3 steps to control your costs
As a company, you want to manage your costs as simply and efficiently as possible?
When it comes to buying products and services to support your business, some solutions can be easily set up. At Lyreco, we help you reduce your costs; discover our 3 simple tips to better control your budgets and limit losses in your business areas with our Strategic International Account expert Helen Smith.
1. Rationalise and standardise your purchases
Combine your volumes to save costs
As a client you may be purchasing many different items from the same category. By analysing this expenditure and identifying products ranges to rationalise, you could be able to condense over multiple products down to just a few, making these become cheaper when bought in larger quantities.
Standardise your products accross all your markets
Lyreco strives to offer an international standardisation of products in order to support your cost saving across multiple markets. Our 4,000 internationally available SKU’s are same code, same description, and same product across all our subsidiaries. Which means that as Lyreco customer, wherever you are, from the UK to Hong Kong to Germany, you can still use the same pen!
Last year one of our clients achieved reductions of 19% and a saving of £93,873 on stationery items that could be logically grouped together. A large number of the stationery items were unique and fell under miscellaneous subcategories.
Therefore, as their new supplier, we suggested further opportunity to look at order volume and frequency patterns to look at achieving future savings at a meticulous level.
2. Monitor your cost reduction
Your activities need a continuous improvement plan and a regular monitoring to improve your budget management.
At Lyreco, our Account Managers provide you with ongoing reports and summaries of your expenditure.
Lyreco has more account managers than our closest competitors combined which allows us to provide our clients with a close, personalized follow up of their costs reduction.
Switch to Tail Management
Indirect spend in a lot of large organizations typically accounts for only 20% of business expenditure yet it can represent up to 80% of the supply chain.
However, these spends can be difficult to track; it takes a whole strategy to succeed in allocating resource and managing these costs well.
3. Reduce your tasks and process costs
In order to reduce costs that are linked to your tasks and activities, you must focus on the direct savings, but mostly on the hidden costs that represent the most important part of your total cost of ownership.
Thanks to simple actions, you will be able to turn them into a thoughtful efficient process.
Scroll down to see how Lyreco helps you to reduce your process costs
How does Lyreco help you reduce your costs?
FOCUS
This is a fundamental part of Lyreco’s account management proposition at Lyreco. With the help of your dedicated Account Manager, it only takes 3 steps to refocus your purchases on what you really need:
- Measure your core list expenditure
- Ensure that it represents the majority of purchases
- Add/remove products where necessary
IDENTIFY
As part of the Account Development Programme, Lyreco helps you to:
- Identify opportunities to switch from branded lines to Lyreco brand
- Forecast potential savings based upon historical usage
AOV
Average order value (AOV) or order frequency has a major impact on both customer and supplier. Lyreco strives to support and develop it through various initiatives such as :
- Monthly reporting by cost center
- A follow-up for cost centres with lower than average AOV
- Ranking and incentives for high performing sites
- Option of minimum order value for online orders
- Auto-save facility online to allow customers to build up their order and submit it when they want
CONTROL
The best way to ensure cost reduction is to make people aware of its importance. In order to help, support and, if necessary, direct users towards best value products, Lyreco helps you to implement various controls and restrictions, including:
- Defining a core list items
- Highlighting products, including best value items
- Preventing users from ordering certain products
- Setting maximum spend levels per order/month
- Automatizing the switch from one item to a best value one
Making mandatory to send the order to an authoriser for approval
Want to know more?
Whatever your needs for workplace supply, you can find on our webshop all your favourite products and brands: office supplies, paper and cartridges, catering and coffee, green ecological products, detergents and cleaning products, Personal Protective Equipment (including masks), furniture.
You can order via our smart phone application, on-line ordering platform, phone, email, fax or post.