Strategic sourcing

From sourcing to vendor selection

Get in touch

What is strategic sourcing?
Your needs
Our methodology
What to expect from strategic sourcing support
Strategic sourcing: the don’ts

Finding and chosing the right suppliers

Strategic sourcing is essential for companies looking to:

optimize their understanding of their supplier markets
mitigate risks in their supplier base

It involves a comprehensive approach to map the supplier markets and their capabilities, conducting thorough sourcing exercises, and selecting the best vendors for tendering based on tailored criteria.

Strategic sourcing does not only focus on prices and cost-cutting, but also helps you mitigating risks, capturing innovation, assessing capabilities and enhancing supplier relationships.

Your needs

(Re)discover the supplier markets Rediscover your supplier market to reduce risks, strengthen partnerships, and drive innovation through strategic sourcing.
Learn more
Manage risks Diversifying your suppliers ensures a derisked supply, essential to ensure business continuity.
Learn more
Optimize value By analyzing expenditures and supplier performances, we help you uncover inefficiencies, duplicate costs, and areas for potential savings.
Learn more
Outsource tendering expertise Outsource your tendering process to Altesia for a structured, efficient, and results-driven RFP.
Learn more

Our methodology

From defining your business needs to selecting the right vendors, we ensure that each decision is informed by data, aligned with your strategic goals, and focused on long-term value creation.

Our methodology combines business intelligence, risk management, and human-centric expertise to secure reliable, high-performing supplier partnerships.

01
Definition of your business needs
A successful sourcing exercise begins with clearly defining your business needs and requirements, challenging them when needed. This involves:

 
- Aligning internal stakeholders:
  Collaborate with key stakeholders identified based on the project’s scope and strategic importance to the company.
- Preventing miscommunication:
  Ensure clear communication and approved governance to enhance effectiveness and swift decision making.
- Identifying potential challenges early:
  Address issues proactively to avoid future obstacles.
02
Market Analysis
We help you understand the supplier market through:
- Deep business intelligence:
  We gather and analyze critical data to understand market trends and supplier capabilities. We perform extensive research within your industry to identify key players and emerging opportunities.
- Risk assessment and mitigation:
  We analyse risks within the industry and their associated market conditions.
03
Supplier evaluation and shortlisting
After an extensive supplier assessment, we create a shortlist of vendors based on their capabilities, expertise and experience. This step includes:
- Detailed competency assessment
- Identification of suitable candidates for a tender exercise
- Focused selection for further consideration
We always make sure to assess both « hard » skills and « soft » skills, with particular emphasis on the supplier’s customer-centric approach and service capabilities. We leverage our human-centric approach to provide pragmatic, operationally ready advices and support.
04
Structured tendering process
We manage the entire tendering process, including the creation of detailed specifications based on three main criteria:
- Technical:
  Ensuring technical requirements are clearly included in the tendering documentation
- Legal:
  Negotiating and structuring contracts, including GTCs, GDPR compliance, and other legal documents
- Commercial:
  Assessing costs, commercial terms, and delivery schedules
- The process also includes:
  quality audits,
  technical and financial competency checks,
  developing an evaluation matrix with internal clients to score vendors accurately.
05
Vendor selection
As the ultimate objective of the exercise, this process helps you select the best vendor based on:
- Assurance of supply
- Quality
- Service
- Cost
- Innovation
In addition, our negotiation expertise ensures clients achieve the best possible terms, leveraging external support to handle complex negotiations effectively.

The result of our Strategic sourcing support

Concrete deliverables include:

Analysis of the needs and internal supplier alignment
Market analysis report : Supplier landscape, benchmarks, trends, risks, opportunities.
Supplier shortlist : Longlist review, capability assessment, shortlist recommendation.
Tender documentation : RFP/RFI, technical/legal/commercial specs, evaluation matrix; capturing and defining needs accurately, plus coordination with internal teams to draft comprehensive specifications.
Vendor selection report :Scoring, comparison, final recommendation, negotiation outcomes; includes audit results, cost-structure analysis and actionable recommendations.
Decision support : Executive summary, TCO view, risks, final vendor choice & next steps.

Besides, you can expect the following outcomes:

Cost and risk reduction: Achieving tangible savings or risk mitigation in supplier expenditures.
Operational enhancements: Improving technical or operational performance to resolve internal conflicts and unlock efficiencies.
Business continuity: Ensuring ongoing operations and compliance to avoid potential penalties.

What we don’t do

To make sourcing both strategic and effective, we’re clear about what adds value, and what doesn’t. No-gos for us are for example:

❌No unnecessary supplier changes:
We don’t change your supplier panel just for the sake of it. Every change must have a clear, strategic benefit.

❌No superficial market studies:
We don’t conduct market studies without thoroughly verifying sources and ensuring the accuracy of the information.

❌No insignificant savings:
We won’t recommend changing suppliers for minor cost savings, as switching suppliers can sometimes cost more than it saves.

❌Not replacing your own technical expertise:
We don’t write the technical part of the specifications for you because you know your requirements best and need to maintain ownership. Once this is done, we assist by translating those technical specifications into an RFP, for example.

Tell us about your sourcing needs