Increasing cost pressure, fragmented data, and manual tendering processes are slowing down many procurement organizations. At the same time, savings potentials often lie right in front of them – hidden in articles, suppliers, and prices. In the webinar "Finding Hidden Levers – Reducing Costs with Intelligent Commodity Group Management," Hans Boot (Partner, Durch Denken Vorne Consult) and Lucas Trümpler (Customer Development, Tacto) show how companies can create transparency through structured commodity group strategies and systematically realize savings.

Starting Point – Addressing Complexity in Procurement Systematically

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Many procurement departments struggle with the same challenges:

• Fragmented data sources: Tenders and supplier analyses are often manual and time-consuming.
• Unclear cost drivers: Prices and volumes are hard to compare, benchmarks are missing.
• Reactive negotiations: Conversations are conducted without a reliable data foundation, savings potentials go untapped.

A well-thought-out commodity group strategy provides the framework to create transparency, set priorities, and tackle savings in a targeted way.

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The Three Levers – Overview

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We show how companies can address their biggest cost drivers across three levels:

• Supplier level: Standardized RFQs accelerate tendering processes, facilitate award decisions, and reduce prices.
• Article level: Cost modeling reveals cost drivers, while cost engineering helps structurally optimize products and services.
• Price level: Thorough preparation, targeted article selection, and structured argumentation make negotiations more effective – tools like Tacto provide the necessary data and benchmarks.
  
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Supplier Level

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At the supplier level, we focus on achieving savings quickly and effectively:

• Standardization: Uniform tender formats make offers more comparable and decisions more transparent.
• Data-driven selection: Transparent supplier classifications enable well-founded awards – not just by price, but also by quality, risk, and delivery reliability.
• Scalability: A structured RFQ process allows larger volumes to be tendered simultaneously, achieving better conditions.

This creates a reliable foundation for strategic supplier relationships and a more resilient supplier base.

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Article Level

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At the article level, we create cost transparency and derive optimization measures:

• Cost modeling: Prices are broken down into their components – material, manufacturing, logistics. Deviations become visible and target costs can be derived.
• Cost engineering: Building on this transparency, design and specification optimizations are identified to sustainably improve cost structures.
• Data integration: Cost models can be dynamically adjusted, e.g., for commodity price fluctuations – giving companies planning certainty.

The article level is the lever for structural, long-term savings.

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Price Level

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Negotiations are the moment when strategic groundwork takes effect. We show how procurement organizations design their negotiation preparation to optimally leverage potentials:

• Targeted article selection: Analyses help prioritize the right articles for negotiations – not just A-parts, but B and C-parts are also systematically considered.
• Comprehensive preparation: Volume trends, price trends, and alternatives are consolidated to proactively shape negotiations rather than just reacting to price increases.
• Efficiency & speed: Digital tools like Tacto create complete negotiation dossiers in minutes, bundling all relevant data – ideal for annual meetings as well as short-notice appointments.

This ensures that even smaller positions are not overlooked and procurement can fully leverage its negotiating power.

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Key Insights for Procurement

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• Standardization saves time – and creates capacity for strategic work.
• Transparency is the key – those who know their costs can actively manage them.
• Data-based preparation makes negotiations more effective – and increases assertiveness.
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Conclusion

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The webinar shows: Those who consistently leverage their commodity group strategy can transform daily cost pressure into real room for action. Standardized tenders, cost models, and structured negotiation strategies work as a triad for sustainable savings – making procurement measurably more effective.

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Hans Boot from Durch Denken Vorne Consult and Lucas Trümpler from Tacto show in the webinar how companies can create transparency across suppliers, articles, and prices with a clear commodity group strategy, systematically identify savings levers, and prioritize measures on a data-driven basis. Standardized tenders, cost modeling, and cost engineering provide the foundation to optimize B and C-parts in a targeted way, conduct supplier conversations based on facts, and prepare negotiations with clear benchmarks.