Cosentino Advances in Its Digital Agenda by Enhancing Functions in the Purchasing Area

About Cosentino

Cosentino, a Spanish family business with a global presence that produces and distributes innovative and sustainable high-value surfaces for the world of architecture and design, is known for integrating sustainability into its corporate and purchasing strategy.

The Group has 157 business units and 126 Centers worldwide. Its Centers are an example of the company’s total commitment to customers, combining the functions of warehouse, brand and product display, and distribution network. These facilities host specialized training courses depending on the different professionals they serve: builders, architects, interior designers, design professionals and owners of kitchen and bathroom studios.

If I had to define JAGGAER with a single word, I would choose ‘flexibility’. Our daily challenge is to provide an agile and dynamic experience, and for the internal customer to feel involved in this digital transformation, eliminating bureaucracy as much as possible and always adapting to the dynamics of the Group.

Juan Carlos Gallardo, Global Head of Suppliers and Processes at Cosentino Group

Challenge

With a current network of more than 15,000 suppliers, the company’s international expansion and activity made it necessary to unify its procurement operations, including supplier management.

In 2017, the UNE 15896 standard for Value-Added Purchasing Management was certified. This is the starting point for a global digital transformation in which the purchasing strategy is aligned with the company’s global one. A year later, Cosentino implemented its first purchasing platform.

In view of the changes and its spirit of continuous transformation, the company decided to migrate to the JAGGAER platform for its purchasing and supplier management operations in 2023 and thus meet its functional needs, which are above all to achieve agility and flexibility in its processes.

From a shared value perspective, Cosentino makes significant progress in its objectives by implementing digital purchasing and supplier management processes, using JAGGAER solutions.

“Our purchasing area, always in constant evolution, is based on a pillar of pragmatism,” says Juan Carlos Gallardo, Global Head of Suppliers and Processes at the Cosentino Group. “We needed solutions that were easy to implement, simple, global and very agile. And always be adapting to each situation in real time, wherever it comes from”, in addition to achieving an adequate and fluid user experience for customers.

Solution

During supplier qualification, the platform ensures that suppliers meet all the necessary requirements to work with Cosentino (administrative data, ESG criteria, etc.). The supplier status information is in real time and always up-to-date. This is achieved through scorecards, which are required for the approval of each supplier and are used to ascertain their real-time status.

In RFX processes, the forms vary depending on the type of purchase, as do the award criteria. The platform ensures that all the necessary information is completed and reflected based on the specific purchase and its value. They have certain approvals for each of the processes. The purchasing processes are thus well structured and the follow-up by all departments is always carried out within the JAGGAER platform.

Results

With its transformation and migration to the JAGGAER platform, Cosentino has achieved agility and flexibility, as well as a greater degree of adoption by the purchasing department: “None of the 40 purchasing managers carry out purchasing processes outside the platform,” says Gallardo.

In addition, and in line with the UNE 15896 and ISO20400: 2017 regulations on sustainable procurement, the company has significantly reduced management times, simplifying procedures and drastically reducing manual tasks. As an example, in the most sensitive negotiation processes, it has eliminated the workload of completing up to 1,700 Excel sheets per year, about 20 minutes of management per sheet. 

For Cosentino, the competitive advantage of digital transformation is found in the company itself against its competitors, and in compliance with regulations, transparency and supply chain traceability: “This is reflected in peace of mind and loyalty in our customers, who consider you to be doing things the way they want,” says Gallardo.

The next steps are to unify within JAGGAER processes that are currently in other local systems, such as contract management or non-conformance management.

In addition, Cosentino’s strategic collaboration with JAGGAER and EcoVadis allows global visibility in decision-making and the centralisation of information. Looking ahead, Cosentino has set a goal to have its top 300 most critical suppliers evaluated by EcoVadis, 50 more than at present.

As Gallardo concludes, “we are ready to grow; the JAGGAER platform allows us to incorporate more processes, such as non-conformance management or contract management. We have embarked on a platform that will allow us to grow, centralize and simplify processes, standardizing all on a single platform.”