Aug 7, 2021
•5 minute read
SAP Spend Analysis
Spend Management: SAP Spend Analysis
Spend Analysis Defined
Spend analysis is the process of identifying, gathering, cleansing, grouping, categorizing, and analyzing your organization’s spend data. It is important because it converts raw data into actionable information. An organization should have a goal of decreasing procurement costs and improving efficiencies while increasing visibility and transparency. Visibility of spending and suppliers is critical to improve customer service and to consistently grow return on investment.
4 Stages in Spend Analysis are:
- Collecting
- Cleansing
- Classifying
- Analyzing
Spend Management: SAP Spend Analysis
Spend Analysis Defined
Spend analysis is the process of identifying, gathering, cleansing, grouping, categorizing, and analyzing your organization’s spend data. It is important because it converts raw data into actionable information. An organization should have a goal of decreasing procurement costs and improving efficiencies while increasing visibility and transparency. Visibility of spending and suppliers is critical to improve customer service and to consistently grow return on investment.
4 Stages in Spend Analysis are:
- Collecting
- Cleansing
- Classifying
- Analyzing
Rogue, maverick, and tail spend are common terms in the procurement business. They all mean roughly the same thing – unexpected, unpredictable, or unorthodox spending. This spending can happen when purchases are made outside of agreed supplier contracts, often ignoring defined procurement processes. The most immediate task of spend analytics is to provide transparency and insights into where money is spent. Data integrity is a central element in obtaining true transparency. A long-term plan of transparency is to increase supplier negotiation efficiency and effectiveness by having fact-based conversations.
7 Steps to Success are:
- Identify the objective
- Identify spend data sources
- Collect and consolidate data
- Clean the data
- Link suppliers and categorize spend
- Perform the spend analysis
- Rinse, reassess, and repeat.
Benefits of Spend Analysis are:
- Visibility into organizational spend
- Ability to define measures and track KPI’s
- Tool for supplier management and strategic sourcing
- Automation and simplification of contract management and renewal
- Control maverick buying.
There is an opportunity to consider how spend transparency, analytics, decision rules, alerts and warnings can help organizations respond faster to challenges. Automating the collection and analysis of spend data significantly helps save time and resources. Spend analysis is usually done through a dedicated software or one-off spend cubes. Generally, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system solution is used to provide a single source of truth for business transactions.
Vendor partners helping companies of all sizes to drive better business decisions with software or data integration are: SAP, Qlik or Deloitte.
Key Considerations for SAPinsiders are:
- A Beginners Guide to Spend Analysis: Shashi Jina shares insights into spend analysis and why strategic sourcing is one of the most critical functions. Learn about the critical balance between the art of balancing cost while enhancing customer service.
- The Next Evolution of Spend Management: Drew Hofier of SAP shares an article on how spend management is ever evolving — from the elimination of paper, to electronic spend solutions, and the current move toward intelligent spend management.
- Intelligent Spend Management Insights: Watch the video to see how BI/data management in one unified place across every source and category can give insights to solve complex challenges of uncertainty.
Spend Analysis and SAP MMA wide range of business processes falls under the SAP MM (Materials Management) module, from purchasing to inventory management. Such an extensive portfolio of business processes also means much data being generated and captured. As SAPinsiders highlighted in our research reports like Process Automation and SAP S/4HANA, as well as in Process Automation in Supply Chain, capturing this data to generate visibility into these processes is critical. However, the crux is not just capturing the data. The value of capturing that data can be realized only through analytics. That is why SAPinsiders indicated a need for focused research on data and analytics in the supply chain. To cater to this interest, SAPinsider will publish a research report, Supply Chain Analytics, and Data Management, in Feb 2023. This article will highlight how one of the analytics technologies covered in the report, spend analytics, can help generate value in SAP MM business processes.
The Future of Intelligent Spend Management for the Public SectorThe pandemic has put the public sector in a pinch. Ever-tightening government budgets require rigorous spend management and AP controls, even as demand for services remains high. Meanwhile, many public sector employees are working remotely, fundamentally shifting a key aspect of spend management and oversight. These challenges are not new, but they have been amplified in this extraordinary environment. With full AI enablement with automated invoice capture to expense and invoice fraud detection capabilities, advanced analytics, and controls on all spend categories, SAP Concur is playing a big role in assisting public sector organizations deliver next-level spend management with maximum transparency and accountability. In this session, leaders from Deloitte will share a practical vision of the future of spend management in the public sector, focusing on leading technology accelerators and process blueprints.
We will examine:
- How to “futureproof” spend management with Concur
- Current best practices in spend management in the public sector – in the time of the pandemic
- How to get more value from spend management transformation based on past customer journeys
Aug 2, 2021
•1 minute read
The Next Evolution of Spend ManagementThere are many variables that can complicate how SAP customers manage their spend, such as when significant portions of the workforce are external or when consumers have certain expectations for their travel and expense experience. Having a clear picture of every category of spend — whether that is travel, indirect, direct, or contingent labor and services spend — can help organizations create more collaborate commerce. As spend management has begun evolving toward Intelligent Spend Management where everything is integrated, insightful, and connected, SAP now offers an integrated solution suite for all spend management needs. After reading this article, you will:
- Understand the three pillars of SAP’s integrated approach to Intelligent Spend Management
- Discover the benefits of adopting an Intelligent Spend Management strategy
- Learn how this approach ties together every source and category of spend with one unified view and allows you to apply intelligent technologies and collaborate with your partners outside of your four walls.
Feb 19, 2020
•11 minute read
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