Saving money is the driving goal for sourcing teams, and NTT Global Sourcing is no exception. Founded by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, NTT Global Sourcing partners with NTT’s independent operating companies to improve the presence of the NTT Group in the global market. NTT Global Sourcing combines the procurement volume of ‘One NTT’ to engage in centralised price negotiations and execute comprehensive agreements with global vendors.
Michael Yocum, NTT Global Sourcing’s director of operations, said his company was looking to solve two significant challenges. “First, we needed real-time insight into projected savings and related metrics,” Yocum says. “Second, we often used spreadsheets and presentations to share project-related information, which sometimes meant our stakeholders were making decisions based on ‘stale’ information. Now, our stakeholders have access to the information they need – when they need it – to make strategic purchasing decisions.
Track projected savings in real time
Yocum found that Workday Strategic Sourcing offered him those solutions, letting executives from NTT’s various companies log in any time to see potential savings driven by NTT Global Sourcing’s contract negotiations. Before, they had to ask colleagues, often in different time zones, to build and send reports. Now they can access the same data on demand in real time and filter that data.
“This is now how we communicate savings to our stakeholders,” Yocum says. “This was a huge deal for us. The sooner we can engage in the sourcing process with our stakeholders, we can add more value and achieve more savings for all of NTT.”
NTT Global Sourcing can now provide specific sets of data – such as supplier-specific savings, category workload and spend under management – relevant to whoever is seeking them. “Since we serve so many different businesses, they are all interested in their unique projects,” he says. “Now we have a clean way to search and identify relevant data.”
We found a solution that could help us manage savings and collaborate better with our stakeholders.
Director of Operations
Partner together to make changes
Using Strategic Sourcing also means NTT Global Sourcing and its stakeholders can collaborate on contract changes instead of emailing documents back and forth.
“We were able to seamlessly migrate about 350 contracts into one new system,” Yocum says. “It only took about 60 days.”
Reviewers can see edits and work together on changes in real time. That ensures everyone is on the same page, allowing for an uninterrupted audit trail.
“It’s about having clear and consistent governance around savings, value tracking, intake and how we handle contracts,” Yocum says.
We now have a contract solution that’s more collaborative and integrated.
Director of Operations
Tracking diversity and sustainability efforts
Yocum says the company is also prioritising diversity, sustainability and green IT, and using Strategic Sourcing to track its progress on all fronts. “As NTT's strategic sourcing entity, it's important that we have a deep understanding of suppliers' diversity and sustainability efforts to manage risk and uphold NTT's Global Sustainability Charter,” says Yocum.
NTT Global Sourcing and its stakeholders can now partner to determine how to best measure a supplier’s performance in those areas. They can then document that data to create action plans and share them with stakeholders or suppliers. The result is stronger relationships and greater transparency, leading to greater trust across the board.
As NTT Global Sourcing keeps growing, Yocum sees a continuing increase in savings realised as more stakeholders take full advantage of Strategic Sourcing. More than 200 stakeholders involved in 550 projects are now using the new system.
“As Workday’s Strategic Sourcing becomes a part of the way we work, we have seen an increase in adoption among our stakeholders,” he says. “This new level of engagement allows us to fulfil our mission of being NTT’s trusted strategic sourcing innovator.”