Project description: Sparkasse Duisburg

Sparkasse Duisburg

Balance sum: around € 5.4 billions

Employees: 1.251 (thereof 77 trainees)

With numerous branches, Sparkasse Duisburg extensively maintains direct contact with its customers throughout the country. In a region characterized by structural change, a high-performance credit institution is particularly important. Aware of its responsibility towards the region, Sparkasse Duisburg is regarded as a reliable employer and instructor. Sparkasse Duisburg also appears regularly as a promoter and/or sponsor, supports the local economy with its commitment and makes a considerable contribution in cultural, sporting and social areas in Duisburg and Kamp-Lintfort. Sparkasse Duisburg is a special-purpose association and emerged from the former Stadtsparkassen Duisburg and Kamp-Lintfort.

Sparkasse Duisburg about the project:

• “The project result far exceeded the original savings targets. An additional added value was the detailed data preparation, which offers us comprehensive transparency in our purchasing requirements beyond the project,” says Dr. Joachim K. Bonn, Chairman of the Board of Sparkasse Duisburg.
• Damir Michael Lukacevic, quality and process manager at Sparkasse Duisburg as well as project manager, explains, “The open and transparent communication of the Kloepfel team with the project management and all relevant specialist departments is also worth mentioning.”

Starting point:

The objective of the procurement cost optimization project was to examine the existing processes and structures of the savings bank and to identify potential savings. All in all, all topics in the area of material and overhead costs were discussed, with a special focus on the topics of cleaning services, office supplies and canteen.

Challenges in the project:

The greatest challenge in the course of the project was to solve existing reservations in the respective specialist departments regarding changes in purchasing relevant processes and to implement sustainable process improvements. The consideration of the local solidarity of the savings bank and the fact that service providers and suppliers are often long-term business customers also had a decisive influence on the project. Last but not least, the available data situation in the company made the initial analyses more difficult and required increased efforts to create the necessary transparency.

Target achievement:

Particularly in the area of cleaning services, considerable savings potential could be achieved by concentrating on one existing service provider. Overall, a change of supplier was only carried out for office supplies and printed materials. Since there were no possibilities to switch to alternative service providers in the other areas, the focus was not only on personal negotiations but also on the analysis of processes and structures. This made it possible to sensitize the specialist departments to a more precise examination and evaluation of the processes and supplier relationships and to achieve further savings.

Conclusion:

Although the Sparkasse was generally skeptical at the beginning of the project about accessibility of the identified potentials, the intensive involvement of the individual persons from the individual specialist departments enabled a very constructive cooperation very quickly. In total all expectations were exceeded by far.