Insights

Sourcing and cost optimization: where companies find savings in non-personnel spend

Techtone Group · Sep 28, 2026 · Last reviewed Oct 14, 2026

Companies spending more than EUR 1 million a year on goods and services other than salaries usually find savings in a few places: categories nobody owns, contracts that renew automatically, demand that is never questioned, and suppliers that are never benchmarked. A structured review finds them in weeks, and a success fee model means the company pays only from what is saved.

Where the money usually is

• Unowned categories: telecoms, facility services, IT licenses, travel and logistics are often spread across departments, with nobody responsible for the total.
• Automatic renewals: contracts roll over at old prices, sometimes with indexation that nobody checked.
• Unquestioned demand: service levels, licenses and specifications that no longer match what the business needs.
• Unbenchmarked prices: suppliers that have not been compared with the market for years.
• Fragmented suppliers: many small suppliers for the same need, with no volume leverage.

How a review runs

• Spend analysis: collect twelve to twenty-four months of invoices and contracts and group them into categories and suppliers.
• Prioritization: rank categories by spend, savings potential and ease of change.
• Benchmarking: compare prices and terms with industry-specific benchmark data.
• Demand review: challenge specifications and volumes with the people who use the service.
• Sourcing: renegotiate or run a request for proposal, with clear evaluation criteria.
• Implementation and tracking: move to the new terms and check on the invoices that the savings actually arrive.

Price is only one lever

The largest savings often come from changing what is bought, not just what it costs: consolidating suppliers, lowering a service level nobody uses, switching to a standard product, or cutting volume. These need agreement from the business owners, which is why the review works with them rather than around them.

Procurement processes matter too

One-off savings fade if the process that created the overspend remains. A good review also looks at how purchases are approved, how requests for proposal are run, who owns each category, and how contracts are tracked, and fixes the gaps so the savings last.

Categories that often pay off first

• IT and telecoms: unused licenses, overlapping software, legacy mobile and data plans.
• Facility services: cleaning, security, maintenance and energy contracts bundled or tendered together.
• Logistics: freight rates, warehousing terms and route planning.
• Professional services: rate cards, scope control and the number of firms used.
• Payments and banking fees: card acceptance costs, account fees and cash handling, often never renegotiated after the first contract.

What the business has to give

A review does not run in isolation. It needs access to invoices and contracts, a sponsor in management who can settle disputes between departments, and time from the category owners to agree what is really needed. In return, the business gets a clear picture of its spend, savings that are documented supplier by supplier, and better control of purchasing from then on.

With the help of partners, benchmark data specific to each industry gives a quick and reliable view of where a company pays more than its peers. That shortens the analysis phase and puts the effort into negotiation and implementation, where the savings are made.

Why a success fee model

Under a success fee, the adviser is paid a share of the savings actually achieved. It aligns incentives, removes the upfront risk for the client, and keeps the work focused on savings that reach the bottom line rather than on recommendations. Techtone offers its sourcing and cost optimization work on this basis to clients spending at least EUR 1 million a year on non-personnel costs.

Keeping the savings

Savings leak. A new contract is signed at a better price, but invoices keep arriving at the old rate, or a department buys outside the agreement. Tracking invoices against the new terms for at least twelve months, assigning an owner to each category, and reporting achieved rather than negotiated savings to management keeps the result in the accounts.

Signs it is time for a review

• Costs grew faster than revenue for two years in a row.
• Nobody can name the top twenty suppliers and what each costs.
• Major contracts have not been tendered for more than three years.
• A merger or reorganization left duplicate suppliers in place.

Related service: Sourcing and cost optimization