As the author penned in Spend Visibility: An Implementation Guide,
“Almost any attempt by an organization to analyze spending patterns is likely to be fruitful, especially if there hasn’t been a serious prior attempt. It is easy to find thousands of breathless testimonials about a particular product or method — independent of the quality of the product or method — because almost any product or method will find savings if a spend visibility initiative has never been launched before. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king“.
This simple fact has confused end-user organizations and analysts for many years. In fact, it has convinced most spend visibility vendors (and most analysts) that spend visibility is a fundamentally simple process of mapping Accounts Payable spend, and then drilling for dollars.
But Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth!
What is not so obvious is that this initial burst of savings is short-lived; and that many of the “quick saves” that result are unsustainable.
Especially if an organization does not select the right solution in the beginning that will allow it to define, and implement, a strategy that will allow it to identify continued savings year-over-year after the initial burst of savings are captured.
However, there’s no reason for an organization not to select the right software or services, because, it’s easy to select the right solution once you are informed. If you don’t know where to start, the next Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) members only webinar on July 28, 2015 @ 8:30 am PDT, 11:30 am EDT, and 16:30 pm BST, will provide you with a starting point as you evaluate software and services providers.
Specifically, this webinar will focus on helping an organization identify:
- key features of a spend analysis platform,
- critical requirements for successful services, and
- what to look for in a full-service solution
so that the organization may achieve spend analysis success. In particular, the kind of success that will generate a year-over-year average savings of 10%+.
Space is limited, and only NLPA members will have the opportunity to attend this webinar hosted by the doctor of Sourcing Innovation, but Basic Membership is Free, so there’s no reason to miss out. Sign up today, and very shortly you’ll receive the notice of the upcoming webinar that will allow you to register for this very informative webinar.