Success relies on collaboration. In 2025’s ever-evolving world, going it alone isn’t just challenging – it’s almost impossible. It is a key reason why forging key, strategic partnerships in procurement and supply chain is so important – which is where SDI comes in.
SDI is a supply chain solutions and services company specialising in helping large, multi-site facilities and plant maintenance leaders reduce costs and risks while driving overall performance results and outcomes.
Arxada partnership
Over the past few years, SDI’s Supply Chain Cooperative has established a groundbreaking partnership with Arxada, demonstrating the evolution of indirect procurement beyond traditional sourcing methods. This collaboration showcases how innovative procurement strategies can unlock value in previously overlooked categories while delivering substantial cost savings and service improvements.
Miriam Achour is the Vice President Member Ambassadors at SDI. She explains one of the biggest benefits of the partnership is helping with improved sourcing efficiency. “Our partnership with Arxada is a very strong example of the collaborative procurement operational efficiency that we try to bring these organisations,” says Archour.
“We provide them access to pre-negotiated contracts and supplier relationships to help reduce the procurement cycles that they generally struggle with. We also have that cost savings factor that we provide to them and we do strategic sourcing and consolidate their purchasing for them. It helps with very measurable reductions in their indirect spend. Again, we provide that operational support and tailor our solutions to fill the resource gaps that Arxada was experiencing. We ensure that there’s a seamless procurement execution and onboarding plan for them. Lastly, we try to provide access to innovation. SDI is wide-reaching and has a long history and experience of over 50 years of working with procurement and indirect spend, we are able to provide Arxada with greater visibility of what’s going on in the spend market industry. This then provides them more control over their own spend which is so important.”
Overcoming challenges
Two of Arxada’s biggest challenges were limited internal resources for sourcing and traditional GPOs unable to provide necessary services. According to Achour, a common hurdle that companies of Arxada’s size face is how to navigate limited internal resources. Fortunately, her organisation is well placed to step in to deliver value. “What we do as the SDI Cooperative is act as an augmentation to their limited resources,” she tells us.
“We become that extension for Arxada to be part of their procurement platform. We team up with them and provide them with the expertise and extra bandwidth that they need to execute their sourcing strategies and initiatives within the company. Beyond traditional GPOs, which are just a cost savings initiative in our cooperative model, we incorporate more strategic cost management. We’re strategic about the supplier development we use with Arxada and about process optimisation to align with what the company is looking for.”
Future focused
Achour adds that to help Arxada with its limited resources, SDI will undertake a supplier vetting process. “That’s a big time constraint and challenge on their bandwidth,” she says. “We’re able to do the contract negotiations, again, another extension for their internal resources. Once we’ve gotten that aligned, we’re able to provide them with spend visibility which is essential to track as you move along within your organisation and try to stay with your core business goals. By combining all those efforts for them, we’re able to help Arxada transform their procurement challenges and use that more as an opportunity for growth within their procurement plan.”
Overall, this partnership demonstrates the evolution of procurement strategies beyond traditional models, showing how collaborative approaches can unlock value in previously unexplored areas. The success that SDI has achieved with Arxada serves as a blueprint for future partnerships and continued expansion of the cooperative’s capabilities. With SDI and Arxada’s partnership so robust, the future looks bright.
Find out more about SDI here.
