Our role
To support Yorkshire Water in protecting and enhancing commercial value
Our deliverable
AI-enabled tooling for real-time cost control and intelligence
The outcome
Stronger cost controls, reducing commercial leakage and identifying efficiencies
How we helped Yorkshire Water transform the way it controls costs in its most complex areas of spend.
Setting the scene
Yorkshire Water manages a multi-billion pound asset base spending around £1.2bn each year across hundreds of operational contracts that underpin essential public services. With capital investment set to increase significantly in the next regulatory period, a new approach to commercial assurance was needed to manage rising commercial risk.
Like many organisations, it relied on traditional commercial assurance processes that were often manual and retrospective. As a result, issues were identified late, and operational teams lacked the evidence needed to challenge suppliers effectively. Yorkshire Water wanted a faster, more practical way to see risks in real time and make more informed commercial decisions.
Our work
We worked with Yorkshire Water’s commercial, procurement, finance and operational teams to bring contract terms, invoice data and operational information together in one place. The result was an AI-enabled capability, called Embedded Commercial Intelligence (ECI), that helped teams see where value was being lost across key supplier contracts.
Through practical day-in-the-life workshops, we mapped the moments where teams needed better evidence to make decisions or challenge suppliers. We then turned those risks into focused checks and designed dashboards around the day-to-day needs of contract managers.
We also cleaned and combined data from different systems, resolving issues such as inconsistent coding, missing fields, and supplier format differences. This gave teams a single view of commercial performance and helped them spot overbilling, non-compliance and operational inefficiencies earlier.
To make the changes stick, we supported teams with training, playbooks and clear ways of working, helping embed the approach into routine contract management.
"ECI will position us to be more value focused…and gives us the visibility of where there are cost efficiency opportunities and value leakage.”
Dave Mann
Head of Commercial Assurance, Yorkshire Water
Turning insight into action
Yorkshire Water can now check all relevant contract spend, up from around 10% before the programme was launched. This gives contract managers a clearer view of risk and helps them focus time on the areas where value is most at risk, as well as to test out ideas for performance improvement.
The work identified 2-3% commercial overpayments and delivered a 4:1 return through immediate recoveries, with potential to increase this to 12:1. Automated assurance also saved more than 30 hours a month on one key contract.
Yorkshire Water is now scaling the approach across almost 40 contracts, covering around 60% of supplier spend. Teams have clearer evidence to challenge suppliers, improve controls and act earlier.
The success of the programme has also been recognised externally. Yorkshire Water was highly commended in the Innovation in Supporting the Business to P2P Award at the P2P Transformation Summit, recognising the results achieved through its ECI programme and reinforcing the value of a more data-driven approach to commercial control.
Embedded Commercial Intelligence (ECI)
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