Sponsor News: Draka Holdings Selects Zycus for Global Spend Management

Leading cable company seeks to improve category management through better spend visibility, contract compliance

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, May 12, 2009 – Zycus, a world leader in Spend Management solutions, today announced that Draka Holdings, a leading cable company worldwide, has selected Zycus for Spend Analysis as part of a global category management initiative.

Engaged in the development, production and sale of cable and cable systems for aircraft, wind turbines, telecommunications and other applications, Draka has locations in 30 countries and provides its customers with global expertise at the local level.  The 9,000-employee company has about 3.0-billion Euros in revenue.

“Draka was very impressed with Zycus’ flexibility, and responsiveness was a key factor in our selection,” said Robert Van Motman, Draka’s Director of Procurement.  “Zycus is helping us achieve our key goals of managing categories on the global level more effectively and running successful sourcing events.  We also expect process improvements through the automation and standardization view of spend analysis across the enterprise.”

Specifically, Draka desired continuous in-depth visibility of its spend, both at the transactional and category levels.  It also wanted to increase contract compliance and track savings.  Draka has about 50 purchasing organizations working relatively independent of each other.  That has led them to create a corporate procurement department that will implement global category management in areas such as polymers, indirect goods and services, packaging/freight, and capital expenditures/maintenance.

“Like many organizations today, Draka is looking to provide solutions that enable global visibility to help them achieve accelerate savings in a very competitive economic scenario,” said Anurag Dixit, Vice President of Marketing at Zycus.  Zycus’ easy-to-use solutions will enable rapid and broad user adoption required for Draka to achieve sustainable saving over the long term.”

PI Commentary

What is most interesting about this recent “win” for Zycus (beyond the obvious), are the types of clients that are selecting the company’s innovative Spend Analysis solution to maximize visibility and drive sustainable savings within their enterprise.  Draka is a global conglomerate whose products and services span the world to quietly touch every area of our lives on a daily basis.  From the planes, trains and automobiles we rely on for transportation to the ships that link our global supply chains and the television programs we enjoy every evening, there isn’t a single point in which Draka has not played a role.

Given this presence in an increasingly demanding market, and the responsibilities that go with it, the one company whose Spend Analysis solution Draka has deemed most capable of meeting their needs is Zycus.

Zycus, who is no longer the best kept secret in the Spend Analysis space boasts a rapidly growing client list that includes some of the largest and most demanding organizations in the world.  The old adage that “you are known by the company you keep” comes to mind.  It also leads to asking the question . . . who do you rely on to provide visibility into your supply chain practice.

PI Window on Business Special Broadcast (For Want of a Nail: The Pandemic Effect)

Be sure to mark Tuesday, May 26^th on your calendars so that you will remember to tune in to the first of four PI Window on Business 90-minute Specials.  In this initial Special titled “For Want of a Nail: The Pandemic Effect,” I will be joined by Nick Kelley, a researcher from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and the lead author of the November 2008 white paper “Pandemic Influenza, Electricity, and the Coal Supply Chain (Addressing Crucial Preparedness Gaps in the United States), to discuss the true nature of the latest swine flu crisis in terms of its potential impact on supply chains.  It is a show you will not want to miss!

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