Services

Your cost management challenges are unique. So, naturally, we take a unique approach to them. We tailor our cost management services to your specific requirements, your priorities and your resources. With our Cost Reduction and Category Management services, you’ll get your indirect costs under control and find savings for years to come.

Here are some of the indirect spend categories in which we serve our clients.

Cost Reduction Service

The Cost Reduction service is an intelligent, holistic approach to reducing indirect costs and overhead expenses. It is ERA Canada’s core service; on average, it helps our clients reduce their annual spend per category by between 10% and 30%; overall, it can add the equivalent of around 2% of your annual revenue to the bottom line figure every year.

What would that mean to your organization?

How It Works

We get to know your company, its cost reduction objectives and priorities, and any challenges that exist. We also determine the communication plan for ERA’s engagement, conduct a preliminary assessment of potential opportunities and confirm the cost reduction initiatives that are worthwhile proceeding with. This ensures that our focus and effort is aligned with your corporate objectives and priorities and has the maximum impact toward achieving your cost reduction goals.

We divide ERA’s engagement into logical projects and assemble the appropriate resources for each project. Before we start developing your cost reduction solutions, we produce baseline reports detailing your current situation. These provide the benchmarks against which ERA’s success is measured.

Our consultants’ and subject matter experts’ extensive knowledge of how supplier industries work, coupled with their access to pricing information and other market-specific intelligence, puts them in the strongest position to negotiate on your behalf.

They’ll work with your existing suppliers, and their competitors, to find the best savings and services. Then, we’ll help you implement our recommendations and monitor the performance of your suppliers and your organization to ensure compliance with new supply arrangements and realization of savings, according to plan.

Long Term

To accomplish our objective, the work we do in the short-term must precipitate sustainable, long-term savings for your company.

At ERA Canada, we do not merely present a report making recommendations and pass it over to you for implementation; we do not stop at facilitating the implementation of agreed solutions. We give your organization the tools it needs to successfully continue our initiatives in the years to come, ensuring they remain fully and correctly implemented. We also monitor suppliers to ensure that they live up to agreements, cost reduction efficiencies are maintained, and that you are completely satisfied with the quality and service you receive.

Category Management Service

ERA typically monitors its cost reduction solutions for thirty-six months to ensure its clients achieve predicted savings.

At the end of this ‘Monitoring Period’ we offer our Category Management service.

Category Management ensures our clients sustain the savings ERA has found for them. They outsource the management of specific indirect costs and overheads to us; our category specialists use their expertise and industry knowledge to manage category spend and control costs long term. Meanwhile, ERA’s customized reports and analyses provide visibility into category spend and savings, from raw, transaction-level data to charts showing key performance indicators.

Our category management service is particularly useful for controlling spend in complex, technical categories where transaction volumes are high. Telecommunications, courier, freight, insurance, office equipment and travel are good examples of such categories.