AC Yule is the UK's largest independent manufacturer and distributor of PVCu/structural glazing systems to the double glazing industry, employing 400 people.  

In combination with AC Yule's procurement department, its IT department of four manages a six figure budget to maintain a system for 150 users across 6 sites, including PCs, laptops, printers, servers and more. The team has to purchase hundreds of different items every year.

• Maximise IT budget
• Save time
• Streamline purchasing process

The IT team used to purchase hardware and software through a semi-structured process. Once an internal request for product was received, the team would contact a minimum of three suppliers for best price and availability before undertaking further manual comparison and policing of these costs via internet research.

Orders over £500 would require final approval from the purchasing manager within the procurement department. The team would then notify unsuccessful suppliers and complete administration for the purchase.

This process was considered elongated and inefficient, particularly given the purchasing manager spreads his time across all in-direct procurement products for the entire Group. Whilst IT is considered a strategic priority by this forward thinking business, the approval process sometimes resulted in missed 'offers', users complaining that purchase/delivery were taking too long and in worst case scenarios user downtime.

The IT team recognised that automation could be the answer to instilling a best practice procurement process, and it could save time and money.

In a bid to transform its purchasing process, the team turned to Mercato ITelligence for help.

Mercato ITelligence is a simple online IT buyers' tool that instantly tells buyers IT trade guide price and stock levels on products. This CIPS accredited technology empowers IT buyers with market knowledge, so they can rapidly negotiate down the price of IT products with their contracted suppliers.

Buyers simply input their supplier product lists or spot check online for an automated comparison and display of trade guide price and stock on over 150,000 'live' products from more than 2,500 manufacturers. The user discovers what margin their supplier is proposing and receives daily alerts in relation to their Product Lists, stating whether price or stock have moved.

Management functionality provides insight and validation of current purchasing ability and expenditure levels.

Mercato ITelligence enables purchasers to:

• Identify fair price and qualify agreed margins
• Monitor and track price fluctuations
• Generate automated Request for Quotations to speed-up buying
• Stay on top of market developments
• Plot key market trends to forecast price and stock

Steven Ward, IT Manager for AC Yule, said: "We are consistently seeing fiscal savings of over 3% on every product purchase. This is a sizeable chunk of our six figure IT budget. This budget is being stretched to buy more for the same year-on-year.

"We are also seeing considerable time savings, on average an hour per order but in some cases weeks. The solution's capability to demonstrate the lowest price (trade price) has assured our Financial Director that we know when best value is reached.

"To that end, we now have a streamlined approach to purchasing where final sign-off resides with the IT team and not the purchasing manager. This empowers us to make swift decisions for best value time after time. It has enriched the role and functionality of our department. We use its planning functionality to purchase in periods of 'over supply' to maximise our budget. We no longer need to purchase blind or at the highest price.

"Our time is now better spent managing and maintaining our system.

"AC Yule's purchasing efficiency has improved because we're no longer driven by the supplier. We're determining the pricing we should be getting and having the figures to back it up.

"We have received positive feedback from suppliers as well. Quotation requests now all contain manufacturer part numbers. This saves them time as they now know exactly what we want.

"ITelligence has become an invaluable part of our purchasing process and on the IT departments recommendation, the organisation has started to police stationary and other purchases. We expect this will grow as more departments appreciate the power of the solution."