Many procurement organizations know that their data holds significantly more potential than they can leverage in daily operations. Manual data searches, scattered information sources, and lack of comparability make systematic analyses difficult, causing savings opportunities to often go undiscovered.

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In the webinar "No More Hidden Costs – How Sun Garden Achieved Hidden Savings with AI in Record Time," Katharina Kösters (Head of Procurement, Sun Garden) and Lucas Trümpler (Customer Development, Tacto) show how the furniture manufacturer created transparency and realized first tangible optimizations within just a few weeks.

Starting Point – Why Savings Potentials Remained Hidden for So Long

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Sun Garden operates four plants in Europe, with numerous commodity groups and a large supplier base. The initial situation was characterized by:

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• Scattered data across ERP exports, Excel files, and emails
• Lack of comparability between plants
• High manual research effort
• Historical price trends that were difficult to reconstruct
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As a result, it remained unclear where price deviations, alternative suppliers, or volume effects offered concrete savings opportunities. A central view of all relevant procurement developments was missing, as was a unified information base.

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Three Levers That Strengthened Procurement at Sun Garden

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1. Transparency through analytics

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With the introduction of central analytics, a clear view of commodity groups, suppliers, and articles emerged for the first time. Prices, volumes, and performance can now be tracked immediately. For procurement, this means early visibility of outliers, well-founded comparisons between plants, and a shared data foundation for all buyers.

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2. Proactive insights through AI agents

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AI-powered insights continuously analyze procurement data and identify anomalies, supported by real examples from practice. These insights provide concrete starting points for action and reveal potentials that are easily overlooked in daily operations.

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3. Stronger assertiveness with negotiation dossiers

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For supplier meetings, all important data points such as price and volume developments, benchmarks, indices, and notes are instantly available. This simplifies preparation and ensures that conversations can be conducted on a significantly more data-driven basis.

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Clearly documented results also create traceability across multiple plants.

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Practical Examples – Visible Results in a Short Time

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In the webinar, Sun Garden specifically shows how the new data landscape directly led to actions, including:
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• Switching to more affordable suppliers with identical specifications
• Volume bundling for articles with high price volatility
• Identification of plant-specific price differences through central transparency

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Conclusion – From Scattered Information to Clear Savings Paths
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The Sun Garden case illustrates how quickly procurement organizations can work more effectively when transparency, insights, and structured preparation come together. Processes become simpler, potentials more visible, and negotiations more well-founded.

Katharina Kösters and Lucas Trümpler show in the webinar how Sun Garden went from a fragmented data situation to data-oriented procurement in a short time – and why the combined use of analytics, AI insights, and negotiation dossiers is a powerful lever for measurable savings.

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