Case Study: Global Lighting Leader Company achieves 18% indirect cost reduction with GEP's Budget-to-Pay solution

How a Global Lighting Leader Achieved 18% Cost Reduction With GEP's Budget to Pay Solution

A global lighting leader with more than $7 billion in revenue faced a sharp drop in demand and rising cost-to-sales ratios when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After an acquisition in late 2019, the company needed to preserve cash, control discretionary spending and align functions around finance-led FP&A processes to protect margins and sustain operations.

GEP deployed its Budget-to-Pay solution—benchmarking indirect costs, creating 35 spend-control towers, integrating procurement and FP&A with a real-time dashboard, automating budget checks in GEP SMART, standing up war rooms and negotiating with 750+ suppliers. The program drove rigorous, finance-led spend management and delivered an 18.1% reduction in indirect costs in FY2020 (despite a 12.7% drop in comparable sales), about 10% savings from supplier negotiations and enabled additional P&L cost reductions and liquidity to fund critical needs.