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Resource Center - Case Studies on Sourcing Solutions

Thank you for visiting the CombineNet, Inc. Resource Center. We have a number of customer case studies available about the sourcing solutions realized in real-world implementations of our advanced sourcing product, CombineNet ASAP. Select a link below to learn how our e-sourcing customers improve the way they manage a diversity of spend categories.

CASE STUDY: Reckitt Benckiser Improves Media Buying
As a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company, Reckitt Benckiser’s marketing initiatives are critical to the company’s success. Managing large multi-national media budgets (advertising space in television, radio and online) across several agencies lends complexity to the task of strategic sourcing for marketing spend. RB’s Worldwide Media Group turned to CombineNet ASAP to help manage their media spend across multiple media types, using the e-sourcing technology to achieve double-digit percentages in contracted savings and gaining greater transparency into media buys and their ongoing compliance with the media plan.

CASE STUDY: AstraZeneca Uses CombineNet as Prescription to Drive Greater Supply Chain Savings and Efficiencies
AstraZeneca ships its pharmaceutical products globally by a combination of air and ocean freight. To improve supply chain operations and reduce costs, AstraZeneca has undertaken a multi-year strategy to transition more product from air freight to ocean carriage. The AstraZeneca supply chain team had been successful in the past at transferring some of its air freight transportation to ocean freight, but had yet to undertake a large scale transformation because of the large amount of data collection and analysis required to fully understand the impact. The company turned to CombineNet ASAP to support their sourcing strategy, generating more than 12% in cost savings and significantly reducing the sourcing cycle.

CASE STUDY: Schindler Group Improves Indirect Spend Category Management
Schindler Group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of elevators and escalators, needed a better sourcing solution for managing one of their most complex spend areas. Due to the extensive services that Schindler provides to its customers, the company maintains a fleet of vehicles for use by 40% of its staff – but this was also one of its most challenging areas to source. Schindler had tried various sourcing suite products, consultants, and extensive custom spreadsheets, but finally turned to CombineNet to implement a successful solution that found new cost savings, improved productivity, and drove new supply chain innovations.

CASE STUDY: Bayer AG Turns to CombineNet for Transportation Procurement Bid Support
Reprinted from American Shipper magazine: “Spreadsheets be gone” is the topic of this article in which Bayer AG’s lead ocean buyer talks about their use of CombineNet for improving collection and analysis of transportation bid data from carriers. Bayer describes benefit from the use of CombineNet in the areas of productivity and time savings; improved sourcing scenario analysis; and the ability to make decisions based on total value and lowest risk.

CASE STUDY: Store Displays Sourcing for Consumer Goods Company
One of the largest consumer goods companies in the world wanted to evaluate and streamline its in-store product display sourcing activities, by centralizing the process across the marketing teams who traditionally conducted their own sourcing. CombineNet ASAP helped them reduce sourcing costs by 45% while driving internal stakeholder collaboration.

CASE STUDY: Folding Cartons Sourcing for Food Manufacturer
This large European food manufacturer needed to source folding cartons for its upscale frozen and process food business across two facilities. Read how CombineNet ASAP helped them reduce costs, consolidate buying, and improve innovation in their supply network.

CASE STUDY: Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) Sourcing Optimization
This case study features a customer with a large MRO spend, which had previously relied on individual business sites for sourcing, which involved grouping MRO items into "market baskets" based on historical usage. They wanted to drive cost reductions by consolidating their entire North American MRO spend and optimize suppliers by product class. Read how CombineNet ASAP helped them reduce costs by 30% while improving collaborative supply chain practices.

CASE STUDY: Easton-Bell Sports Improves Ocean Sourcing
Read how this customer used CombineNet ASAP to successfully centralize their Ocean Transportation Sourcing following a merger, which resulted in reduced costs and improved corporate efficiencies.

CASE STUDY: MeadWestvaco Truckload Sourcing
MeadWestvaco turned to CombineNet and its Advanced Sourcing Application (ASAP) product to help drive an improve truckload sourcing solution. As a result, the customer exceeded their savings objectives, reduced the number of carriers in their network, improved working capital, and met the unique service requirements of their individual facilities.

CASE STUDY: Steel Sourcing for Food Manufacturer
With the worldwide steel market in flux and prices escalating, a large European food manufacturer faced numerous challenges in sourcing tinplate for their food packaging. The company turned to CombineNet to help keep anticipated cost increases to a minimum, while mitigating supply risks.