities that ENEHL purchased for thehousing sector—such as brassware, external, and internal doorsto name just a few—had never been previously competitivelytendered. With approximately 20,000 properties that requiredreplacement parts, the opportunity for savings was significant.

A mandate was put into place in the summer of 2009 thatrequired the team to competitively bid the commodities in orderto reduce the cost of its goods and services. Because theprocurement team did not have a tool in place to expand upon,they looked forward to gaining exposure to more-modernprocurement methods. They knew that they needed software toachieve their cost reduction goals, and decided to look at severalcompanies on a competitive basis to determine the best fit.

The Solution The ENEHL/Sourcing Vantage team selected Ariba and theAriba StartSourcing™ solution over the other vendors forseveral reasons. Mr. Turner had previous experience with usingAriba solutions and knew that experience would be beneficial.

“Ariba StartSourcing has excellentfunctionality, is very easy to deploy,and the fact that it is on demand helpsbecause you don’t have the issue of anynecessary IT resources.”

David Turner

Sourcing Vantage

He also knew from his firsthand experience that Aribasolutions were easy to use and quite intuitive—bothfactors that were important to theteam. Ariba was also well-known inthe marketplace, which facilitatedtalking with suppliers. Since manysuppliers had already used Aribasolutions, training and acceptancewould be much easier than with anunfamiliar solution. The fact thatAriba StartSourcing did not requireassistance from consultants and could be easily used on a self-servicebasis was also extremely attractive tothe team.

Because ENEHL had not done e-auctions previously,they decided to implement Ariba StartSourcing on aproof-of-concept basis. The first items that were putthrough Ariba StartSourcing were a combination ofdesign and print services for the ENEHL tenantmagazine, which is distributed to all tenants eachmonth. Several other events have been implementedsince, with plans in place to conduct capitalprocurement projects such as kitchen replacements inthe near future.

The BenefitsThe team has gained significant cost reductions since itbegan to use Ariba StartSourcing—achievingapproximately 18 to 20 percent savings depending onthe commodity. According to David Turner, the resultshave been shared with the board and have—consequently—stimulated a great deal of interest inthe tool.

“Ariba StartSourcing has excellent functionality, isvery easy to deploy, and the fact that it is on demandhelps because you don’t have the issue of any necessaryIT resources,” said Turner. “And the pricing model iscompetitive and makes it easy for clients to initiateAriba StartSourcing on a trial or proof-of-conceptbasis,” added Turner.

With such overwhelmingly positive results to date, theteam plans to expand the spend management footprintto drive additional savings and improve productivitywhenever it is practical to do so going forward.

Lessons Learned and Future PlansThe team has acquired several best practices based on

the success that they have achieved todate. First, they suggest identifying thecommodities to put through—beforestarting the program—and starting offwith some low-level commodities.Pushing the less-complex commoditiesthrough in the beginning allows theorganization to gain necessaryexperience while obtaining some solid results.

Secondly, they suggest promoting thesuccess throughout the organization to gain excitementand interest while putting Procurement on thecorporate map.

Because of the substantial gains that the team hasachieved with Ariba StartSourcing, its next phaseincludes moving to Ariba SourcingTM—for even-moreflexibility with its strategic sourcing projects.

About Sourcing VantageSourcing Vantage Ltd is the exciting joint initiative of DavidTurner and Douglas MacKellar who identified an opportunity tolaunch a new sourcing and procurement service that makes full useof their comprehensive business and procurement experience.

Sourcing Vantage can offer a complete and deep sourcing andprocurement service covering an extensive range of commoditiesand services covering both private and public sector clients.

A cornerstone of the Sourcing Vantage offer is the ability to offerprocurement policy and strategy, as well as services such as helpingclients with cost reduction programmes and the implementationand delivery of solutions such e-Procurement and e-Auctions.www.sourcingvantage.com

About Ariba, Inc. Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of on-demand spendmanagement solutions. Our mission is to transform the waycompanies of all sizes, across all industries, and geographiesoperate by delivering technology, service, and network solutionsthat enable them to holistically source, contract, procure, pay,manage, and analyze their spend and supplier relationships.Delivered on demand, our enterprise-class offerings empowercompanies to achieve greater control of their spend and drivecontinuous improvements in financial and supply chainperformance. More than 1,000 companies, including more thanhalf of the companies on the Fortune 100, use Ariba solutions tomanage their spend from sourcing and orders through invoicingand payment. For more information, visit www.ariba.com.

“The pricing model iscompetitive and makes

it easy for clients toinitiate Ariba

StartSourcing on a trialor proof-of-concept

basis.”

David Turner

Sourcing Vantage

Copyright © 2009 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved.