Category Plans and Execution

Overview

Our guiding design principle for category management is to maximize the effort towards value delivery for a client while maintaining a strong strategic view and minimizing operational effort through streamlined processes and automation. The value we add include:

  • Standardizing high-level category management processes across all categories to maximize efficiency and team capability
  • Adjusting category approach utilizing world-class frameworks such as commodity portfolio analysis (greater rigor for higher value / higher business impact)
  • Aligning the category team operating model to best support the client’s corporate strategy
  • Increasing the value generated from category management through better risk management, savings, innovative models like TCO, and should cost modeling
  • Designing and executing supplier rationalization programs based on deep analytics to reduce supplier count by 30-50%. For a global pharma major and healthcare organization, we managed a supplier consolidation project resulting in the reduction of supplier base from 75,000 to 43,000
  • Increasing savings delivery and spend under management. For e.g., for one of our clients, the business spend on preferred suppliers increased to 85%, an increase of 15% in two years
  • Providing support across initiatives such as Buy-Pay Channel Design (optimized buying channel framework) Touch Glide-Path (plan for gradually increasing touchless transactions through automation and self -service) to drive downstream compliance and business user satisfaction

Digital category enablers – Infosys Nia: We offer dynamic decision support through a range of procurement-focused business apps that leverage Infosys Nia, our artificial intelligence platform:

Category control tower: A game-changing and futuristic genome-based technology that delivers real-time actionable insights and proactive alerts curated to support the client’s category managers in decision making on the go and manage risks more efficiently.

Infosys Nia procurement insights tool: Delivers relevant category insights by automating procurement data ingestion and data management activities, intelligent spend classification, insights and interactive visualization, for optimized procurement management.

Commodity councils: The Infosys global commodity councils strongly back our category management and strategic sourcing solutions. They help aggregate and share the industry’s best practices, category management tools and processes, technology, and systems. These specialist commodity council teams provide deep subject matter expertise to our solutions in capital projects, engineering and professional services, information and communication technology (ICT), marketing, property and facilities, logistics, and all other categories of indirect spend.

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Our offerings

We offer end-to-end category management services across a wide range of categories, including:

  • Property and real estate: Facilities management, waste management, lease management, security, cleaning, and pest control
  • HR services: Recruitment, temporary labor, training, and learning and development
  • Logistics: Couriers, road freight, freight forwarding, and pallets
  • Engineering and capital projects: Engineering services, engineering consumables, capital equipment maintenance, and MRO
  • Marketing: Print, media, creative agency, market research, and public relations
  • IC: End-user computing, infrastructure, telecommunication, IT services, software, and multi-function devices (MFDs)
  • Travel: Air, accommodation, travel management, and car hire
  • Office consumables: Stationery and corporate print
  • Fleet: Fleet management organization (FMO), vehicles, and fuel
  • Business services: Mailroom, records management, uniforms, laundry, debt collection, and insurance
  • Professional services: Management consultants, legal services, and audit services
  • Insurance claim: Assessors, builders, home contents, glazing, and motor vehicle repairs
  • Medical goods and services: Consumables and imaging equipment
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Why us?

Infosys has invested in deep category management capabilities across the globe. We manage 120+ billion spend for more than 20+ clients including fortune 500 clients, providing both ongoing and on-demand / consulting support.

With a strong team of 300+ category managers backed by Infosys Portland group, a niche category consulting firm we acquired in 2012, we bring value for clients in category strategy formulation support and execution across all indirect categories and many direct categories.

Our specialist teams typically manage specified, non-core spend categories. Our responsibilities include sourcing, supplier performance management, demand and compliance management, category analysis, planning and reporting, and market and knowledge management.

We take responsibility for delivering results such as customer service, cost reduction, risk management, and improved supplier performance. We deliver services using onsite resources and teams operating out of our offices – both onshore and offshore.

Our Category Management services are managed against a plan with defined objectives, deliverables, and milestones. Progress is reported regularly by means of interactive and custom reports such as CPO Dashboard.

Our teams leverage deep client and market knowledge to improve the value delivered from future spend, and to ensure that suppliers' terms and pricing align to current best practices and market conditions.

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