Category Archives: Spend Analysis

Spend Rappin’ (5th, and Final?*, Repost)

It’s Boxing Day! And you know what that means … at Sourcing Innovation, it’s Spend Rappin’ time! (It’s a very well-established holiday tradition!)


To the Tune of “Christmas Rappin'” by Kurtis Blow

Don’t you get me all that JIVE about code you used before I’s alive,
Cause this ain’t 1965 – ain’t even 1999!
Now I’m the guy named Lamoureux and Spend is one thing that I know.
So every year, just about this time, I celebrate it with a rhyme!

Gonna save it, gonna shave it, gonna make it good,
Gonna take it all down through your neighbourhood.
Gonna wring it, gonna sling it till it’s understood.
My rap’s about to happen, like the knee you was slappin;
Or the toe you been tappin’ on a hunk of wood.
‘Bout a two fisted dude, with a friendly attitude
and a sack full of savings for the people on the block.
He’s an old grey beard, maybe looks kind of weird,
and if you ever seen him he could give you quite a shock.

Now people let me tell ya about last year
when the dude came slicing spend through here.
Well the wit was out, the gloves on the ground,
folks stayed to watch him cut it down.
The beat was thumping on the block,
and they were glued to just one spot,
as the master cubed at a solid pace,
…
got a taste of the waste thrown in your face.
…
And this old spend slayer laid down a heavy layer
of his slicing dicing rhythm to a tree-mapped beat.
And the guy with the database started to participate,
and I could sure appreciate the spend roll up neat.

We were all in the mood so we had a little brood,
not a sound did abound, as he ploughed through the mound,
then I thought I heard a gasp as he sliced through the past,
and laid our mav’rick spend bare, as I flopped into a chair.
So I went to the attic where I thought about the static
that our last spending tool was programmed to always give.
And I threw up my arms at the industry yarns,
Just a trick, a nick, and I’d let the suckers in.

He was quick, he was sharp and always on the mark,
he had a lot of success on his chinny, chin, chin.
He avowed, he was proud of the savings he allowed
from the tip of the ‘burg he found the savings within.
He’s cool for a fool throwin’ out every rule
every hour of the day when the cold winds blow.
Though the beard was-a cleared, I still have never cheered
like I did in the storm when I was in the know.

I said you’re right, my spend’s a fright,
Can you stop for a drop before you have to go?
He said “Sure, Bill, if the wine is chilled
and I’ll stake a steak down at the Monaco”.
So we went out back and discussed the stack
of invoices that had all been over-paid
and every dollar spent off of the contract
and then we laid it all bare till we made the grade.

And before he went this fine old gent,
finding gifts went to sift through his spend reports.
From the top to the bottom he reached in and got ’em,
spend trends for me, and variances from torts.

And the higher-ups got presents too,
Banned suppliers and a stale contract.
A bloated pie ’bout as clear as the sky,
the best that money couldn’t buy.
Cause money could never ever buy the feelin,
the one that comes when there’s no concealin’
of your spend by a tool that’s new
and that’s what Strovink’s does for you.

The dude ya read’s back at the keys,
up late till all’s where it should be.
But if he were right here tonight,
he’d say Truthful Spending and to all a good night!

* As most of you are aware, Opera Solutions acquired BIQ this year and has begun folding it into their solution offerings, offering BIQ Exploratory Analytics as one of their Vertical Offerings and using it to power parts of their VEKTOR platform.

P.S. For my new readers, this cheerful verse is the result of a sly comment by Eric over on e-Sourcing Forum back in 2007 on How Not to Get a Job.

P.P.S. For those of you who’d like to be spend rappin’ too, please download the new white paper on Spend Visibility: An Implementation Guide. No registration required. It’s the best boxing day gift your organization will ever get!

Christmas Rappin’


by Curtis Blow
mp3
 on YouTube

(Since it’s difficult to find complete and well-formatted lyrics on the web.)

Don’t you get me all that JIVE about things you wrote before I’s alive,
Cause this ain’t 1823 – ain’t even 1970!
Now I’m the guy named Kurtis Blow and Christmas is one thing I know,
So every year, just about this time, I celebrate it with a rhyme!

Gonna shake it, gonna bake it, gonna make it good,
Gonna rock shock rock you through your neighbourhood.
Gonna ring it, gonna sing it till it’s understood.
My rap’s about to happen, like the knee you was slappin;
Or the toe you been tappin’ on a hunk of wood.

‘Bout a red suited dude, with a friendly attitude
and a sleigh full of goodies for the people on the block.
Got a long white beard, maybe looks kind of weird,
and if you ever seen him he could give you quite a shock.

Now people let me tell ya about last year
when the dude came flying over here.
Well the hawk was out, the snow’s on the ground,
folks stayed in to party down.
The beat was thumping on the block,
and I was dancing in my sock,
and the drummer played at a solid pace,
…
and a taste of the base was in my face.
…
And the guitar player laid down a heavy layer
of the funky junky rhythm of the disco Beat.
And the guy with the 88 started to participate,
and I could sure appreciate it sound so sweet.

We were all in the mood so we had a little food,
and a joke, and a smoke, and a little bit of wine,
when I thought I heard a hoof on the top of the roof.
Could it be or was it me, I was feeling super fine.
So I went to the attic where I thought I heard the static

on a chance that the prance was somebody breaking in.
But the noise on the top was a reindeer clop,
Just a trick St. Nick, and I let the sucker in.

He was roly, he was poly and not the holy moly,
you got a lot of whiskers on your chinny, chin, chin.
He allowed, he was proud of the hairy little crowd
on the point of the door where the skin should’ve been.

Get’s cool for a fool throwin’ out every yule
for a day on the sleigh where the cold winds blow.
So the beard maybe cleared, but I never have a-cheered
’cause it’s warm in the storm when it’s ten below.

I said you’re right it’s cold tonight,
Can you stop for a drop before you go?
He said “Why not if the music’s hot
and I’ll chance a dance beneath the mistletoe”.

So he went downstairs and forgot his cares
and he rocked the spot and danced like a pro.
And every young girl tried to rock his world,
but he boogie oogie oogied till he had to go.

And before he went this fine old gent,
finding gifts went to sift through his big red bags.
In the top for the bottom he reached in and got ’em,
toys for the boys, and for the girls flat rag.

And the grown-ups got some presents too.
A new TV and a stere-u.
A new Seville ’bout as blue as the sky,
the best that money couldn’t buy.

Cause money could never ever buy the feelin,
the one that comes from not concealin’
the way you feel about your friends
and this is how the story ends.

The dude ya read’s back at the pole,
up north where everything is cold.
But if he were right here tonight,
he’d say Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

Iasta: Smart Source-Style! Part I.

Iasta: Smart Source-Style! Part I.

It’s 2012 and your fiscal year is coming to an end.
It’s time to get a handle on organizational spend.
Because if you don’t, you will find that the Mayans were dead on.
And in 2013, your organization will be gone.

But there’s no need to worry because, Iasta’s got (To the tune of Gangnam Style)

Sourcing Smart-Source Style.
Smart-Source Style.

Sourcing platform for users and bosses too. Sweet.
SaaS on the cloud, always on, real-time reporting complete. L33t.
Analyze this. Auctions, Performance. Real time data.
Optimize It. Contracts, and vendor schema.
One. Two. Smart-Source Success!

So what’s changed since we last covered Iasta in depth in 2008/2009? Especially since the solution footprint looks the same from a cursory review of their web site? If you’re taking a thirty-thousand foot view, not much. But if you take the time to get down in the weeds, everything!

The biggest changes are:

  1. Native Analytics Capability
  2. Improved (Native) Contract Management Capability
  3. Better, Integrated, SIM and SPM Capabilities
  4. Extensive Support for Third Party Data Feeds
  5. P2P Integration Capabilities
  6. Customizable Reporting and Dashboards for Users and Executives
  7. A Broader Services Offering

Native Analytics Capability
A few years ago, Iasta was dependent on third parties like BIQ, now part of Opera Solutions and Spend Radar, now part of SciQuest for their spend analytics capability. And while they still make use of third parties for initial cleansing and classification in new initiatives, they now have the same slice-and-dice reporting capability that you’ll find in any other sourcing suite on the market. (And while it doesn’t have the data analytics power of best-in-class solutions like BIQ, it is the 80% solution for most sourcing departments, especially in the mid-market, which typically have very little insight into spend.)

Improved (Native) Contract Management Capability
A few years ago, Iasta’s contract management capability was limited to the definition of a few meta-data elements. Now, it’s a fully featured contract management offering that allows for storage and indexing of all your contracts, authoring of new contracts, and automated reporting for SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) to keep you out of stripes like Fox.

Better, Integrated, SIM and SPM Capabilities
You wouldn’t know it from their web-site, but Iasta has developed some fairly extensive built-in SIM/SPM capabilities that your organization can use to track compliance, performance, sustainability, and risk data elements that can have an impact on your sourcing events. In addition, this is integrated with the supplier data that has always been collected in the RFX module and the contract data in the contract module and all of this data can be sliced and diced by Iasta’s built-in analytics and reporting modules.

In Part II we’ll cover the remaining significant changes.

Robbie and the Coupa Factory, Part II

Oompa Loompa Doom-pa-dee-do
We can’t stop building products for you!
Oompa Loompa Doom-pa-dah-dee
If you are wise you’ll try it tout-de-suite

What do you get when you’re UI obsessed?
Teams of coders who are distressed
Until they reduce the clicks to one or two
That’s what the ‘loompas will do for you.

Coupa is still trying to make the easiest end-to-end e-Procurement platform on the market, and still innovating new releases on a quarterly cycle.

So what’s changed since our last update in July?

  1. A greater focus on the front office.
  2. A stronger focus on supplier support.
  3. Better Inventory Management.
  4. Universal Search.
  5. Transactional Spend Analysis.

A greater focus on the front office.
This shows up in the form of better budget visibility and better contract management. In Coupa, a user can see what the budget impact of a requisition will be before they submit it, not after the fact. This feature is more powerful than it appears to be on the surface. For example, in one large retail client, every department that used Coupa was under budget, while every department that did not use Coupa was over budget. When people see the impact of a purchase before they make it, they are much more frugal.

With respect to contracts, Coupa has set up a “contract dropbox” where all contracts can be uploaded to the system and real-time spend dashboards by contract. Again, this may not sound that important until you realize that without such dashboard, the average user in an organization does not see the importance, and impact, of a contract. When spend quickly adds up, it becomes clear not only which products and suppliers are critical to the organization, but which contracts — and it also becomes a trivial exercise to determine the cost of buying off contract, which is where a lot of the savings leakage occurs in an average organization. The reality is that most savings available to an organization in the majority of non-strategic and non-high dollar categories lie in off-contract spend. In many organizations, just getting the majority of spend on contract can increase savings 50%. (Given that, on average, savings leakage is 40%, and the majority is due to maverick spending, shifting another 30% of spend on-contract where only 60% of spend was on-contract before increases savings opportunities by 50%.) For example, one company saved 120K in one year just be getting bottled water on contract with Staples!

A stronger focus on supplier support.
Suppliers, who are never charged by Coupa (as this greatly increases the odds that they will use the system) will soon be able to invoice their Coupa clients any way that they want to. In addition, a lot of effort has been put into insuring that their UI is as easy to use as the buyer’s UI.

Better inventory management.
Coupa has created a new API for inventory management and the system can automatically determine if the order is for internal inventory or external inventory. In addition, it now supports configurable lists for items bought on a regular schedule, which support par levels and auto-buy calculations based on current inventory to make it simple for a user to do regular re-orders. In addition, the system can auto-generate GL codes based on user, department, and commodity so that the re-order is charged against the right budget and filled by the right contract.

Universal Search.
One thing that Coupa learned is that its average user did not want to leave Coupa and punch-out to a third party site to find a product or service they needed to accomplish their day-to-day job. In response, Coupa now includes punch-out and other external products and services from partner-sites through scraping and auto-loads. In addition, they have integrated back-end reporting that lets Procurement know when prices change.

Transactional Spend Analysis.
They have implemented a basic data analysis tool (GoodData) that lets a user slice and dice spend by contract, commodity, department, and other basic measures so that they can better understand the Spend Under Management through the Coupa System. While not a replacement for a full-fledged Data Analysis Engine, it now has the same power as any package that contains a canned set of spend visibility reports and a basic report building engine, which is impressive for a Procurement platform. No more heavy lifting in Excel for the simple stuff for sure!

Oompa Loompa Doom-pa-dee-do
They can’t stop building products for you!
Oompa Loompa Doom-pa-dee-dar
They have the goal to take your spend far.

Optimizing Your Procurement Technology Investments


This post originally ran on March 24, 2009.

The Sourcing Interests Group recently ran an interesting article on “optimizing your procurement technology investments in 2009”. Although it had some good suggestions, my top five suggestions would be the following:

  1. Get Visibility Into Your Spend (Spend Analysis)
    If you don’t know how much you’re spending on each category, sub-category, product, and service, who you’re spending it on, in what amount, by unit, you need to get this visibility. Get a good spend analysis solution and dive in!
  2. Take Your Strategic Sourcing up a Notch (with e-Sourcing)
    Start with the most attractive savings opportunities that were outlined in step 1. This is your best bet to negotiate big savings in this downturn.
  3. Focus on Contract Compliance (adopt Contract Management)
    You need to enforce hard-won savings by insuring that internal staff and suppliers are compliant with contractual agreements.
  4. Implement e-Procurement
    Done right, this will make it easy for your buyers to buy on contract.
  5. Get a Grip on Global Trade (adopt Trade Visibility solutions)
    Chances are your global sourcing endeavors are needlessly costing you more than you think! As per my recent Illumination on why you need trade visibility, you’re probably paying more than you need to on duty, using costly inefficient processes, paying unnecessary document preparation costs, and making costly errors that are costing you million of dollars a year.