Don't you just love a recession? If anything, it focuses the mind of business owners, management teams, CEOs and executive boards of SMEs and larger corporations. Keeping business procurement costs as low as possible while maintaining profitable sales revenues is always a balancing act. It is one which becomes more difficult to achieve in times of recession. Analysing costs and maintaining supply chain performance is good practice, not only in times of recession.
Spend management infographic courtesy of Vendigital
Accelerate business performance
The fastest route to accelerated business performance is by way of spend analysis. This is a strategy which demands that all the disciplines of the supply chain are seamlessly integrated. Whether it is buying or sourcing, spend management or payment settlement and management of accounts, everything has to be efficiently managed. In order to improve supply chain efficiency and maintain and improve sales, specialist analysis will be required.
This is not a process which is easily managed by humans; rather, specialist analysis software will take care of all the aforementioned elements and more besides. In addition, analysis by software of the entire supply chain will also highlight the following:
- supply chain risks
- savings opportunities
- maverick spending
With these resources in the hands of an in house buying team and management structure, valuable business intelligence will drive forward efficiencies and accelerate business performance.
The cornerstone of a business
Spend analysis is essential for maintaining cost efficiency within the entire supply chain. It is the cornerstone of reducing costs, maintaining margins and delivering benefits long into the future. Spend analysis takes on an urgency in times of recession; practices which are put in to place within a procurement strategy which delivers benefits in recessionary times will reap greater rewards as the economy improves.
Collating information
Often the buying and procurement process within a business is somewhat fragmented. Utilising spend analysis software which is hosted on a cloud platform enables all stakeholders to seamlessly operate together. Instant access to real time data and business modelling means issues which develop as a result of using multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP/MRP) systems do not materialise.
Management of the software and platform via a simple GUI typically enables instant access for a stakeholder once they have been set up on the system. The resulting database becomes a repository of information and analysis tools, all of which can be applied seamlessly (together or standalone) to deliver cost efficiencies and long term benefits.
Procurement professionals are able to monitor much more effectively day to day operations. Risk is mitigated and any issues which might arise can be set up to generate a flagged message long before the issue becomes critical.
Keeping a lid on business costs and supply chain risks is an element of operations which, if managed strategically, will have long term benefits.
In times of recession it becomes even more essential – your survival could depend upon it.