About

Our client, a leading global manufacturer with complex multinational operations, sought to harmonize and optimize its corporate payment card programs. With multiple card types across all regions, the existing setup included varied supplier contracts, inconsistent processes, and fragmented data reporting.

The company engaged our firm to lead a global RFP and redesign initiative, aiming to achieve significant financial value, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen governance across its card program.

Ambition

The client aimed to achieve five key outcomes:

1. Financial optimization: Maximize rebates and overall financial value across all card types while streamlining cash management and working capital.
2. Operational excellence: Standardize issuance, administration, reconciliation, and reporting processes globally, reducing inefficiencies.
3. Compliance, risk management, and control: Strengthen governance, audit processes, and internal controls while mitigating operational and regulatory risks.
4. User experience and stakeholder engagement: Simplify cardholder processes and improve visibility into spend patterns through reporting and analytics.
5. Strategic growth and innovation: Expand program coverage, adopt new payment technologies, and embed digital and sustainable solutions.

The overarching goal was to implement a global card program that delivers measurable financial and operational value while enabling a scalable, compliant, and user-friendly solution.

Approach

We adopted a multi-phase, structured methodology combining strategic insight, market intelligence, and negotiation expertise:

• Data consolidation & analysis: Reviewed historical spend, card types, contracts, and forecasts across all regions.
• Stakeholder interviews & alignment: Conducted in-depth sessions with treasury, finance, procurement, and operational teams to clarify objectives and decision-making criteria.
• Market & supplier benchmarking: Evaluated global and regional card issuers on coverage, financial value, service quality, technology, and reporting capabilities.
• RFP design & execution: Managed a multi-round RFP, including strategy development, supplier evaluation, scoring, and negotiation support.
• Financial modeling & risk assessment: Assessed potential incentives, rebates, fees, and contractual risks, ensuring alignment with the client’s objectives.
• Implementation planning: Designed a phased global rollout and governance framework, integrating card programs with expense management and procurement systems.

Strategic Diagnosis

Key insights from the engagement included:

• Fragmented operations: Existing card programs varied widely by region, with inconsistent policies, reporting capabilities, and supplier contracts.
• Under-leveraged financial opportunities: Prior agreements did not fully capture rebate potential or additional incentives, limiting program value.
• Complex decision-making: Internal alignment and clarity on responsibilities were inconsistent, creating delays and occasional miscommunications with suppliers.
• Supplier dynamics: Some providers sought preferential treatment, requiring careful negotiation management to protect the client’s interests.

Achievement

With our guidance, the client:

• Secured exceptional financial outcomes: Selected a primary card issuer offering $4.5M in annual rebates, representing a 65% uplift versus the previous baseline of $2.7M, and a $6M signing bonus over five years. Additional fringe benefits included platinum cards for C-level executives (~$140K in value), waived fees, and process improvement credits.
• Improved operational readiness: Developed streamlined, standardized processes for card issuance, reconciliation, and reporting across all regions, supported by automation credits equivalent to 4 outsourced FTEs (~$500K annually).
• Enhanced governance and risk management: Implemented a global policy framework, internal controls, and quarterly performance reviews. For the first time, the program is underpinned by formal SLAs, ensuring consistent quality and accountability from suppliers.
• Aligned stakeholders and suppliers: Facilitated internal alignment and navigated supplier negotiations, overcoming triangulation and miscommunication challenges.
• Set the program up for long-term success: Established a phased implementation roadmap integrating with expense, procurement, and meeting & event systems, ensuring smooth adoption and scalability.
• Enabled smarter decision-making: Leveraged proprietary tools and AI-powered analytics to process large volumes of qualitative supplier data across countries. The client was equipped with a dynamic evaluation tool that provided global visibility while allowing focus on country-level details, supported by AI-generated summaries that made complex proposals accessible and comparable for executives.

Learnings & Next Steps

This project highlights several key lessons:

• Expert negotiation and market knowledge can materially improve financial outcomes and program design.
• Careful stakeholder alignment is critical in complex, multinational sourcing initiatives to prevent miscommunication and ensure timely decisions.
• Phased implementation, robust governance, and clear integration plans enable sustainable program success and adoption.

Our value

We delivered measurable impact by maximizing financial incentives, improving program governance, and enabling long-term operational success. Our guidance ensured the client captured opportunities they would not have achieved independently, while establishing a foundation for ongoing program excellence.