Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Community Options Partners with Fine Tune to Manage and Optimize the National Nonprofit’s Energy & Utilities Category

June 13, 2024 | Press Release.pdf | kdvr.com online article

Fine Tune will significantly reduce Community Options’ energy & utilities spend, implement a centralized bill payment system, and provide ongoing insight into energy consumption across 12 states

CHICAGO, Ill. – June 13, 2024 – Fine Tune, a provider of indirect spend management services, announced today that Community Options, a leading national nonprofit supporting people with disabilities, has selected it to centralize, source, and optimize the nonprofit’s energy and utilities spend program. In addition, Fine Tune will manage Community Options’ utility bill payments and provide full transparency for over three thousand individual bills each month totaling nearly 40,000 bills per year.

As energy markets have spiked since 2022, Community Options has not only experienced increasing rates but has faced extreme challenges in understanding energy consumption across 12 states and 800 locations.

As a result, leadership decided to augment its team with Fine Tune’s energy and utilities category experts to provide dedicated and vigilant management as well as to efficiently process thousands of bills each month with nearly 500 suppliers. According to Community Options, this process requires over 8,000 personnel hours each year.

“By partnering with Fine Tune, we can ensure that our resources are used more efficiently, allowing us to focus on our mission of supporting people with disabilities,” said David Sweeney, Chief Financial Officer for Community Options. “Fine Tune’s expertise and comprehensive approach will help us navigate the complexities of energy management, ultimately leading to significant cost savings and greater transparency.”

Another important reason Community Options chose Fine Tune is its expertise on tariff optimization strategies in regulated markets as well as sourcing best practices in deregulated markets.

“We are delighted Community Options chose Fine Tune to bring auditing and advocacy to their national energy and utilities program as well as their complex bill payment processes,” said Andrew Henson, Vice President of Energy & Utilities at Fine Tune. “This is why we do what we do in this energy and utilities marketplace, and why we’ve focused so much effort on in-house, end-to-end category management; to provide organizations like Community Options with a single solution so that they can focus their efforts on achieving their important goals instead of chasing invoices.”

About Fine Tune
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Fine Tune partners with companies to source, negotiate, manage and audit certain complex indirect expense programs. Led by executive-level industry insiders, Fine Tune has also developed proprietary auditing software which monitors client invoices to ensure adherence with the implemented agreements. Several of the world’s most recognizable brands have chosen Fine Tune, including Cargill, Pep Boys, Siemens, Advance Auto Parts, Caterpillar, and MilliporeSigma. For more information, visit www.FineTuneUS.com.

About Community Options, Inc.
For over 35 years, Community Options has developed housing and employment supports for people with disabilities—supporting thousands of people from over 50 offices across 12 states. Community Options provides advocacy assistance to empower people with disabilities because all people—regardless of ability level—should live and work in the community with dignity, choice and self-determination. For more information, please visit our website: www.comop.org and follow us on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and X.