When entering this role, Lowell shared that their visibility into spend data was limited and almost non-existent. He began working on a plan to get things in order, and that started with reaching out to OMNIA Partners Group Vice President, Private Sector West Robert Mietus, whom he had worked with in the past, to begin working on a spend analysis.
"The OMNIA Partners team conducted a high level spend analysis and helped me by categorizing our spend at both the category and subcategory level. I reached out to the relevant suppliers and requested detailed data that Rob and the OMNIA Partners team used to perform a comprehensive analysis, enabling me to identify potential cost-saving opportunities and evaluate the contracts we were using."
Once he had a new strategy and complete spend visibility, he went to his stakeholders and explained that he had uncovered a way to save them money; they just might have to change suppliers in some cases. By his 4th or 5th month at CJ Logistics, he had begun implementing new programs based on the data received from the OMNIA Partners spend analysis.
“The spend analysis is going to help us highlight areas of non-optimal spend. Even if a supplier is contracted or affiliated with OMNIA Partners, uniform pricing may not apply across all categories. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that the optimal mix is allocated appropriately.”
