One of the key seven objectives identified as part of the merger between two high street banks was the need to identify significant savings in the area of procurement. In order for the bank to achieve these savings a detailed and consolidated management information system covering suppliers and levels of expenditure was needed.

Acuma designed and developed a flexible business driven information system using a number of leading technologies from Ascential, Kalido and Business Objects within a very short timescale to allow the bank to very quickly achieve the desired costs reductions.

The system provided the bank with

• a single consolidated view of all suppliers across the various areas of the group
• consistent, detailed management information with multiple views of the data
• a high degree of flexibility allowing new companies and divisions to be incorporated into the solution
• the eliminate the duplication of suppliers reducing cost
• the reduction of 17,000 different purchase types to 142 categories
• consistent management information delivered at high speed providing procurement with increased power to negotiate with suppliers