Built for manufacturers, infrastructure operators and service businesses whose customer contracts run for years while supplier costs move every month.
Advanced manufacturing, contract manufacturing, infrastructure and industrial services. In each, the price you agreed with a customer and the cost you pay a supplier follow different market prices on different clocks, and the margin lives in the space between them.
It fits best when three or four of these are true.
Or the same again billed to customers under long contracts.
Supply agreements, maintenance contracts and frameworks, often matched by supplier contracts underneath them.
Around a third or more of what you sell depends on metals, energy, freight, labour or another published price.
A yearly review or a capped rise on one side, a monthly surcharge on the other.
It also fits when two or three of these are true, because the supplier side works in every industry.
- More than £100m a year with suppliers, wherever the spend sits
- 200 or more active suppliers, across ten or more categories
- Several business units, sites, countries or ERPs, so nobody sees the whole picture
- Cost pressure: an EBITDA target, a savings mandate, a value creation plan or a refinancing
- A moment that forces the question: a new CFO or CPO, an acquisition or carve-out, a big renewal or a sharp cost rise
- Supplier invoices nobody has checked against the supplier contracts behind them
ADVANCED MANUFACTURINGParts priced on metal and energy, sold on fixed supply agreements.
Automotive, aerospace and defence, electrical equipment and industrial machinery. A bill of materials follows copper, steel, aluminium and energy month by month. The supply agreement with the customer often moves once a year.
- Buy side
- Supplier contracts with index and surcharge clauses, purchase orders, supplier invoices
- Sell side
- Supply agreements, price-review clauses, quotes for the next programme
- First question
- Which supply agreements still make money at today's metal prices?
INFRASTRUCTUREMaintenance and frameworks priced once, delivered for years.
Rail, roads and traffic systems, utilities and telecoms networks. Labour, materials and plant costs move with their markets, while the framework price moves on a capped inflation index.
- Buy side
- Subcontract agreements, plant hire, materials, spares held for maintenance
- Sell side
- Framework call-offs, maintenance contracts, change orders
- First question
- What does a maintenance visit really cost, and is every change order billed?
INDUSTRIAL SERVICESServices billed on a rate card, delivered with fuel, labour and freight.
Facilities management, waste and environmental services, fleet and logistics, testing and inspection. A carrier's fuel surcharge changes monthly. The rate the customer pays may not.
- Buy side
- Carrier and subcontractor rates, fuel surcharge rules, vehicle hire
- Sell side
- Customer rate cards, fuel recovery clauses, service levels and volumes
- First question
- On which customer contracts do we recover less fuel than our carriers charge us?
Every other industry starts on the supplier side: what you spend, where you can save, and where you are overcharged.
Not every business has long customer contracts. Spend intelligence, sourcing and the supplier invoice audit work anywhere you buy from more than 200 suppliers, and the customer side is added where it fits.
Contract manufacturingProducts made to a customer's specification on multi-year supply agreements, while metals, resins, energy and labour are bought at market prices.
Defence and aerospaceLong programme contracts on the customer side, with long supplier chains under them.
Outsourcing and business servicesOutsourcing and service agreements priced for years, delivered with labour and subcontractors whose costs move.
Retail and e-commerceGoods not for resale, logistics, store costs and marketing, across many suppliers.
Consumer goods, food and drinkIngredients, packaging and freight that follow market prices.
Health, fitness and leisureSites, energy, equipment and services across many countries.
Pharma, healthcare and chemicalsMany entities and ERPs, regulated categories and specialist suppliers.
Financial services and insuranceTechnology, property and professional services spend, often after acquisitions.
Professional servicesTechnology, property, travel and subcontractors, across many offices.
Real estate and housingProperty services, maintenance and works contracts.
Public sector and educationContracts and suppliers held to public procurement rules.
Franchise, home and roadside servicesMany brands, sites and vans, each buying on its own: towing, repair and home services.
Transport and airlinesFuel, handling, maintenance and leases, priced on different clocks.
Energy and utilitiesWorks contracts, materials and services priced against regulated revenue.
Technology, media and telecomsSoftware, cloud, network and agency spend that grows quietly.
If your prices do not follow a market index, the first step is the invoice check.
Not every business has an index story. Where the margin is not in the pricing, it is often in what has already been invoiced. Checking supplier and customer invoices against their contracts finds money that pays for the work, and it proves the data at the same time.
Private equity: the same view across a portfolio.
One file from each portfolio company, scored against the same four tests, with a ranked list of where margin is won or lost. Operating partners use it to set the value creation plan and to check it a year later.
