This PortCo had no understanding of spend and no idea where to look for answers. We ingested 12 months’ worth of raw data—5.8 million purchase transactions from 38 key suppliers—and found a way forward. In three weeks—not three months—we took out costs, boosted the bottom line, and spurred value creation.
The Challenge
Trigger
Margin erosion, rising operating costs, and no visibility into where money was going.
Status Quo
The PortCo had years of purchase history but no real spend intelligence. Their data lived in fragmented ERP and AP systems. No one could answer basic questions like, “Who are our top 20 suppliers by category?” or “Where are we overpaying?” They were making decisions based on anecdotes, not data.
Perceived Need vs. Actual Need
Leadership thought they needed a “better report” from finance. What they really needed was a fast, powerful engine for ingesting and categorizing the data, identifying where to hunt and dig, and showing where to act first.
and Environment
Pressure
The PE sponsor was pushing for cost takeout to protect EBITDA under tightening market conditions, but leadership didn’t know where to start.
Operational Readiness
Motivated by urgency, and despite lacking mature analytics, the team was open to change—provided it didn’t mean a long consulting engagement.
The JAI Approach
Embedded
JAI sat alongside FP&A, AP, and Procurement, working in their data environment rather than requiring “cleaned” data.
Pragmatic and Quick
We ingested messy data, built a fit-for-purpose taxonomy, and started revealing opportunities in days, not months.
Tactical and Strategic
In working to normalize and categorize spend, we developed an “opportunity map” that sequenced initiatives by impact and ease.
Nimble
Rather than insisting on perfect data or a multi-year “data lake” project, we treated data as a living asset—and improved it in real-time.
The Turning Point
For the first time, during a working session, the CEO and COO could finally visualize spend by category, vendor, and region. Leadership literally had a “heat map” of where to attack first. In that moment, the conversation changed from “We don’t know” to “Let’s go.”
Results
Visibility
We illuminated a prioritized, opportunistic path to take cost out across categories (materials, services, indirect spend).
We identified fast-attack opportunities for renegotiation, consolidation, and standardization.
Behavior Shift
Leaders started asking, “What does the data say?” before making decisions about spend.
Action
The first wave of initiatives was greenlit within three weeks, not three months.
