Sector

Corporate

Indirect spend is rarely anyone's main job, which is exactly why it drifts.

3 areas we work in
On this page04
  1. The territory
  2. Where we work
  3. What we are asked to do
  4. Other sectors

The territory

Corporate and indirect categories are bought by budget holders across the organisation, often without a category view and frequently on the incumbent's paper. The total is usually larger than anyone expects and the variation in what different parts of the business pay for the same thing is usually larger still.

The work is to establish what is actually being spent, consolidate where consolidation genuinely helps, and put enough structure around the significant contracts that performance is managed instead of assumed.

Where we work

  1. 01

    Facilities management

    Workplace services covering maintenance, cleaning, security, catering and energy, bought as a bundle or as separate contracts. The decision between the two matters more than the negotiation that follows it, and specification quality determines whether the performance regime means anything.

  2. 02

    Professional services

    Legal, consultancy, audit, recruitment and marketing: high-value, hard to specify, easy to buy on relationships. Panel arrangements, rate cards and clear scoping change the economics considerably.

  3. 03

    Logistics & supply chain

    Freight, warehousing and distribution contracts, where rate structures, surcharges and service levels need to be compared on a like-for-like basis before any negotiation is worth having.

What we are asked to do

Procurement & CommercialCategory strategy, contracts, supplier performance and cost: the core commercial disciplines, run properly.Supply Chain OptimisationMaking the flow of goods and services reliable, visible, affordable and resilient when something breaks.Interim & Fractional Commercial LeadershipSenior commercial capability for organisations that need it regularly, but not every day.

All services

Other sectors

Public SectorLocal authorities, utilities, housing associations and regulated bodies, working under the Procurement Act 2023 regime.HealthcareNHS bodies, mental health services, care providers and hospices, where procurement decisions reach patients.Construction & PropertyInfrastructure, social housing and the long tail of maintaining built assets once they are handed over.TechnologySoftware, cloud and security spend: the category that grows fastest and gets reviewed least.
Next step

Talk to us about a corporate procurement challenge.

Indirect spend rarely has a single owner, which is why it drifts. A view of the total is normally the first useful thing to establish.