Brunswick achieves visibility and organizational alignment

The Challenge

Unable to Support Unique Sourcing Needs with Homegrown Tool

Brunswick was using a homegrown internal data warehouse system. As a common failure point, most groups, including procurement, found the internal system was challenging to use. The situation was made worse when IT stopped supporting the system, making it extremely difficult to get any utility out of it.

With seven disparate financial systems within Brunswick, procurement found it virtually impossible to retrieve credible procurement data using spreadsheets and manual analysis. Moreover, since Brunswick operates several different divisions, the homegrown system was a huge barrier to supporting the unique sourcing needs for each line of business. Nancy Jorgensen, Director of Indirect Sourcing and Corporate Alliances, explains: “At the time, the data warehouse system became a true source of time inefficiency for the Corporate Indirect Sourcing team. Due to the inflexibility of the tool, the process for creating reports was very difficult, manually driven and just plain time consuming.”

The Solutions

Implemented Spend Analysis Tool for Increased Visibility into Spend Data

Recognizing the data warehouse as a critical need, Brunswick undertook a comprehensive spend analytics project. The deployment plan included short- and long-term goals, project timeline, software evaluation, supplier selection, communication plan, and staff training. In addition, executive support was imperative to the success of the project.

“At the time, the data warehouse system became a true source of time inefficiency for the Corporate Indirect Sourcing team. Due to the inflexibility of the tool, the process for creating reports was very difficult, manually driven and just plain time consuming.”

– Nancy Jorgensen, Director of Indirect Sourcing and Corporate Alliances

Based on Brunswick’s criteria and evaluation, Corcentric Spend Analytics was chosen because it offered procurement the ability to see all spend data across the enterprise. It enables the team to analyze down to the transaction level through search criteria including: Category, subcategory, cost center, general ledger code, supplier information, spend, date, payment terms, division, and any other query field. With a combined team of IT, procurement and Corcentric support, Corcentric Analytics was up and running within a few weeks.

The Results

Improved Collaboration Within Divisions and Supplier Alignment

Corcentric Analytics has been very successful across procurement. Having access to valuable, verified spend data at any time has helped transform Indirect Sourcing from a support role to a strategic and consultative one, providing spend insights for the entire organization. With easily supported facts and data, procurement is more actively involved in the business, including working with five divisions and increasing project numbers by 10%. Brunswick is reaping the organizational benefits with:

Better communication and collaboration within divisions – Better visibility into corporate spend has eliminated company silos, translating into cross-functional leveraging of supplier spend, contracts, terms, trends, and pricing.

Improved supplier alignment – Suppliers have gained a better understanding of Brunswick’s diverse business requirements and are more aligned with its future business strategy and direction.

Impact on the wider organization – Departments such as Tax, Audit, Treasury, and Trade Compliance are benefiting from the value of spend data analytics applicable to their particular operational needs.

Based on these newfound efficiencies, sourcing decisions have shifted from reactive and transactional to proactive and fact-based, and given procurement the ability to create short- and long-term strategies, goals, and timelines. As a result of Brunswick Indirect Sourcing’s expanded spend analysis capabilities, the team is expanding their influence while continuing to identify new cost savings and process improvement opportunities.

“The Spend Data Project implementation not only identified data categorization best practices, but also trends and cost savings opportunities that were previously unattainable. Analytics allows us to take a deep dive into strategic fact-based decision making.”  Lisa Spratt, Brunswick Corporation Indirect Sourcing Category Manager