eircom Telecommunications

eircom launches world-class retail procurement operation at top speed thanks to ADR

eircom’s Supply Chain was split into Network Procurement and Retail Procurement as part of its transformation of transactional to a strategic procurement function.

The role of Head of Retail Procurement was created, reporting to the Director of Supply Chain and responsible for a team of buyers, liaison with all retail functions and stakeholders and the delivery of savings. An experienced, high-level executive was needed to establish and develop the function immediately. But this would normally take about six months.

ADR provided an Interim Head of Retail Procurement with strong strategic procurement and leadership skills and an excellent retail procurement background. This ensured credibility with the retail functions and marketing stakeholders. The brief was to establish and develop the function, assist with the recruitment of a permanent resource and then hand over.

Retail functions and marketing stakeholders were supported from day one, establishing immediate credibility and confidence. The depth of experience of ADR International was leveraged to quickly and effectively establish the new function of Retail Procurement. Organisation, processes, procedures and working relationships with stakeholders were quickly established, enabling a strong operational resource to be recruited. Effective leadership and development of the retail procurement team ensured that individual team members were developed through one-to-one coaching using ADR Learning materials. Savings of euro 1.6 million were achieved through sourcing work on marketing, field workforce management, outsourced billing and handset procurement. ADR International worked alongside the new Head of Retail Procurement for a month to ensure an effective and complete handover and to develop and publish the strategic plan for the function.

“ADR were able to provide an individual with the experience we needed to take our transformation to the next level.”

Director of Supply Chain, eircom