Processing an off-process order
From requisition to payment, these cost reference figures show a difference of EUR 101 per order with an adapted process.
Source: Mastercard (reference figures provided).
YOUR NEXT PROJECT
Reduce total procurement costs.
Look at the workflow, beyond the price.
The item price does not capture all the effort involved in an order. Identify the steps, exchanges and processing costs to choose an improvement scope you can monitor.
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COST ELEMENTS TO COMPARE
- Purchase price & transaction fees
- Internal time & rework
- Costs of the chosen arrangement
Market reference figures
The hidden cost of one-off purchases.
Transactions outside purchasing policy
A compliance and visibility challenge in a tail spend market estimated at EUR 300 billion for European companies.
Sources: McKinsey and Mastercard (reference figures provided).
Suppliers used fewer than five times
Supplier onboarding costs EUR 200–500, followed by EUR 70–200 in annual maintenance per supplier.
Sources: McKinsey and Mastercard (reference figures provided).
These industry reference figures are not Buy Made Easy customer results.
A one-off supplier need not become another ERP record.
Sourcing Force + Buy Made Easy
Reduce order processing costs, beyond the purchase price.
A low-value order can involve searches, duplicate data entry and several administrative follow-ups.
Sourcing Force centralises one-off purchases to reduce repetitive tasks and make the work visible.
Buy Made Easy acts as the single supplier for outsourced procurement and consolidates the processing of fragmented operations.
Inside Sourcing Force
Read your spend map.
The starting point
Plan to reduce total procurement costs.
Total cost combines visible expenditure and the resources used to process requirements. Requests, quote clarification, approval, receiving and follow-up exchanges may involve several teams. Useful analysis describes these operations before assigning them a value.
Class C procurement often involves a wide variety of cases and contacts. Improvement potential depends on what can be simplified, grouped or outsourced. A low order value does not demonstrate a low processing cost; equally, not every order requires the same effort.
Information that matters
Measure processing costs from actual operations.
Observe the workflow
Record the steps and rework in representative cases. Distinguish active working time from waiting time: a case open for several days does not represent several days of work.
Value time consistently
Use a fully loaded hourly rate suited to the scope and documented durations. Valuing time saved measures working capacity; it becomes a budget saving only through the organisation’s actual decisions.
Include operating costs
Add service fees, recurring costs and implementation expenditure. Compare scenarios at the same volume and avoid counting a cost twice when it is already included in a price or package.
One portal, several purchasing workflows
Reduce costs across critical procurement categories
MRO and industrial supplies
Technical specifications, urgent requirements and multiple distributors make small industrial orders difficult to manage.
Explore the process →
Personal protective equipment
An order for gloves or footwear still needs the right size, product reference and specifications for the task.
Explore the process →
Testing, measurement and certification
Without a defined deliverable, method and deadline, a one-off testing service becomes difficult to accept on completion.
Explore the process →
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
Technicians need parts and services quickly while allocating each purchase to the right site or project.
Explore the process →
Pallets and handling
Separate orders for each warehouse make specifications and delivery dates difficult to reconcile.
Explore the process →
Small IT equipment
Adapters, monitors and peripherals are often bought urgently from several distributors.
Explore the process →
Point-of-sale displays and marketing
A marketing campaign brings together printing, point-of-sale displays and promotional items from different suppliers.
Explore the process →
Freelancers and services
A one-off assignment becomes harder to track when requirements, deliverables and approvals are scattered across separate conversations.
Explore the process →
Business travel and events
Hotels, venues, transport and MICE services create fragmented bookings, sometimes committed outside the procurement process.
Explore the process →A clear workflow
From observation to a quantified scenario.
Information moves between teams. Responsibilities stay clear.
- 01
Define the scope
Choose the category, period and operations actually included in processing.
- 02
Measure
Record volumes, durations and costs from comparable cases.
- 03
Compare
Describe the proposed scenario and its additional costs using explicit assumptions.
- 04
Track
Keep the pilot definitions so you can later compare results with assumptions.
The client's ERP / S2PSystem of record for rules, approvals, commitments and orders.
Your procurement system, extended
Address order processing costs.
Your ERP / S2P
Master data, budgets, approvals and commitments remain within your management framework.
Your sites and requesters follow the same workflow.
The one-off purchasing portal
Requests · quotes · catalogues · AI assistance · tracking
Buy Made Easy · Single supplierOutsourcing and active follow-up of assigned operations.
Your specialist suppliers
- Less duplicate data entry
- Fewer supplier accounts
- Fewer administrative follow-ups
Master data to the portal · Requests and baskets to the procurement workflow · Shared statuses and supporting documents
A preparation checklist
Separate cost elements before simulating.
| Cost element | Required data | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Internal time | Active duration and fully loaded hourly rate | Valued working capacity |
| Transaction fees | Comparable amount before and after | Change in spending within scope |
| Recurring costs | Annual packages or services | Annual operating cost |
| Implementation | Initial project cost | First-year impact |
A practical scope
The cost of processing an order.
The BME model compares 161 minutes and €189.84 before with 50 minutes and €58 after per order: 111 minutes and around €130 saved in processing costs. The simulator lets you use your own volumes, time and costs.
Three ways to reduce class C procurement costs.
Purchasing terms
Grouping requirements for fasteners or office supplies makes product references and specifications easier to compare.
Productivity
Centralising maintenance and PPE orders reduces fragmented workflows and repeated supplier creation.
Spend management
Connecting orders and consumption helps identify recurring needs and use available framework agreements.
Examples to build your scenario
What the class C procurement white paper shows.
The Buy Made Easy white paper “Optimisez vos achats de classe C” breaks order processing costs into four stages: defining the need, ordering, receiving and accounting. Its action plan examples compare a starting position with several possible operating models.
Two separate scenarios illustrate the roles of outsourcing and an e-procurement solution.
Outsourcing scenario
€122 → €107That is €15 less processing cost per order in the example on page 11. The action plan addresses one-off requests, supplier creation and invoice disputes.
E-procurement scenario
€122 → €97That is €25 less processing cost per order in the example on page 12. Suppliers help maintain catalogues, product references are compared and offers follow an approval workflow.
| Stage | Starting position | Outsourcing scenario | E-procurement scenario |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defining the need | €47 | €42 | €40 |
| Ordering | €46 | €42 | €37 |
| Receiving | €21 | €18 | €16 |
| Accounting | €8 | €5 | €4 |
| Total | €122 | €107 | €97 |
Combine the approaches
€15 + €25 = €40 in potential savings
€122 → €82 per orderIllustrative combined example: if outsourcing and digitalisation gains concern separate tasks, their effects can be added. The white paper presents two separate scenarios; the combined €40 saving is an assumption to validate within your organisation, avoiding double counting the same saving.
Source: Buy Made Easy white paper, “Optimisez vos achats de classe C”, action plan examples, pages 11–12. Access the white paper (French) →
To build your own scenario, record your organisation’s tasks, volumes and hourly rates, then include software, service and deployment costs. The simulator estimates annual savings using three explicit assumptions.
Calculate using your data →Your initial scope
Choose a pilot with results you can explain.
Start with a category affected by frequent rework or fragmented activity. Identify who will measure time and which data are available to compare periods. Make exceptions visible so that differences can be understood without treating every incident as representative.
Sourcing Force structures requests, exchanges and tracking; BME performs the outsourcing operations entrusted to it. Your ERP/S2P remains authoritative for rules, approvals, commitments and orders. The chosen scope should connect workflow changes to the resources used.
The free simulator lets you explore assumptions for a class C procurement project. The diagnostic helps prepare data and the pilot. Item price savings, risks and quality need additional review when they are outside the chosen model.
Prepare your project
Implementation questions.
Does time saved immediately reduce the budget?
It first represents available working capacity. Its effect on spending depends on organisational decisions; it must be distinguished from costs actually avoided.
Can an average cost be applied to every order?
An average must remain linked to a period and a scope. Unusual cases and very different operations need separate analysis before extrapolation.
How do we turn this method into an estimate?
Enter your volumes, time, fees and project costs in the simulator. Then compare a conservative and a central assumption over the same scope.
Your next step
Make room
for the purchases that matter.
Let's discuss your class C purchases and how your organisation works.
Request your free assessment.
Move from method to assumptions.
New content
Practical guides to explore
How to prevent spend leakage and realize negotiated savings
Turn identified savings into realized savings by controlling contracts, catalogs, buying channels, exceptions and benefit tracking.
MRO spend visibility and savings opportunities
A practical method to separate parts, services, sites and criticality before selecting savings levers, with controls, metrics, ownership and implementation steps.