SHI helped a global firm streamline procurement and achieve significant cost savings.

SHI partnered with a global financial firm to optimize procurement, streamline operations, and achieve $59k in savings.

Challenge:

Our customer is a leading privately owned financial services organization, recognized as one of the world’s oldest and largest investment management firms, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. With operations spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, their global footprint is extensive.

Despite the customer’s scale and reach, their small procurement team faced significant challenges in managing their long-tail stack. They required a partner to extend their team’s capabilities to provide consistent, high-quality service. This included meeting a mandated “Diversity Spend” requirement to collaborate with diverse vendors and achieving an ambitious $184,000 annual savings target on their long-tail spend.

Solution:

SHI stepped in with a structured, tailored approach to support the customer’s procurement needs. A gainshare funding model was implemented, making the service cost-neutral by offsetting expenses with the savings generated. SHI personnel were added to the customer’s Active Directory and set up with user profiles to directly access the customer’s systems and data, including their Ariba platform, ensuring seamless collaboration. To maintain stringent security protocols, the customer provided devices that SHI team members used under continuous monitoring.

Governance and policy frameworks were established during an initial IT Asset Management (ITAM) Planning Assessment. This included defining publisher scope, aligning with business priorities, documenting communication and escalation protocols, and providing user guides and training materials. SHI’s services included proactive management of software maintenance renewals, EULA reviews for new agreements, and negotiation to mitigate unfavorable terms. Key strategies, such as co-terminating renewals to reduce transactions, interfacing with end-users to identify future needs, and avoiding functional redundancies, ensured the customer’s goals were consistently met.

Outcome:

Since service commencement in July 2024, SHI has made substantial progress toward the customer’s $184,000 annual savings target, achieving $59,000 in direct cost savings (32% of the target) through vendor negotiations, removal of non-essential long-tail publishers, and optimized renewals. SHI successfully serviced 77 publisher renewals, representing 47% of the in-scope base. The customer benefited from improved visibility and control, with a roadmap of anticipated savings and well-defined processes for renewal management.

SHI’s proactive engagement, including streamlined renewal transactions and continuous assessment of agreements, alleviated the pressure on the customer’s small procurement team. The team now relies on SHI as a trusted partner to manage their long-tail vendor spend while ensuring adherence to the high standards and quality that underpin their global operations. This collaborative partnership has driven measurable savings, reduced risk, and established a strong foundation for ongoing success.