L’Oreal USA has entered into a three-year agreement with IBM for expert procurement services using an advanced cloud analytics solution. It is expected to transform the way L’Oreal USA buys from its network of North American suppliers.

With this agreement, L’Oreal USA’s buying, compliance and management of its vendor and supply process will be transformed – ultimately leading to lower costs and increased supplier value. L’Oreal says that the new services will enable the company to bring beauty products to consumers more quickly and efficiently.

L’Oreal will utilize a powerful portfolio of IBM procurement services, consulting and analytical expertise including a new analytics tool developed by IBM Research, as well as IBM SmartCloud commerce solutions. These solutions will help the team at L’Oreal gain immediate access to global data, to make faster and more insightful decisions while ensuring purchasing compliance.

“With our rapid growth and expansion, we needed deep category knowledge across all spend areas as well as the assurance of compliance with all buying processes in order to realize true savings,” said Rich Ullrich, vice president of Indirect Procurement, L’Oreal USA.

He continued, “IBM was unparalleled in its ability to deliver cutting-edge data analytics, the best cloud commerce solution and the strategic sourcing and technology services needed to make it happen.”