Working together frequently asked era questions

“ How could an
outside consultant
know enough
about our business
to come in and tell
“
us how to run it?

Working Together
The Importance of Client Relations

The Consultants from Expense Reduction Analysts know that you
might have concerns about an outsider coming in to work at your
company. We ask you to read this brochure, which addresses many
of the concerns employees have about our business. Give us a
chance to put your mind at ease and show you the ways we can
help you while helping your company improve its bottom line.

Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) is an international network of
more than 700 expert expense reduction Consultants. We find
savings in overhead expenses that contribute to increased profits,
with no sacrifice in budgets, staffing, operational efficiencies or
quality of service.

ERA Consultants have offices in 30 countries and have performed
more than 14,000 successful expense-reduction projects.

Q. Why would we need a Consultant Q. How could an outside Consultant data enables persuasive benchmarking
to cut costs when we have know enough about our business to capabilities. Suppliers cannot argue with
people in our organization who come in and tell us how to run it? data of this quality and scope.
are responsible for this and who Our recommendations are always based When you invite us to work with you,
already do an excellent job? on thorough, unbiased investigations. you no longer need to worry about
Our Consultants are industry experts who the possibility of jeopardizing your
A remarkable job, actually, especially relationship with incumbent suppliers,
when you consider their many other know exactly what to look for in contracts,
invoices and statements for dozens of and you no longer have to suffer through
responsibilities. those awkward moments that can occur
overhead expense categories. We would
With hundreds of Consultants in our never claim to be experts in your business during price negotiations. ERA’s broad
network, benchmarking data from over – but we ARE experts in ours. category expertise and knowledge about
14,000 cost-reduction projects under our the marketplace put us in the driver’s
belts, and a proven proprietary process, seat during negotiations. You can feel
ERA offers a deep level of professional confident that you are getting the very
Q. What can an ERA Consultant do best value, and comfortable that a
expertise in dozens of overhead cost that we can’t?
categories that most companies cannot professional and unbiased third party is
possibly afford to employ internally. We leverage the data we’ve amassed executing fair and equitable negotiations
And, in many companies, purchasing from our 14,000 successful cost- on your behalf.
is just one of an employee’s many reduction projects to negotiate the best
ERA uses a systematic proven process
responsibilities, and commonly his/her value for your company. We find that
that combines cutting-edge analysis tools
focus is only on core costs. At ERA, companies who do perform their own
with deep expertise and category know-
reducing the cost of non-core overhead benchmarking exercises internally tend to
how. Our proprietary process results in
expenses is ALL WE DO. benchmark against themselves or against
best-in-class cost scenarios that clearly
a limited-size universe. And while they
illustrate suppliers’ capabilities and allow
may succeed in reducing a supplier’s
us to optimize value for you.
cost, they may already be overpaying.
The sheer volume of ERA’s market

“Without sacrificing quality of service, “NutriSystem believes in its clients and is there to help them
ERA has been able to optimize our every step of the way. I was struck by similarities in ERA’s
business model to ours. Consultants helped NutriSystem
resources. I would recommend ERA as
every step of the way. They helped us implement the new
an excellent choice for support in the
processing system and for the next 18 months monitored
management of expenses.” our progress to make sure we remained on track.”
~ uan Felipe Gómez, Regional Manager - Treasury and
J
~ Kathleen Simone, Controller, NutriSystem, Pennsylvania
Financial Analysis, SAP Andean and Caribbean

We monitor supplier compliance for 18 to Q. What exactly do ERA for these services. This gives us a huge
24 months to be sure you get what was Consultants do? advantage when negotiating with
agreed to (we are very good at catching suppliers, because we often know the
mispriced items!). We know the supplier’s ERA Consultants improve their client’s supplier’s business as well as – if not
business, so we know what to ask for profitability by reducing common even better than – the supplier does.
(e.g., we can freeze your costs when there overhead costs - like insurance and office
are manufacturer price increases, get you supplies - and by increasing value for
the client. There is no reduction in the
average discounts for non-contract items, Q. What kinds of business expenses
leverage substitutions – the list goes on.) quality of your goods and services, and
do ERA Analysts look at?
frequently there is even an improvement.
We take the pain out of the process. Average savings across categories is Overhead expenses such as freight,
We implement and monitor supply nearly 20%. packaging, insurance, printing,
agreements (a suitable role for a merchant card processing fees,
Consultant), and then give you the tools telecommunications, janitorial services,
you need to manage the ongoing supplier Q. How do they do that? laundry, temporary labor, uniforms, waste
relationship after we’re done. We do the management, small package freight, etc.
Our analysts are experts from various
work – YOU make the decisions. We’ve done everything from a merchant
industries. We bring relevant experience
card processing fee project for a multi-
to clients. For example, the ERA
billion dollar company to a courier
network has Consultants with dozens
project for a small sausage manufacturer,
of years of high-level experience in
and everything in between. There has
telecommunications. These people have
yet to be an expense category that our
a deep knowledge of how that industry
expansive professional network hasn’t
works, and an insider’s understanding
been able to tackle!
of its services and pricing structure. To
top it off, we have gathered invaluable
benchmark data that shows how much
money businesses like yours are paying

“ERA is about implementation “Our own people in charge of “We will now save both time
of proposals. And they freight have been most happy and money while continuing
to have ERA assist them. They,
continue to analyze and to provide the highest
too, were impressed by ERA’s
report after the approach and welcomed cost quality service because of
implementation.” improvements without negative the work done by ERA.”
~ alph Decker, CFO, ER Cleaners,
R consequences on client service.” ~ ary Kay Sweeney, Executive Director,
M
New Hampshire Homeward Bound of Marin, California
~ iek Dudink, Operations Director,
N
Stryker

Expense Reduction Analysts offers many advantages
• only is Expense Reduction
Not • ERA has amassed • Consultants in the ERA
Analysts the largest cost- benchmarking data from more network don’t just deliver a
reduction consultancy in the than 14,000 successful cost- recommendation then hit the
world, the depth and breadth reduction projects worldwide, road – they actually implement
of experience throughout ERA’s and uses it to compare what the recommendation and audit
international network of 700+ you’re paying to what like and monitor the results for up
Consultants is hard to match. companies are paying for the to two full years to be sure the
same goods and services. client is getting the pricing the
• Consultants come from high- supplier contractually agreed to.
level positions in varied • ERA Consultants regularly
industries and bring their approach projects as joint • ERA uses cutting-edge
insider’s knowledge of ventures, to assure clients get proprietary procurement
that industry to negotiate the most qualified expense tools that facilitate optimal
masterfully with your suppliers. category experts on their decision making.
projects and, consequently, the
largest savings possible.

• ERA Consultants work on
contingency. We’re so confident
that we will find savings for
your company that we won’t
earn a fee unless we succeed;
the client has absolutely
nothing to lose and everything
to gain.

ERA’s cost savings projects often have positive, vs. negative, ramifications on staff.
For example, ERA was once able to save a company a significant percentage on
its health insurance premiums. The company decided to share the savings with
its employees by reducing monthly employee contributions. And, to top it off, the
employees ended up with even better health plan coverage!

Q. If ERA finds a huge cost savings, Q. What kind of tools do you use? possibly know. And we have reams of
face it, it could make the person benchmarks to give us the negotiating
ERA uses a proprietary suite of tools
responsible for purchasing look edge.
called Procurion. It does everything from
bad. Have any internal purchasing analyzing consumables to soliciting,
tracking and managing the bid process.
employees ever lost their jobs? Q. Doesn’t cutting costs lead to a cut
After Procurion creates a detailed
Not in our experience. ERA Consultants spreadsheet of the quantitative results in quality?
can only get a project done by partnering of the bidding exercise, Consultants Our goal is to provide cost-reducing
with the client’s internal purchasing or perform a qualitative analysis that solutions to our clients that deliver the
administrative team. We come in as a integrates supplier competencies and best value. It’s not a matter of finding the
resource and assistant to the purchasing your company’s concerns about that lowest bid – in fact, 90% of the time the
specialists. Conversely, we use purchasing particular expense category into the lowest bid does NOT win the contract.
specialists as a sounding board and advisor decision process.
when we need information and guidance. Our goal always is to maintain quality and
Our Consultants combine tools, expertise, reduce cost. Often we are able to improve
To have a successful project, Consultants analytical savvy and negotiating skill to quality without increasing cost. Then
from ERA rely on your help. So much synthesize the rich information they have there are the times we both improve
do we value our clients’ internal staff generated, and use it to improve your quality AND reduce costs!
that ERA abstains from any cost-cutting company’s bottom line.
projects that involve staff reduction. In
an article called “Creative Cost-Cutting Q. What is ERA’s process and how
Tactics for Small Biz” in November 2008’s We already do everything possible would the employees participate?
edition of Forbes, ERA’s Chief Executive to keep costs controlled. First we gather data from your general
Officer Ken Hagerstrom points out how
eliminating staff during a bad economy Smart business people do their best to ledger, thoroughly analyze what your
puts a company at a great disadvantage control costs. But it’s a lot of work and company is spending and present your
when the economy improves. it’s a full-time job, so they tend to focus company with a report that identifies
on core expenditures; rarely do they have expense categories with savings
In short, we are NOT a replacement for the time or manpower to analyze the potential. If your company decides
internal personnel. In fact, the employees non-core expenses associated with the to proceed based on our findings, we
with whom we work and successfully day-to-day operation of their business initiate, track and manage the bid
partner usually share the credit for (utilities, telecom, janitorial, etc.). process and present you with a report
enabling the cost savings.
We are better equipped than most recommending a course of action.
When a client gets outstanding results companies to negotiate with suppliers We continue to work closely with your
from an ERA analysis it is because about overhead expenses. While company for the next 18-24 months to
of the powerful combination of its companies generally go out to bid maybe ensure that your company realizes the
employees’ aptitude and understanding once a year, we perform hundreds of bids negotiated cost savings. Our commitment
of the internal workings with the ERA in all expense categories every week, and to “sticking around” and helping out for
Consultant’s analytical abilities and we speak with suppliers all the time. We the ensuing year-and-a-half+ distinguishes
category expertise, benchmarking data come from these suppliers’ industries; we ERA from virtually all other cost
and sophisticated analysis tools. know the insider jargon clients couldn’t reduction consultants.

“The most organized, most professional and most “ERA delivered a great result and
guaranteed results-oriented of the number of put new supply and service-level
expense reduction companies we looked at. We agreements into place where none had
have not been disappointed.” previously existed.”
– Benes, President, Catalyst Manufacturing Services,
Jeff ~ Graeme Brown, CFO, EziBuy, Australia
North Carolina

Q. Do you have relationships with so they might win the bid in the future.
certain vendors that help you get Suppliers see the ERA Consultant as an
cost savings for your clients? unbiased partner who keeps the playing
field level - which is exactly what we do.
No. We are an unbiased third party with
no preferred vendors. We derive 100% of
our revenues from our proportion of the We’ve been with some of our
savings we implement for our clients. We suppliers for years. I wouldn’t want
are very much aware of the importance of
to change.
supplier relations and work hard to build
trust and collaboration with yours. We respect clients’ loyalties to their
suppliers, and we are happy to simply re-
negotiate current agreements with them
We have a good relationship with if changing is not an option or a desire.
our suppliers. I trust them to do Again, 60% of the time the client ends
right by us. up with the incumbent supplier anyway!
Management consultant and author Peter Throughout our project we give each
Drucker once said: “My greatest strength Yes, but they know more than you know supplier’s product or service the attention
as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask about their product or service, and this it deserves, so you don’t have to. If there
a few questions.” We will ask questions gives them the advantage in the buyer- are savings to be had, you don’t have
about your company’s priorities; we will seller relationship. ERA Consultants know to feel awkward about asking for them,
ask the accounts payable and purchasing as much as – often more than – suppliers because we do that for you.
departments to help us understand your in non-core cost categories. We use our
company’s purchasing processes and to benchmark information to deliver the
gather and understand your company’s kind of competitive pressure that keeps Q. I’m beginning to see the value
data. And, of course, we want to get to supplier bids on track. This way, the trust – what if I have more questions?
meet everyone who would be involved you have in them is earned and validated
in a cost-reduction project. over time. We have found that in 60% We look to you as the organization’s
of our projects the incumbent keeps the expert, and hope you see us as a valuable
business, only at a lower cost to the client. resource you can use to help manage
Q. What is your fee? overhead costs.
There is no out-of-pocket charge for We know that the appearance of a
our analysis. We are so confident in our Q. Does it ever get contentious with Consultant often causes concern. Talk
ability to find savings that we work on a the suppliers? to us. Ask us hard questions. If we are
contingency basis. The only way we get Even as we apply powerful competitive going to work together, we need you to
paid is if we find savings, and then we pressure needed to optimize savings for feel comfortable and to trust us so that
keep a percentage of the savings that are you, ERA Consultants work very hard your company ends up with the best
realized during the course of the project. to build strong relationships with your possible results.
After that, the client keeps all of the suppliers. We go as far as to debrief
savings. Talk about a win-win situation! suppliers who do not win the contract, to
help them understand what they need to
do to be competitive in the marketplace

A supplier says: “Diamond Staffing, Inc. has had an exceptional relationship with ERA over
the past two years. We have participated in many staffing RFP’s from local
level to a national level. From the initial start of the RFP process through
the implementation stages ERA is always available, ready to assist, and
100% involved in the day to day success of both Diamond Staffing, Inc. as
well as their clients. It is refreshing to see a company determined to satisfy
both ends of its business, the client as well as the potential vendor.”
~ Dani DelleChiaie-Baldassarre, Director of Business Development, Diamond Staffing, Inc.

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