SDI Develops Industry-Leading “Centers of Excellence” Service Delivery Model

(4/30/2009)

In 2008, SDI launched a new service model in response to its customers’ needs for world-class procurement outsourcing delivered by centralized teams of experts. SDI launched global “Centers of Excellence” in Argentina, Canada, India, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and staffed these Centers with specialists well-versed in procurement, human resources, and strategic sourcing support based on industry and regional best practices.

Below are two case studies outlining customer scenarios for which our Centers of Excellence proved particularly effective:

Study 1

Problem: Client X was relying heavily on external global resources and manual processes. These manual processes were administered by multiple small teams, compounding the potential for errors and undermining any resource expertise.

Solution: SDI hired and staged teams on the client’s infrastructure. The largest team was put in India, thereby driving cost-savings immediately. This team serves as the hub for global support.

Outcome: The centralized team in a low-cost geo immediately produced substantial savings. Additionally, because the main team worked closely together, best practices were shared and rolled out to each geo supported. Streamlined training practices were established and all staff was cross-trained. As work flows changed, team members could be flexed to support geos requiring additional support with no downtime.

Case Study 2

Problem: Client Y was spending large amounts of time onboarding and processing small suppliers that were used for one-time engagements. The procurement team encountered problems effectively tracking POs and ensuring payment was remitted in a timely fashion.

Solution: Client Y engaged SDI to fully develop an outsourcing program comprised of both strategic resources and a fully automated solution. Small suppliers are vetted by SDI, contractually aligned under our firm and then SDI automates the program via our proprietary SDI Web Support (SWS) system.

Outcome: Client Y’s procurement team members and line managers now spend their time on mission critical issues instead of dealing with multiple small suppliers. The client only has to process one check to SDI for the total spend, with SDI then remitting the appropriate allocations to each individual supplier. This reduced error rates dramatically and simplified the work process for the client. Additionally, as SDI now holds the contractual relationships with the suppliers—instead of the client—legal exposure for the client was reduced to nil.