Challenge
A global biopharma's regulatory function had shifted to a contractor-heavy offshore model: 119 people from an offshore partner, all billed hourly. Costs kept climbing while output stayed flat. The offshoring strategy itself wasn't the problem. The absence of governance was. Contracts ran on hourly incentives with no ownership model in place to manage them.
Approach
We didn't challenge the offshoring strategy. We fixed how it was being run. We restructured the vendor contracts from hourly to unit-based pricing, put governance and reporting in place so the client could control the relationship, and trained their procurement leader to manage strategic sourcing on their own.
Impact
External spend dropped 30% and output held steady. The client's procurement function can now govern and optimize every outsourced vendor relationship itself. That's a capability they own going forward, not a fix we had to keep coming back for.
