Client background

The client is a proprietary trading firm with approximately 2,000 employees. They are headquartered in Chicago, IL and operate globally. The client’s trading desks execute high-frequency automated trades by using powerful computing resources to process complex algorithms. To enable trading desks’ high-frequency trades, the purchasing department facilitates purchases of intangible assets including data and software.

The business challenge

The client’s purchasing department operated inefficiently due to siloed, outdated processes which lacked proper documentation, resulting in duplicative work and an excessive reliance on manual procedures. They sought assistance in enhancing their internal system to streamline operations by documenting clear workflows, standardizing operating procedures and planning improvement initiatives.

Strategy and solution

Baker Tilly shadowed client operations to document current-state intangibles purchasing workflows, conducted workshops to identify potential improvement opportunities, and developed a solution road map to effectively address the client’s pain-points.

Baker Tilly met with the client’s purchasing department to observe how day-to-day operations are performed. Five core end-to-end processes were documented in visual workflow diagrams and standard operating procedure documents were developed. This process documentation will be used by the client for standardization, communication and training.

During the workshops, Baker Tilly facilitated activities to assist the client to articulate their pain-points, defined the root cause of the issues, discussed high-priority areas requiring the most attention and brainstormed solution ideas by collaboratively envisioning the client’s perfect future-state operations.

After the workshops, Baker Tilly identified three main themes of improvement activities: internal systems optimization, process standardization and contract renewal automation. Various recommended activities were aligned to each theme to improve the internal purchasing processes. To enable execution and momentum, the activities were prioritized in a matrix which compared relative business value against implementation difficulty.

Following this phase of work, the implementation road map was implemented to enable the client to achieve the following:

• Formalized processes for purchasing intangible assets
• Reduced workload for the purchasing team
• Enhanced data reliability in contract management systems
• Decreased ticket response time
• Elevated purchasing team training for more efficient systems usage
• Increased completion and accuracy of purchase requests
• Easier data visualization, monitoring and performance measurements
• Better contract management, enabling cost-effective license procurement