Bel Brands Leverages AI to Streamline Procurement

The Challenge

Optimize procurement operations for speed, accuracy, & reduced cost

While any good procurement professional will tell you that routine reevaluation is a great way to stay ahead of the curve, they’d probably also tell you that the main drawback of that approach is that it requires time. A lot of time. For Bel Brands, this is a substantial cost for a multitude of stakeholders. It not only impacts individuals for cross-functional teams, but also the buyer who needs to juggle internal stakeholders, invited suppliers, and ongoing discussions and analysis.

Up Goes Productivity, Down Goes Cost

Not only did Arkestro meet Bel Brands’ expectations of a 10% decrease in pricing, but all the time saved meant that the Bel Brands teams were able to increase their productivity by 25% when managing their bidding events and supplier relationships.

Overview

Leveraging AI to Streamline Procurement

Bel Brands knows a thing or two about continuous improvement. Each year, the multinational branded cheese company spends about $285 million among 3,500 suppliers, supporting the procurement needs of the entire company, including direct items, such as raw materials or packaging and indirect items including capital expenditure, as well as subcontracting, marketing expenses, travel, finance expenses.

In order to keep the different corners of its business optimized, Bel Brands routinely challenges the existing lineup of suppliers. That is to say that every couple of years, different suppliers are invited into a bidding event, which is then followed by a consensus selection by the different stakeholders to determine the best partner for the specific service or product in question.

While any good procurement professional will tell you that routine reevaluation is a great way to stay ahead of the curve, they’d probably also tell you that the main drawback of that approach is that it requires time. A lot of time. For Bel Brands, this is a substantial cost for a multitude of stakeholders. It not only impacts individuals for cross-functional teams, but also the buyer who needs to juggle internal stakeholders, invited suppliers, and ongoing discussions and analysis.

“One of the biggest challenges is our RFP process which can take up to 90 days. Specifically, it is difficult to procure a single view of all the information across multiple vendors,” explained Justin Heard, CapEx and industrial procurement manager for Bel Brands USA. “This can be very time-consuming and quite cumbersome.”

Approach

Saving time and Speeding Up External Communications

Once the Bel Brands team started using Arkestro for their bidding processes, everyone noticed a change in the velocity of projects. Arkestro is strategic sourcing software that was designed for procurement professionals by procurement professionals. At its core is powerful and transformative artificial intelligence, designed to help procurement teams make more informed decisions, faster.

“Because the bidding is managed by a platform, we don’t have to manage every single conversation with each and every supplier,” explained the VP of Strategic Sourcing at Bel Brands USA. “Communications are way faster and easier, and because we now have so much extra time, we can focus on building more valuable strategic relationships.”

Result

Up Goes Productivity, Down Goes Cost

While scaling the number of suppliers into a particular bidding event is certainly a plus, now with Arkestro, Bel Brands can be incredibly selective as well. Arkestro enlists AI to help Bel Brands reduce their list of suppliers down to only the most relevant per event. This way, if they choose, Bel Brands can focus on working more closely with a select few.

“Overall, Arkestro has helped to modernize the RFP process. For me specifically, it has reduced the time I’ve spent in Excel doing manual analysis,” said Justin. “As we continue to leverage Arkestro, I anticipate anywhere from 2 to 10 hours of time reduction on data analysis alone.”