An analyst behind every category manager

Strategic sourcing is an event with an end: research a category, run a process, negotiate, sign. Category management is the ongoing discipline around it, including the years between sourcing events when the market moves and the supplier relationship needs work.

No. We support them. Our team is analysts, not senior category consultants, and category strategy needs the authority and internal relationships that only your own people have. We take the preparation off them, not the judgement.

Market and supplier intelligence, price benchmarking, category pack preparation for reviews, supplier scorecard data chasing and compilation, and savings tracking against an agreed baseline. The work that has to happen for a category manager to be effective and that gets squeezed out when they are busy.

Because several providers in this category use strategy-sounding headlines over research-and-tracking substance, and their clients find out later. We would rather be clear now. If you need genuine strategic capability, firms like that exist and are worth their rates.

A monthly fee per dedicated analyst, scaled to how many categories they cover. We will give you the number before a proposal, which is more than most of this category does. Across fifteen competitor pages we reviewed, not one published pricing.

It depends how volatile the categories are and how often you review them. A handful of stable indirect categories is comfortable. Half a dozen fast-moving ones with monthly reviews is not. We would rather scope it honestly than overload one person and disappoint you.

Published market data, supplier financials, trade sources, price indices and direct supplier research. Where you already subscribe to a data provider we work with that rather than duplicating it. We tell you what we could not verify rather than presenting a confident view built on nothing.

A subscription gives you generic market data. It does not know your spend, chase your suppliers for scorecard returns, build your review pack or maintain your savings tracker. If raw data is genuinely all you lack, a subscription is cheaper and we will say so.

Yes, against a baseline we agree with you at the start. The awkward part of savings tracking is not the arithmetic, it is agreeing what counts as a saving before anyone has an incentive to argue about it. We push for that conversation early.

Indirect categories where desk research travels well: IT and telecoms, professional services, facilities and MRO, logistics, packaging, marketing and travel. Highly technical direct materials usually need engineering knowledge we do not have.

Only for data gathering, such as chasing a scorecard return, and only with your agreement. Commercial conversations and relationship management stay with your people. Suppliers should not be hearing about strategy from an outsourced analyst.

The first baseline for a category typically takes three to four weeks. After that it is refresh work, which is far quicker. The baseline is the expensive part and it only happens once.

Access is scoped by you, granted to named people, and revoked through your own leaver process. We contract on standard clauses, name every sub-processor, and work to GDPR, UK GDPR, PIPEDA, the Australian Privacy Principles and Saudi PDPL. Pricing and contract data is covered by confidentiality terms that survive termination. ISO 27001 alignment is in progress and SOC 2 Type II is on the roadmap.

Then a full retainer is probably the wrong shape and we will tell you. Some clients are better served by a per-category piece of work before each review cycle rather than a permanent analyst.

Yes, and it is the sensible test. Pick the categories where your manager is most stretched, run the baseline, and judge whether the next review is genuinely easier to prepare for.