Keelvar, an Enterprise Ireland client based in the Rubicon, at the Cork Institute of Technology have just announced that they have optimized spend in excess of $500m through their innovative procurement solution, with a further $2bn in the pipeline. Clients to date include the UN, the UK Government (Crown Commercial Service) , and a number of FTSE 100 companies, ranging from industries as diverse as supermarket retailers, insurance and banking.

The worlds of sourcing and procurement are opaque to many, however, once the figures relating to the amounts of goods and services sourced annually are mentioned the mists quickly lift, argues Alan Holland, the CEO and Founder.

“We recently exhibited at the World Procurement Congress in London where the attendees in the auditorium were responsible for an annual spend of about $1,900 billion”, advised Holland. Business leaders are realising that one of the largest line items on the P&L needs greater attention and care.

Keelvar’s innovative solution is a product of the research lab, with Holland founding the company following the completion of a PhD on combinatorial auctions while at University College Cork.

“Keelvar’s sourcing optimization solution is already gaining strong traction” adds Alan Gleeson, the Head of Sales and Marketing. “One of the key global ‘thought leaders’ in procurement, Chicago based Jason Busch, recently issued a strong external validation of our approach in an article in the influential Spend Matters journal”, continues Gleeson. “In the report, he concluded that Keelvar’s mission was ‘firmly grounded in helping established professionals and suppliers make a transition to an entirely new sourcing and selling mentality. Simply put, I love it’.”

Keelvar’s solution is designed to help senior procurement professionals in private and public sectors source in a more strategic manner. The goods or services sought are broken into small lots, and suppliers are invited to bundle and package the lots into attractive combinations that match their footprint or strengths. Suppliers can then offer tiered discounts based on winning attractive combinations of business “Unlike typical more adversarial approaches where suppliers are squeezed on price, this approach turns the model on it’s head”, argues Gleeson. “It is a genuine win:win approach where both sides benefit from the transaction, and the side benefits are considerable as the increased flexibility on both sides offers buyers much greater control of the outcome”.

“We are transforming how big buyers go to market to source goods and services and delivering exceptional results”, adds Holland.