As a business, you need to have robust financial controls in place to meet your goals and objectives. Managing spend is an essential part of operating a business efficiently. If you’re facing the challenge of minimising costs while delivering the same level of goods and services, you must carry out ongoing spend analysis.
Spend analysis involves drawing together data about your purchase history and assessing:
· what you’re buying
· who is making the purchases
· why they’re being bought
· from whom you're buying
· who your suppliers are
· whether your suppliers are delivering according to your contract
Deloitte’s Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey 2019 highlights consolidating spend as the top priority for CPOs for the next 12 months. However, this can be problematic if you don’t have good quality, easily accessible data. The solution? Investing in a spend analysis tool which will allow you to review your organisation's spending in real-time, identify risks and analyse expenditure.
The benefits of spend analysis
Increases visibility of spend
If you’re managing a budget, you need to have visibility of how much your organisation is spending and what you are spending it on. Spend analysis gives you a greater understanding of the cost of your goods and services and the performance of your suppliers. Once you have this knowledge, you can identify areas where you can make savings, manage your supplier relationships more effectively and make smarter purchasing decisions.
Identifies savings opportunities
The insights a spend analysis tool provides will identify spending patterns. Once you have this information, you can use it to reduce overspend, review and switch suppliers and negotiate volume discounts. You’ll also be able to monitor your payments more effectively. You can make sure you’re paying your suppliers on time and not incurring late payment fees or making duplicate payments.
Improves organisational efficiency
Improving your procurement process will drive cost efficiencies across your organisation. Task automation improves efficiency and frees your staff up to concentrate on more complex work. Automatic report creation speeds up the reporting cycle and allows you to access spend data in real-time, rather than working off historical data.
Provides a centralised source of spend data
Rather than having to pull together data from different sources which may be in various formats, spend analysis software keeps your data in one place and in the same format. This results in efficient and fast analysis. It also gives your finance department enhanced reporting capabilities and presents them with a better understanding of overall business spend. You’ll also have a clear audit trail of all transactions and spend.
Supports strategic procurement decision-making
Access to high-quality data will allow you to make pragmatic business decisions to help you meet your goals and objectives. Your more in-depth understanding can be used to develop strategy and make confident purchasing decisions.
Manages risk
Using a spend analysis procurement tool simplifies the risk management of your supply chain and internal financial practices. You can compare information about a key supplier, including credit scores and their annual revenue, against your dependency on them. You can then gauge whether your reliance is too much of a risk given the supplier's financial position and look for alternatives.
Spend analysis will also identify where you are making purchases with no contract in place. This kind of purchasing is likely to be more expensive than contracted spend and increases the risk of supply chain disruptions. You will also be able to pinpoint and control maverick spending more effectively.
Ensures you remain compliant
You may work in a heavily regulated industry, or need to undertake regular business audits. Your spend analysis tool will provide all relevant financial data required for compliance purposes.
Why use the Atamis Spend Analysis procurement solution?
The Atamis spend analysis solution is simple and easy to use, yet provides you with comprehensive information to inform your decision making. Its capabilities go beyond standard spend analysis software. It reports on all aspects of your procurement performance, not just spend, giving you more visibility and reporting options.
Flexibility: we can adapt the system to your requirements. You can create your own dashboards according to your spend classifications and business needs.
In-depth training and support: Training options according to your needs – on-site or online. Access to a dedicated support desk.
Continuous improvement: Atamis provides regular updates and system enhancements.
Real-time visibility: see your direct and indirect supplier spend in real-time.
Value for money: our pricing model allows us to offer you a solution at a lower cost than our competitors.
Speed and efficiency: the Atamis spend analysis tool enables you to generate reports, and re-classify spend quickly.
Complies with industry standards: the system ensures accuracy and consistency with recognised industry methods. You can also create your own compliance rules.
“Atamis has helped us adhere to rigorous, government-imposed compliance requirements, monitor spending more closely and greatly improve our supplier performance management. It’s an intuitive system with reporting capabilities which enhance decision making and provide real-time insights into every stage of the procurement process. It has already proved itself to be a valuable tool for both the Procurement Department and the wider business."
Tricia Massey, Head of Procurement for Translink
