Get in touch
CASE STUDY · ISG

Cutting supplier onboarding from eight weeks to a few days, across 7,500+ partners.

ISG needed a way to onboard partners quickly and safely, without putting a heavier burden on the small businesses that made up most of its supply chain. Working with TSM, ISG automated its PQQ and RQQ processes on Ivalua, then extended the platform into Purchase-to-Pay.

ISG entered administration in September 2024. This case study reflects the partnership and the platform delivered with ISG’s supply chain team during the engagement.

7,500+

THIRD-PARTY PARTNERS MANAGED ON THE PLATFORM

94%

OF PARTNERS WERE SMEs, 1,400 WITH FEWER THAN 10 STAFF

8 wks → days

TYPICAL SUPPLIER ONBOARDING TIME, HOURS IN SOME CASES

6

THIRD-PARTY RISK CHECKS AUTOMATED INTO ONBOARDING

THE CHALLENGE

Onboarding was slow, and the risk sat with the smallest partners.

As a large construction company, ISG’s third-party partners were essential to the business, and ISG needed confidence that every partner could reliably and safely deliver goods and services. That responsibility sat with a supply chain team working through a PQQ onboarding process that typically took more than eight weeks per supplier. Delays like that had real consequences: orders and deliveries slipped, and partners eager to work with ISG sometimes drifted toward less safety-conscious alternatives instead.

ISG worked with over 7,500 partners. 94% were SMEs, and 1,400 had fewer than 10 employees. Any new onboarding process had to work for a multinational contractor and a five-person specialist subcontractor alike, without the process itself becoming the barrier.

Beyond onboarding, ISG wanted partners paid quickly and efficiently, and a Purchase-to-Pay platform capable of handling construction-specific complexity such as plant hire and a transparent subcontractor process.

THE SOLUTION

A phased Source-to-Pay rollout, built around automation ISG could trust.

TSM helped ISG map its ideal PQQ process onto Ivalua, then used standard Ivalua functionality and integration capabilities to automate as much of it as possible.

PHASE 1 · PQQ & RQQ ONBOARDING

Automated checks, run once and then continuously.

Data integrations to Companies House, Dun & Bradstreet, Constructionline, IntegrityNext, Creditsafe and HMRC’s CIS process checked company details, financial stability, banking details, CIS registration and ESG rating automatically. Several of these checks then repeat on a regular basis, in some cases daily, so ISG is proactively alerted to a meaningful change in a partner’s status rather than finding out at renewal.

Companies House

Dun & Bradstreet
Constructionline
IntegrityNext
Creditsafe

HMRC CIS

PHASE 2 · PURCHASE-TO-PAY

Automation extended downstream, into payment.

With onboarding under control, ISG rolled out P2P across more entities and business areas each month. Larger suppliers were invited onto punchout and electronic invoicing, directing buyers toward preferred, pre-qualified suppliers and letting invoices move through 3-way match and into the finance system faster.

HEAR IT FROM ISG

"We needed a process that worked for our biggest contractors and our smallest subcontractors alike."

At TSM Customer Day 2023, Rob Scriven, then Head of Supply Chain at ISG, spoke about the onboarding challenge, why automation had to work for partners of every size, and what changed once PQQ and RQQ were running on Ivalua.

Rob Scriven
Former Head of Supply Chain, ISG

THE OUTCOME

What changed once the platform was live.

  • Onboarding time dropped from several weeks to a few days, hours in some cases, with the only remaining delay being how quickly a partner could supply its own documentation.
  • Unnecessary questions were eliminated from the PQQ based on earlier answers and third-party risk data, with the process shortened further for micro-entities under 10 employees.
  • The HMRC CIS integration reduced ISG's reliance on manually managing subcontractor status through the ERP system.
  • The supply chain team used Ivalua risk scores to trigger support plans for partners showing early signs of risk, instead of finding out at the next renewal.
  • Through the Ivalua supplier network, ISG could auto-assess organisations several levels down the supplier hierarchy that were not previously visible at all.
  • With P2P live, requisitioners and buyers were guided to preferred suppliers automatically, with punchout built into the buying cycle from shopping through to advanced shipping notices.

See the full results

Leave your name and work email to unlock the outcome in full.

We’ll only use this to send you occasional TSM insights. Unsubscribe any time.

Operating across borders, with risk you can't lose sight of?

Talk to TSM about a Source-to-Pay platform built for complex, multi-entity operations.

Get in touch