EP 12: Provider of the Week: Una

0:15Hi, welcome to Art of Procurement's Provider of the Week. I'm your host, Jothi Hartley. These conversations shine a light on the established providers shaping, scaling and continuously evolving the procurement ecosystem. In just 20 minutes, we explore how each organization's expertise, service model, market impact and the ways they help procurement teams solve real business challenges. Our Provider and Startup of the Week episodes are the only formats of R2 Procurement that focus specifically on a company's offerings and value proposition. Today, we are featuring Oona. Oona is a group purchasing organization, GPO, centralizing buying power to deliver increased cost savings with less time and effort.

1:08una enables procurement teams to leverage the collective buying power of a gpo to secure better pricing discounts and contract terms while drawing from a large supplier network and to tell us more i'm delighted to welcome anthony clervy managing partner anthony is an experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of executing and providing value within the group purchasing industry. Anthony is skilled in everything from sales and marketing to strategy and leadership and even to competitive sports. His keen insights, strong business background and go-getter attitude drive the vision of the entire Oona team.

1:52Anthony, thank you so much for joining me as our provider of the week. Thank you, Jossie. What an intro. I already feel better about myself. Great. Well, Let's start us off then. So for anyone who may not be familiar, please tell us what does Oona do today and how has your offering evolved over time? Yes, of course. I mean, your intro was great. It's very similar to how we describe ourselves when we're having opening conversations with members, you know, primarily in this group purchasing space, which we kind of has positioned ourselves. I'll say we're a part of procurement. We play our role and kind of like to know our lane.

2:31And specifically, we're helping organizations of all shapes and sizes around indirect spend. So we leverage billions and billions of buying power. Like you said, we have negotiated terms and pricing that's expected from our members and primarily working with an enterprise, hospitality and then selected parts of healthcare. And so we've been doing this, or I've been a part of this for almost 15 years. The concept of GPOs has been around for almost 100 years, primarily initiated in the genesis in healthcare. But it's been quite a journey trying to identify, you know, where, what categories kind of could be the most helpful or opportunistic for certain members.

3:12And we kind of look at it in a tripod scenario. So, hey, we've got our organization or business or healthcare entity that we're trying to help. We need to make sure we're bringing value there. We also need to make sure there's alignment with our supplier, or supplier partner. We found if there's alignment for both terms, pricing, all the important details that would go into that, especially if you're looking at multiple locations across the country, then UNO wins. And so that's kind of what we, I'm simplifying it, but that's how we think about things. Okay, that's actually quite a lot. So if we think about the various challenges that procurement teams have, what would you say your best position to help organizations solve, obviously procurement being part of a wider organization?

3:58So some of the expectation we've seen, and not every category buyer or procurement manager or leader is thinking this way, but depending on the scope, there is an aspect of speed to savings because a lot of the contract is built. And so there's a lot of opportunity for us to build on top of that. So we see a lot of value in conversation. So there's a speed aspect. there's a negotiation aspect just because an indirect spend or tailspin or this maverick spend there typically isn't a lot of leverage for an organization um and then what we've also found is depending on the organization and depending on the supplier and spend and is there is there upside for that supplier partner is their new business is there incremental we can get creative so i think some of the negatives that we've seen or heard about gpos is that, you know, it's kind of boxy.

4:48I don't own it. Maybe I'm losing control. And that's just not always the case. So those are some of the things that we try to highlight. Speed, speed to savings, transparency. And frankly, not every GPO is a fit for every organization. And there's certain categories where we're really best in class. And so I'd say kind of the third or fourth thing we also try to bring is just continue transparency and honesty of, you know, maybe that's not a category that we're a fit for. Or maybe we can make an introduction here or have you thought about this? So those are the things that we try to think about.

5:21It sounds like you spend a bit of time educating as well and just sharing a bit more about how a GPO can work. So I think about and I think it's fair to say that there are a number of advisory firms now and providers in this space. So can you help us understand what really differentiates Una's approach? I think Guna's approach is a boutique firm. You know, we're not backed by private equity. We've been doing this for almost 15 years. We do try and I think do a pretty good job of how we present ourselves, the consultative approach, advisory approach. I've always used the kind of the metaphor analogy, you know, kind of the butcher versus dietician.

6:05The butcher just wants to sell you meat, right? The dietician wants to get to understand you better. What's going on with your body? What have you been eating this week? What is your exercise been like? And there's a full scope and picture. And we try to take that frame because there's areas where we can be helpful and there's areas where we're just not going to be best in class. But we want to talk to you about that. And maybe from a high level and there's a frame of perspective that we can bring that you even haven't thought of or maybe your stakeholders haven't been supportive of. Maybe we can provide data around that just to help you move forward on whatever initiatives you might have.

6:38So, again, maybe it's I grew up I went to a small college. So I kind of the final thing I would add is, you know, I was a name there. It wasn't just a number. So we try to make sure that we're engaging with everybody in this kind of handhold, very white glove approach that I think has differentiated us over the last 15 years. I mean, the name Una alone is simple. It's easy to remember. We want to make sure that your engagement interaction with us is always copacetic to that and aligns with that. Yeah, I like that analogy about what we're sort of treating the whole organization, treating the whole of procurement right the organization not just an isolated part of the the body um holistic uh approach it good okay thank you so i'm gonna be wrong sometimes if i could jump in there are category managers say hey you know i just need help in mro just to get into something i just need help in shipping or maybe it's a food distribution conversation we're getting into something uh that's not your typical indirect spend and we're happy to jump in on that but we do like to take it from a from a dietitian approach rather than just butcher let's just sell you some so okay so as the dietitian then how have you seen the client demand shifting over the past few years and and how has that influenced you as owner delivering that value so how's that in yeah how's that shaped your how you deliver well a couple things that come to mind is that i think is unfortunate there's a it seems to be a lot more pressure on procurement teams and a lot more reduction in force so a lot less a lot fewer resources so there is a speed component where we try to be how can we be helpful as and we've seen a lot of our let's say competitors in the space use similar language but there is a partnership or how can we come alongside you can we ask better questions to better understand what success looks like for you before we just jump into a recommendation.

8:35Maybe you just need a set of data. I mean, there's some apprehensive on our side, not to just be a benchmarking tool, but sometimes to build trust, you do need, you know, you have to give a little to take a little. And so we try to think through and understand better, ask better questions, be thoughtful, intentional. Sometimes you might only get one or two engagements because these folks are so busy. And so we're really cognizant of how trying to make sure it's easy to work with us, make sure we're asking intentional question, cognizant of, unfortunately, in the market, there seems to be fewer and fewer resources in this procurement and in other parts of an organization.

9:14And so I think that's where our direct approach of like, this is what we're good at. This is what we're not good at. Here's some of the technology we might be able to, that we can integrate with. Here's some of suppliers that are more forward thinking in that fashion. Here's some things you should consider. I don't know if I would use a GPO for this. So just again, it's that comprehensive advisory approach. How quickly can we turn information around? We try to match the speed of the organization, stay a couple steps ahead if we can. Just little things to make sure. It's amazing how you can rise to the top here, where the cream rises to the top by just doing what you say you're going to do and being honest about what you can't do.

9:57Yeah. It sounds like you're being a bit more than an outsourced partner. You are a bit of a critical friend. You're throwing that metaphorical arm around an organization and guiding them a little bit. I think empathy, too. Empathy is another word that maybe gets underused or overused. I can think of a lot of our members where we've had an engagement in a category and then we've tried to come back to them on some other things. and there's just uh it's not necessarily that we get de-prioritized which can happen right there's a lot of things coming at these folks especially if they don't have the resources to uh what they're being asked to do by by c-suite and then they're being you know budgets being reduced resources are being removed well and i think just having empathy around that um and just there's a there's a level of patience that's required um especially when implementation if you are going to do some change management.

10:52We don't always like it, but I think we try to, hey, how can we have empathy in this situation? And remember, what does, what did so-and-so say was success for them and making sure we're keeping that at the forefront. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So whether you typically engage with a procurement team, whether that's at the strategic level, like we've just been talking about, or transformation, or even at the ground, on the ground execution, and it could be a sourcing, project. And how does that role evolve over time? Yes. So we've seen it at all levels and we tend to find this and it's not a knock on any organization and I won't of course name names, but there's, there seems to be, there's a rush on a, Hey, I've been asked to look at this.

11:41So it's a bit reactive, not always. You know, we need to look at our EBITDA profitability or APS and we want to better understand you know our c-suite have stated that there's certain categories where gpos could be really helpful and so there could be an exploratory nature by as we've discussed maybe a senior buyer or a category manager um i i frankly can't keep up with all the titles i think they're great um i don't i don't know where all the procurement titles come from but we love to work with all of them on the various levels all inclusive all inclusive as relates to titles again where unic is expertise and where we've delivered is is more on the indirect side but we've just found we're happy to work with any title typically if it does start at c-suite or cpo level we might be working with director or category managers that are across multiple categories our process is pretty simple in the sense that you know starting with a spend cube or ap file and then if we can jump into some invoices and better understand if there's multiple locations involved what are the stakeholders like on the ground level are they are they aware that this change management might be coming um you know price uh is usually sensitive in a top five but it may not be the number one thing that they're looking at so it kind of gets back to like can we ask some questions before we start sharing data what are the timelines and expectations that you're looking at what have you heard that a gpo can and can't do because that may not actually be true on how una goes to market how una really has what capabilities we have because at the end of the day it's got to get back to that tripod like what we understand we can't look at our suppliers as just a vendor i mean so really kind of i'm allergic to the word uh because it kind of can be demeaning so how do we have supplier partners that has to be a win for them but we can but ultimately we're trying to serve our members so there's just there's a lot of dynamics and nuance in this space we're seeing a lot more pressure and margin compression.

13:43So we have to be even more sensitive to what our supplier partners are looking at. How do we make it a win for them? And then ultimately, a lot of what we do is expectation management. So whatever level it is, there's a series of expectations that the organization that we're engaging with has. There's expectations that we know what works for us, how to deliver. And again, we've got that great third priority, our supplier partner, that needs to be pulled in, the sooner that we can pull them in, the better we can execute from from beginning to end. So it's just a lot of things that we've learned almost, well, I've learned through more failure, of course, over the last 15 years of what works and doesn't work and how to have a successful engagement, I guess, is where I would land there.

14:29Yeah, and I think what we're talking about here is the value. So if we think about your long-standing clients then for a moment. What's the one capability area? What's the one, I guess, service delivery area that they see consistently delivering most value? What do they tell you? So what we hear is typically our communication, our expectation management, and one of our core values is agility. It's our ability to move. So I think that's one of our greatest strengths. We're a small, nimble boutique team. We've got a lot of background and knowledge space in a prathola or a handful of categories. And so our ability to respond quickly, to bring in other professionals or engaged partners that might be, that have to, solutioning a problem, whether we can do it or we need to bring in another provider to help with that.

15:26I think that's where the folks that have been with us for five minutes, you know, we have members that have been with us for over a decade. There's this consistency. And believe it or not, it's kind of like our, maybe if we've been fortunate enough to grow up with a mom or dad in some capacity, you know, at least this is what my mom said, you know, treat others how you want to be treated. And just remembering that, like, believe it or not, customers and members want to work with folks that they like and trust and suppliers are the same way. And so we're just really sensitive to some of the words that we use.

15:57They're not vendors or supplier partners. And then how are we treating them? Are we being honest about the economics? Are we being honest about the current economic environment? The pressure that AI is or isn't putting on organizations, the reduction in resources. um i get i get i just go back to just a pure a pure understanding of what an organization is doing how they go to market and how successful they're being and then it just allows us to be just even more engaged with those and folks just know like i if i throw something over the wall but you know it's going to get done or they're going to tell me how to do it and so that's just work for us yeah i guess what we're trying what we got to remember is that um i think what you're describing is people buy from people and even with all the wonderful technology and the advances 100 people work with people although that is changing um and it is buy and they and that's that trusted relationship that you're talking about so if you think about um if we stay on the the theme of value creation and we think about your customers anthony what what are they um what outcomes do they most consistently achieve whether it's in cost reduction which is no stranger to procurement, capability uplift, speed, you talked about agility or risk management.

17:16What are the outcomes that they most commonly or most consistently achieve? So the three things that stand out, you've got supplier consolidation, which can be really important. You've got price reduction, which is kind of table stakes. And then there's a reporting component of how do I make sure ongoing? going. And then I think that I'm getting the value that's been discussed, whether it's the savings, the terms, the expectation management. And there's a data component too that of course is critical, I think kind of aligns with the pricing and how do I make sure there's everything is happening like we discussed 30 days ago.

17:58And so whether that's quarterly reviews, six months reviews, annual reviews, I mean, there is a component where, again, where we have to really make sure that our supplier partners are aligned and we're bringing them into an engagement because there's a fulfillment component that we don't really control, but we have heavy influence over. And so within the contract, a lot of that, you just want to make sure that we're playing a role as, hey, what's good for you? It's good for us. I just can't emphasize enough the alignment and expectation management. So getting back to great pricing, supplier consolidation, data transparency that's ongoing, not just at the date of transaction, and then really good supplier alignment that we have found allows these members, whether it's in enterprise, healthcare, hospitality specifically, to really flourish.

18:53And we know that's why folks just keep coming back to us so that we're referred in, because we see a lot of that where procurement folks are changing, and then they take us with them. And so we really love that as well. And we think that that's another, you know, clipper in our hat, if you will, that's their cap that says, okay, I had a good experience there. And there was upfront transparency and they delivered. And so we just want to make sure that we're always over delivering and under promising. Okay. And you talked about, I guess, some of the successes and the values. So could you bring to life maybe an example through a working example of how the objectives, you talked about some of the objectives there of a procurement team, let's say, how that's linked back to the wider organization's objectives.

19:39How do they also demonstrate the ROI? How do you help with that? Well, there's a lot there to unpack. I would say, I'll give an example of an organization. We'll get into names or geography, but But we're going through a process now where we were having some difficulty with how do we get suppliers to be engaged a little bit more, distribution to be engaged. And we brought in another expert that said, hey, what if we did, we helped this organization do a formal RFP. And so we did a formal RFP process. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in specific categories of spend. And we've gone through that RFP process.

20:20We've helped streamline all of their data. And it's been quite a process for a lot of various reasons. And one of the reasons was the lack of resources that existed within this organization. There just wasn't a lot of support in this area, but there was a lot of demand for some of the things that we've talked about. And so overall, C-suite is looking at, you know, because there's a lot of real estate that's involved in this. So how do we increase NOI? Yes, there is a cost savings perspective. How do we streamline suppliers? and oh my goodness, what did Una do? They brought in an expert. Now they're helping us run an RFP.

20:57We get to be in charge of that. So I'm just trying to use a real life example of something that we're doing and running. This is live right now. This is happening. Oh, great. So we haven't completed this project. But that's not something typically that we've done, but I think it does align with like, well, we're stuck here. We're stubbing our toe. Why are we stubbing our toe? So what do we do? We brought in an additional expert underneath the Una brand that said, hey, we need to look at this differently. So I don't know if that really answers your question, but I think there were stated things and goals.

21:29We had to remove the hurdles. We were hearing what C-suite was saying. We brought in some expertise. We're in the middle of this project right now. And I think that's always how we want to go to market is they're not always going to be a scenario where we want to rush to an RFP and do a formal process in that nature. But we had the right consultants we had the right experts there was a develop there was a real need and right we're in the middle of delivering on that so i i thought it was a real a nice real world example where it made sense for this member to allow us to engage in that fashion sometimes that doesn't always make sense and and that can drag out the process but i think we're going to get the best to sit the it's going to allow for the best decisions to be made for all parties uh not just whether it thinks what might be best for this member so yeah no totally it does it does and it also Anthony also sets up for a part two because we'll yes we'll be very keen to find out how this goes you know you're in the middle of it right now so we'll do we'll have to do a part two excellent continued I love it great idea so if we think a little bit about um the delivery model then so now so a customer has decided that they want to work with you.

22:39How would you describe how you integrate with their maybe existing teams or existing capabilities? What's the fit and what advice would you give somebody who's thinking about working with you, how to engage with you? Excellent question. So we, like most engagements, you start with an NDA just to get into specifics and start to share data, whether it's AP files, spend cubes, however you want to frame it. We're looking at invoices and we kind of try it from there. If we're looking, just focusing, of course, on indirect spend, some of this non-sexy stuff that adds up. Again, we'll highlight, you know, are there any sacred cows?

23:16We need really good transparency from the organization. And then who's owning some of those categories that might not be that stakeholder influencer that's bringing that to the table. How can we get them involved to understand IT is a sensitive one, as an example. It's its own ball of wax, as we say it over here. but in a good way. I think the more parties that we can get involved either in a call or a face-to-face, you know, we found that to be helpful because there can be a lot of moving pieces, and especially in the size and scope of some of these large organizations. The other thing too is it's kind of like the old phrase, like how do you need an elephant one bite at a time?

23:55We recommend let's start at like one or two categories, you know, let's get to know each other. let's walk let's crawl and walk together and show you from beginning to end how this works a lot some of these are are much easier than others i'm always cautious to use the word easy when it comes to these types of engagement but let's say maybe there's less red tape depending on the sensitivity of the category um you know if you're talking about maybe office supplies or food just you know compared to like food distribution or shipping or uh maybe it's it's a stericycle or Shreddit or some of these very specific supplier partners that we have, maybe some of that's going to be much more sensitive than others.

24:35And so we try to start, is there any way that we can climb up the mountain instead of immediately trying to go up Mount Everest when it comes to any kind of category management or change management? And we've found that to be the most successful path. Now, it doesn't always happen that way, but we try to make our recommendations and pivot with our partners. Can I just come in here and ask, So in those scenarios, in any of those scenarios, how do you adapt to the different levels of operating maturity, let's say? How do you adapt your offering and which experts you bring and the level of service that you bring?

25:14How do you integrate that with the current whatever the operating model is at the client? Well, I think it kind of gets back to the people component, right? as much as AI is going to come in and help, I think, bring all this efficiency. I don't know, necessarily. I mean, maybe we're going to see like robots buying from each other and then some kind of human engages or oversees that or some version of that. But in the current state, that's where it kind of gets down to the questions and the intentionality of like, what does really success look like? And are we on the same page about the type of workload that's in front of you or that you might be asking us to do or to participate in?

25:55Or more importantly, as a supplier partner. So as long as all that or a good portion of those expectations are laid out, I mean, there's personalities that you're managing too. It can sometimes be like herding cats. We hope that we're not, you know, the cats that are being herded, but ultimately we want to make sure that, you know, are all the, it's kind of the cliche, the ducks are in a row, but that's why we've learned if it's a newer engagement and we haven't already managed or turned over a few categories. How can we start with one or two that we know we're world class in? And then we've got great alignment with a supplier partner.

26:31So we really try to lean into that. And it's very rare that we get pushback on that. And then how does the data come to us? Is it a mess? Is it organized? That's also another signal. How quickly does the data come? How fast are they able to turn around things? Lots of different ways that data can be sent to us. Sometimes folks will send it over email after an NDA is signed. It just depends on what type of data we're talking about. So these are all little signals, speed, the data, the type of how they're talking about their

27:01Anthony Clervi: supplier partners today. That's a real signal to us. Have they ever worked with the GPO? Do they have support from the top? What does that support look like? Just go get it done? Or is it really clear on what success looks like? Is there freedom to make change? Or is the thought that we're just going to erode the current incumbent, that can be really tricky. And that comes into a whole set of other conversations and opinions around that. So, again, those are the things. And that's kind of the tip of the sore there, other things you're going to get into when you're having these engagements. But our teams are in those conversations every day.

27:40We enjoy them. And I think that's why we've been around for almost 15 years. We plan to be around for another 15 years. and we really like it. Okay, speaking of, sorry to interrupt there, Anthony, but speaking of, maybe not so much 15 years, but in the next 12 to 24 months, one to two years, what are you seeing? What trends are you seeing then that are shaping the type of services that you offer? And if I can ask you, it's almost like a split question here. When should a procurement leader be thinking about engaging you? So a couple of questions. I think, of course, AI isn't coming. It's here.

28:22I think we are how we use it internally, whether it's whether it's Claw, Gemini, ChatGPT, I would say anybody that's in enterprise and not spending time with Claw and Claw coworking, you should absolutely mess with it. it's amazing uh some of the things that we're able to do whether it's training creating sops um some other stuff that we've that we've been able to generate to just show value just disseminate information make it really really simple for our members and i hope that a lot of organizations depending on size or scope are able to jump into some of those tools whether it's during the day or on the weekends but so i i don't see i think that that's only going to get uh more and more interesting uh there's a debate like is in gen tech ai here um and i think it is i think we'll see that in the next thousand days or less from some of the folks that i follow i think that's exciting i don't think it will it will reduce head count i think it will actually just it will create more efficiencies there will be things that will come out of this within procurement outside of procurement we never dreamed of that i think will be positive i'm a glass half full person.

29:28So that's kind of my, I don't know if that helps my 12 to 24 month outlook on how AI is going to be an improvement for GDP and organizations in the United States and the globe as a whole. And I think your other question, I might need you to say it one more time. That's no problem. Yeah. So when should a procurement leader start thinking about bringing in a partner like you?

29:53Before it becomes a problem, if at all possible. And whatever that problem could be is like, oh, we have an issue with service or we don't have price caps in place. So we didn't know that there was, you know, inflation caps that existed. But ultimately, like, just like we accept all titles, we'll accept any timeline within, you know, as best as humanly possible to engage with a part, you know, with a member, as we call them, I call our customers members. We want them to be able to feel a part of something that they feel that they're heard and that we understand what their business is up against, even though we might just be playing a really small role in their, you know, in their overall strategy.

30:34So I, I, we have found folks engage us at all different stages. We of course would prefer to be in a non rush environment because we found out to be the most successful because there's obviously multiple parties at play depending on the size and scope of the project. But, you know, you don't always get what you want. That's right. That's right. Okay. So what's next then? What should we, what should we be watching out for next from Una? Sorry, sorry, sorry, Anthony. And I guess the second part of that is where can our listeners go to find out more about that? Well, you can always go to una.com.

31:17So una.com. You, we have a plethora of information. I would suggest any of your viewers to go to una.com. at forward slash our resource center. We've got podcasts. We've got case studies. We've got so much blogs and material and content that we've been investing in and continue to invest in for the past decade plus. And what's coming next for you? And what's coming next? So we're actually making some more investments in data. We've got some new hires coming on. I think there's some fantastic things that we can, even more information that we can be providing to our members, current members and future members.

31:53I think there's just going to be so much demand with AI. There's costs. Again, cost savings is kind of table stakes when you come to a GPO, specifically around the direct spend. What other information can you be providing me so that I can be more equipped to make better decisions, have a better handle on what I'm doing, what's working, what's not? And I think not only is that coming for Una, but I think that's expected. So we're very excited about that. All right. Wow. What a note to end on. Thank you. Okay, Anthony, thank you so much. This has been such a valuable look into Una's impact and your unique value proposition.

32:29And it's been great to learn a lot more about Una and also about yourself. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much, Ladi. Thank you. And also thank you to all of our listeners for joining us. And until next time, take care, everybody.

32:44Anthony Clervi: Thanks for listening to this episode of ProcureTech Insider. If you found this conversation valuable, you can subscribe to our ProcureTech specific newsletter, The Stack. Every Thursday, you'll get intelligence on ProcureTech companies, market developments, and insights from practitioners delivered right to your inbox. To subscribe, go to artofprocurement.com slash subscribe. That's artofprocurement.com slash subscribe.