Advisory
Most programmes fail at supplier adoption.
Not at credit, not at pricing, and almost never at the technology. They fail because the suppliers who would benefit most are the hardest to enrol, so the programme covers the five who needed it least. Designing around that is the work.
Advisory. Works whether or not you run it on our platform.
The problem
The economics were never the hard part.
The arithmetic of an anchor programme is straightforward. A buyer with good credit extends terms, a financier pays the suppliers early at a rate anchored on the buyer, and the saving is real and easy to model. Any competent team can build that spreadsheet.
What the spreadsheet does not capture is that the programme only works at the coverage it achieves. A model showing a large benefit across a thousand suppliers is describing a programme that will, in practice, sign eleven of them, because enrolment takes six weeks of paperwork and the smallest suppliers have nobody to spare for it.
So the design question is not what the economics are. It is which suppliers you can realistically enrol, in what order, at what friction, and what the programme is worth at that coverage rather than at full participation.
- Designed around achievable coverage, not theoretical coverage
- Supplier segmentation before pricing, because it determines pricing
- Honest about the programme's value at realistic adoption
How it runs
Four to eight weeks, depending on the spend.
Worked on your actual payables file, not an industry model.
- 01
Segment the supplier base
By spend, terms, credit standing, jurisdiction and how much the supplier would actually gain. This is where a programme is won or lost, and it is usually done last or not at all.
- 02
Model the economics per segment
What early payment is worth to each group against what it costs them, and what extending terms is worth to you. Segments where the answer is marginal get identified rather than assumed in.
- 03
Design for enrolment throughput
What a supplier must provide, who chases it, how long it takes, and what the programme covers at that rate after three months and after a year. Coverage is a function of onboarding speed.
- 04
Rollout and the first cohort
Who to approach first, what to say to them, and what to measure. The first cohort sets the tone for the whole programme, so it is chosen deliberately rather than by spend rank.
What we produce
Things you can act on.
Deliverables, not a slide deck with recommendations at the back.
- 01 Supplier segmentation
- Your base grouped by how much a programme would help them and how hard they would be to enrol, with the two considered together.
- 02 Programme economics
- Modelled per segment on your own spend and terms, with the sensitivity to adoption made explicit rather than hidden in an average.
- 03 Terms and structure recommendation
- What to extend to, for whom, and the structural options with their trade-offs, including the ones that affect accounting treatment.
- 04 Onboarding design
- The requirement set per supplier type, who owns chasing, and a realistic throughput estimate you can plan against.
- 05 Rollout plan
- Cohorts, sequence, the approach to each, and what to measure at each stage to know whether it is working.
- 06 The honest verdict
- Including, where it applies, that your credit spread over your suppliers is too narrow for this to be worth doing. We would rather say that in week three than in year two.
Questions
What buyers and banks ask.
Do we have to run the programme on your platform?
No. The design work stands on its own and we have no stake in where you run it. If our platform is a good fit we will say so, and it is a separate conversation and a separate contract.
Who is this for, the buyer or the bank?
Either. A corporate designing its own programme, or a bank designing one for an anchor client. The work is similar; the audience for the output differs.
What do you need from us to start?
A payables file with spend, terms and supplier names, and someone from treasury and someone from procurement who can answer questions. Without procurement the segmentation is guesswork.
How long does it take?
Four to eight weeks depending on the size of the supplier base and how clean the data is. Data quality is usually the variable.
Will you tell us not to do it?
If that is the answer, yes. The most common reason is that the credit spread between you and your suppliers is too small for the structure to create value, in which case you are just extending terms with extra steps.
Can you help us run it afterwards?
Yes, through managed operations, and that is a separate engagement. The design work does not assume it.
Next
Send us the payables file.
Spend, terms and a supplier list is enough for a first read on whether an anchor programme would create real value for you, and roughly what coverage is achievable.
- A first read before any engagement
- Modelled on your spend, not an industry benchmark
- A straight answer if the spread does not justify it