Companies need to procure products and services for various purposes. They need to spend to procure products or services, which can be both direct as well as indirect. A direct spend pertains to any products or services that has been procured to produce the product or services offered by the company. An example of this is any raw material that need to be procured to manufacture a product. The second type of spend is indirect spend, which pertains to amount spent on procuring support services, like office services, IT hardware etc. To understand where they are spending as well as to determine if there are opportunities to reduce or optimize their spend, companies need detailed visibility and insights into their spend. This is what a spend intelligence solution provides.

Companies need to procure products and services for various purposes. They need to spend to procure products or services, which can be both direct as well as indirect. A direct spend pertains to any products or services that has been procured to produce the product or services offered by the company. An example of this is any raw material that need to be procured to manufacture a product. The second type of spend is indirect spend, which pertains to amount spent on procuring support services, like office services, IT hardware etc. To understand where they are spending as well as to determine if there are opportunities to reduce or optimize their spend, companies need detailed visibility and insights into their spend. This is what a spend intelligence solution provides.

SAP offers a portfolio of spend management solutions that can allow organizations to manage every source of spend across multiple categories of spend, direct and indirect spending, external services and contingent labor, travel and expense, in a single unified view. This required visibility into their spend helps organizations make fast, intelligent decisions to help them optimize their spend. Following spend intelligence solutions are available in SAP portfolio:

  • SAP Ariba: SAP Ariba integrates the entire buying process across your entire organization. SAP Ariba offers an end-to-end automated system that removes complexity and allows buyers and suppliers to manage everything from contracts to payments all in one place.
  • SAP Fieldglass: SAP Fieldglass is a software company providing a cloud-based Vendor Management System (VMS) to manage services procurement and external workforce management programs
  • SAP Concur: SAP Concur is an American SaaS company, providing travel and expense management services to businesses

Enhance supply chain efficiency with spend management visibility: In this article, experts from PwC discuss how procurement teams today face increasing challenges due to supply chain uncertainty and touch upon how technology innovation across spend management can enable real-time procurement visibility to navigate supply chain complexity

The future of intelligent spend management for the public sector: In this video session, leaders from Deloitte share a practical vision of the future of spend management in the public sector, focusing on leading technology accelerators and process blueprints.

An introduction to spend analysis: This article introduces readers to fundamentals of spend analysis in order to develop a better understanding of how it can be leveraged to generate valuable insights into various types of organizational spend.

17 results

  1. Static Safety stock methods in S/4HANA & SAP ERP

    Key Innovations in SAP Ariba 2502 Enhance Procurement Efficiency

    Reading time: 3 mins

    The SAP Ariba 2502 release enhances the procure-to-order process through improved user interfaces, functionality, expanded supplier information, automated price validation, and dedicated spend reports, aiming to optimize procurement efficiency and compliance.

  2. Procurement’s Top 10 Transformation Initiatives in 2025 & How SAP Helps – Part 1

    Procurement’s Top 10 Transformation Initiatives in 2025 & How SAP Helps – Part 1

    Reading time: 3 mins

    In 2025, procurement is poised to leverage AI and updated technology to address productivity and efficiency gaps through initiatives like data analytics, talent management, category management, strategic sourcing, and supplier relationship management.

  3. How AI is Galvanizing SAP Spend Management and Business Network

    Reading time: 2 mins

    Generative AI features and solutions across SAP Spend Management offer SAP customers a “radical approach” to enhance business functions. 

  4. End-to-End Supply Chain

    Enhanced Procurement Operations with GyanSys

    Reading time: 2 mins

    As SAP SRM is phased out, businesses are shifting to SAP Ariba’s cloud-based procurement solutions for enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, and continuous innovation in procurement technology. GyanSys specializes in enhancing procurement operations through its comprehensive suite of services leveraging the SAP Ariba product suite.

  5. finance automation

    Coupa Offers AI-Driven Features to Simplify Spend Management

    Reading time: 4 mins

    Coupa Software has launched over a dozen AI-driven innovations in its spend management platform, aiming to enhance process efficiency and productivity for businesses while addressing evolving market challenges, as highlighted by their ongoing commitment to co-innovation and customer collaboration.

  6. The External Workforce and Preserving Your Talent Supply Chain

    Reading time: 3 mins

    The talent supply chain is seeing pressures from both a tight labor market and skills shortages – can software help?

  7. Image of a windfarm in Germany - fields with sun rising in the background | Energie Steiermark SAP Ariba

    Procuring green energy with SAP Ariba: Energie Steiermark replaces SAP SRM

    Reading time: 2 mins

    Looking to remain with SAP, energy company Energie Steiermark chose the cloud-based SAP Ariba to replace its expiring SRM module, and partnered with CNT Management Consulting for the task. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here

  8. Webinar: SAP Spend Control Tower

     

    January 01 - 01, 1970

     

    SAP invites participants to an exclusive webinar on September 17, 2024, featuring the SAP Spend Control Tower, which utilizes advanced AI to enhance spend visibility and identify cost-saving opportunities, presented by Mark Harris and Sudy Bharadwaj. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here

  9. Six ways to increase value and reduce risk from external talent and services

    Reading time: 1 mins

    As companies face tight labor markets and skills shortages, they increasingly rely on external talent, with many organizations spending 5-15% of their workforce budget on contingent workers to enhance flexibility and competitiveness. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here

  10. An Executive Guide to Evaluating AI (beyond just Generative AI) : Use Cases and Adoption Strategies

    Reading time: 1 mins

    The article emphasizes the importance of integrating traditional AI tools alongside generative AI, like GPT-4, to enhance enterprise applications and address challenges related to data quality and ethics while improving automation and business outcomes. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here