For CFOs and Finance Leaders
Your Revenue Pipeline Has a Forecast. Your Supplier Spend Should Too.
You can show the board where next year's revenue is expected to come from. Can you show them where your supplier cost reductions will come from, when they'll be realized, and who's responsible for delivering them?
K2 Sourcing helps finance and procurement leaders identify savings opportunities across external spend, build a prioritized pipeline with financial forecasts and execution schedules, and provide the capacity to deliver the results.
The CFO's Missing Forecast: Building a Supplier Savings Pipeline
Strategic Sourcing Capacity That Flexes With Demand
Procurement workloads are rarely consistent.
At the same time, category managers are balancing stakeholder meetings, supplier issues, contracts, strategy, negotiations, and daily business requirements. Valuable sourcing opportunities can remain in the pipeline simply because there is not enough execution capacity to move them forward.
K2 Sourcing provides experienced strategic sourcing capacity that expands or contracts with your pipeline.
Category managers gain access to sourcing professionals, specialized expertise, supplier intelligence, proven sourcing content, best practices, and technology as their needs change.
The result is access to a broader strategic sourcing capability without permanently staffing for peak demand.
One month
One category manager may need support with a single sourcing event.
The next month
Five category managers may require different expertise across different categories, regions, and supply markets.
A Proven Strategic Sourcing Process
K2 Sourcing supports projects through a structured seven step strategic sourcing process, adapting the approach to the specific need, category, supply market, stakeholder requirements, and sourcing objectives.
Stakeholder engagement is built throughout the process. K2 Sourcing works with business stakeholders to understand requirements, priorities, constraints, evaluation criteria, and implementation considerations before taking an opportunity to market.
Every project is also supported by K2 Sourcing best practices, more than 200 quality review points, and our own AI agents that help review sourcing work for completeness, consistency, and potential issues.
Identify & Prioritize Opportunities
Analyze spend, suppliers, contracts, market conditions, business requirements, and available data to identify sourcing opportunities and prioritize them based on potential value, risk, complexity, and timing.
Engage stakeholders early to understand business needs, operational requirements, existing supplier challenges, and the outcomes that matter most.
Support the Category Strategy
Support the strategic sourcing portion of the category strategy by helping define sourcing objectives, scope, timing, supply market approach, competitive strategy, business requirements, and key sourcing considerations.
RFI, Screening & Initial Qualification
Use a structured RFI to evaluate supplier capabilities, capacity, certifications, locations, technical fit, experience, and other project specific requirements before suppliers advance.
Stakeholder requirements are incorporated into the qualification process so suppliers are screened against the needs of the business, not simply commercial criteria.
RFP or RFQ & Negotiation
Develop and execute the competitive sourcing event using proven category templates, supplier requirements, pricing structures, and total cost models.
Manage supplier participation, responses, clarifications, stakeholder questions, and negotiations, including reverse auctions when appropriate.
Experience, process and proof
Why K2 Sourcing
Since 2003, K2 Sourcing has helped procurement teams complete important RFPs, RFQs, reverse auctions and supplier negotiations when they need additional capacity, exceptional technology or an independent party to manage the process.
Every managed project is led by a dedicated strategic sourcing project manager using the same strategic sourcing platform, templates, reporting tools and documented quality processes refined across thousands of engagements. Our team members average more than 12 years of strategic sourcing experience and have individually managed hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of competitive sourcing projects.
Hundreds of Category Specific Templates
K2 Sourcing maintains category specific RFP templates, questionnaires, pricing tables, scoring models and total cost models developed through consulting and managed engagements. Each can be customized to the client’s business requirements, project goals and approval process.
“They have absolutely perfected the process.”Joe SwansonVice President of Operations, Regal Ware
Strategic Sourcing Expertise Across the Organization
K2 Sourcing supports sourcing across the full range of organizational spend, from direct materials, plant operations, MRO, and logistics to IT, software, workforce services, professional services, marketing, and other corporate spend.
As your sourcing pipeline changes, K2 Sourcing can bring in the category and supply market expertise needed for each opportunity.
Strategic Sourcing Results
MRO Transformation Across Five Manufacturing Plants
A Tier 2 automotive manufacturer had more than $5 million in addressable MRO spend fragmented across five plants, multiple purchasing systems, suppliers, and thousands of items.
K2 Sourcing consolidated and categorized the spend, rationalized requirements, executed five competitive RFPs, and helped implement standardized supplier and buying programs across the locations.
Results: More than 18% cost reduction, 40% fewer suppliers, and 30% fewer purchase order to invoice transactions.
Compliance Software RFP Changes the Supplier Decision
A pharmaceutical company entered a compliance software sourcing initiative with stakeholders already leaning toward a preferred supplier.
K2 Sourcing developed a structured RFP, standardized requirements and pricing, facilitated independent stakeholder scoring, challenged supplier assumptions, and conducted multiple rounds of clarification and negotiation.
The evidence ultimately led the company to select a different supplier with a better overall fit.
Results: Approximately 12% below opening supplier pricing, plus additional training, support, configuration assistance, stronger cancellation rights, and improved payment terms.
Global CNC Machining RFP Delivers More Than 20% Savings
A global manufacturer with seven plants faced increasing cost pressure, tariffs, and supply risk but lacked the internal capacity to execute a highly leveraged global CNC machining RFP.
K2 Sourcing identified and qualified suppliers across multiple regions, managed the RFI and global RFP, developed total landed cost models in Cloud Source, conducted competitive negotiations, and supported supplier quality validation.
Results: More than 20% total landed cost savings, new qualified suppliers, improved incumbent pricing, reduced China sourcing exposure, and executive approval to expand the sourcing program.
What Our Clients Say
"The findings of K2 Sourcing allowed our organization as a whole to see immediate gains as well as long-range savings impacts."
Ralph Hardt, President, Jagemann Stamping
"Greatly appreciate the work completed by your team."
Jim Denomme, COO, MTL Holdings
"K2 Sourcing helped save the company millions of dollars."
Richard Odell, Commodity Manager, PerkinElmer
"K2 Sourcing went beyond any kind of expectations of myself and Big Lots."
Adam Bauer, Commodity Manager, Big Lots
"K2 Sourcing has produced cost savings results on every project that I have worked with Them on."
Al Eilers, Procurement Leader, RocklineFrequently Asked Questions
Can K2 Sourcing help identify and prioritize sourcing opportunities?
Yes. K2 Sourcing can analyze spend, suppliers, contracts, market conditions, and other available information to help identify and prioritize sourcing opportunities.
As part of an ongoing engagement, K2 Sourcing can also work with your procurement team to maintain the sourcing pipeline, identify new opportunities, and help prioritize projects based on potential value, timing, risk, complexity, and available resources.
This allows K2 Sourcing capacity to shift as business priorities and the sourcing pipeline change.
Does K2 Sourcing replace our category managers?
No. K2 Sourcing extends the capacity and capabilities of the existing procurement organization.
Category managers retain ownership of strategy, stakeholder relationships, and supplier decisions while K2 Sourcing provides additional sourcing expertise, project leadership, and execution capacity.
Can K2 Sourcing help find new suppliers?
Yes, when additional suppliers would improve the sourcing strategy.
Some clients specify exactly which suppliers should participate. Others ask K2 Sourcing to identify additional sources of competition.
When supplier discovery is needed, K2 Sourcing can research, contact, screen, and initially qualify potential suppliers across domestic, nearshore, and international supply markets.
Does our team need to learn Cloud Source?
No. K2 Sourcing practitioners operate Cloud Source as part of delivering the sourcing service.
Category managers and stakeholders can receive view access so they can monitor event status, supplier participation, progress, analysis, and results without having to deploy, administer, or learn another sourcing system.
Does K2 Sourcing support implementation?
When needed. K2 Sourcing can support award documentation, supplier transition, and implementation activities.
Many engagements conclude with a complete sourcing recommendation and handoff to the client's procurement team for implementation.
Turn More of Your Sourcing Pipeline Into Results
Expand your strategic sourcing capacity as demand changes without permanently expanding headcount.
K2 Sourcing provides the people, expertise, supplier intelligence, proven sourcing content, and technology to help move more high value opportunities through the sourcing pipeline.
Have a question about our sourcing services or application? Give us a call or fill out the form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
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