Cabot identified tail spend as an important candidate for improving the procurement function. Within just a month, Cabot was able to use the Fairmarkit solution and deliver on the promise of adding value throughout the entire organization.
Cabot Corporation is a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, MA, USA, that has provided innovative performance solutions to customers for nearly 140 years. Cabot is a leading provider of rubber blacks and specialty carbons, fumed metal oxides, masterbatches and conductive compounds, elastomer composites, inkjet colorants and inks, and aerogel.
Cabot was looking to modernize its processes to prepare itself for continued success for the next 140 years. As part of a wholesale transformation of the company’s processes, Cabot wanted to augment and increase their procurement capabilities. Many of their sourcing activities were paper-based and required considerable manual labor. Cabot wanted procurement to provide value to the company quickly.
Within just a month, Cabot was able to use the Fairmarkit solution, integrate with multiple locations and systems, and deliver on the promise of adding value throughout the entire organization. Tail spend historically didn’t get much attention, so when they started sourcing through Fairmarkit, they achieved an additional 8% of savings. Now, they are able to quickly identify where there are opportunities for savings and efficiency as well as where there have been missed opportunities.
A centralized dashboard is also a crucial part of Cabot’s solution—especially with the organization’s desire to see the bigger picture, share knowledge, and improve processes across the enterprise.
“The level of the transparency we can provide the business by pulling data from different procurement systems into a centralized dashboard is tremendous,” says Ivan Skerl, Chief Digital & Information Officer. This capability has elevated the procurement team’s ability to stop being consumed by tactical activities and go into strategic analytics to unlock further potential value. Aled Rees, SVP and President, Global Business Services at Cabot explains that “it helps us focus on the sustainability and continuity of our supply chain operations.”
