Local knowledge, global reach
ERA Group has been helping businesses around the world since 1992. We are a leading global business consultancy, offering strategic advice and practical methods which optimize supplier relationships.
We have people with experience gained during long careers at a senior level in their areas, and we use this experience to advise businesses on how to get the best deal from suppliers.
We help to:
- Improve internal processes
- Manage supplier relationships
- Benchmark prices
- Conduct tendering exercises
- Integrate and identify new suppliers
Building a relationship with your business
We then stay with our clients for the long term, conducting regular invoice audits. This ensures that we maximize the savings we identify and keep prices in check for the long term.
The majority of our work is done outside of your office environment. Our processes, resources, and systems ensure minimal impact on your internal resources.
We monitor supplier performance throughout a time frame aligned with the supply contract to ensure that all the savings are realized, sustained, and even improved over time.
Throughout the process, we collaborate with you on a fully transparent basis, allowing you to retain control of all the key aspects of the engagement.
Our mission for you
It really is possible to purchase the same products and services more cost effectively when you bring to bear our experience, specialist expertise and supply chain influence.
Our mission is always to deliver value to our clients. That’s why you can expect the following from a relationship with ERA:
- We seek to help you achieve the best possible value from the supply chain
- We never compromise the quality of goods purchased
- We never compromise on service levels
- We deliver financial savings, enhanced service levels and improved supplier contracts
- You then make decisions from a position of knowledge
- You remain in control of those decisions at all times
Our Methodology in More Detail
The first thing we do is to listen to you. Our aim is to get a good understanding of your business and your priorities.
We then work with you to deliver against your objectives. In practice, this could mean reducing costs. It could mean consolidating suppliers or reducing supply chain time. It could mean generating cash to help your business fund its growth.
Analysis & Research
We typically begin by reviewing your spending; a thorough analytical view of who is buying what, where and for how much. We do this with minimal interference or resource at your end; we take copies of all your invoices in a certain cost area for the past 12 months. This analysis always throws up some interesting patterns that clients were unaware of before. Our objective analysis uncovers anomalies, spots trends in spending and identifies opportunities to save.
Implementation & Monitoring
Once we have completed the initial part of our project, what truly sets us apart is our ongoing audit service which keeps you on track over the engagement period, ensuring cost reductions that have been identified are realized and compliance with the agreed plan is being achieved.
Our expert specialists utilize our systems and tools where they can identify pricing errors, anomalous spending patterns and off-contract purchasing. This skilled expertise in implementation and ongoing measurement is recognized by our clients as a crucial aspect of our support, that delivers realized benefits for the long term.
Suppliers
In more than 50% of our projects, our clients retain the incumbent. And as the client, you remain 100% in control of all decision making. Only this time, you’re making that call based on independent data and impartial advice.
Tender Management
In addition to our cost optimization activities, our experienced consultants have the insight, tools and processes to help you run a competitive tender.
Having the most appropriate suppliers in place for key overhead spend areas is really important. But determining who that most appropriate supplier is, in a complicated supply market across a wide range of categories is a far easier task when you have industry insiders with tacit market knowledge working on your behalf.
Our experienced specialists use forensic style tactics and detailed analysis to pore over tender submissions. Our practical market experience helps you to position your needs correctly into the marketplace so that you get the right results.
Your objective may be improved SLA’s, supplier consolidation or improved prices. Ours will always be to ensure you don’t need to compromise on quality or service to achieve the best value. We can help with:
- Scoping of requirements
- Writing tender documents for suppliers
- Appropriate suppliers introduced
- Shortlist drawn up
- Analysis of tender submissions
- Interpretation of results alongside your teams
- Effective procurement of spend in a range of areas
- A legacy of spending wisely left behind in your teams
We can help with some of the process, or you can outsource the whole thing to us. It may be that we help with one or all of the following:
- Vendor research
- RFI / RFP / RFQ
- Setting and monitoring KPI’s
- Vendor Selection
- Tender process
- Post-tender compliance
Supplier Management
ERA’s specialist teams of supplier management consultants enable you to enjoy sustainable supplier relationships.
Once the right supplier has been identified and appointed, organisations can often fall foul of not managing suppliers and their contracts on an ongoing basis. This is often where prices creep back up, opportunities to improve processes or receive rebates are missed and where ultimately, other cost management consultants and clients fail. We build strong, sustainable supplier relationships for the long term.
- We work independently and with total transparency
- We conduct regular ongoing supply audits
- We manage hundreds of millions of pounds worth of client expenditure
- We mitigate risk and gain increased value from suppliers
- We provide better management information and improved visibility of the supply chain
- You remain in control of the decision making
- There is minimal impact on your time