One of the most important tools for procurement professionals when planning for strategic purchasing decisions is having the ability to access solid and reliable data. But when it comes to making the same decisions with non-strategic and lower-value spend in the tail, oftentimes, swathes of transactional data flows through the process going uncaptured and under-utilised.

In early March 2020, Wakefield Research led a survey for Tealbook-Research with procurement leaders in which 96% of them agreed that focusing on agility is more important than cost savings for their companies’ bottom line in the long term.

For many companies, managing tail spend is a big challenge - throw small teams who are seperated geographically into the mix and the challenge may seem too big to tackle.

As we’ve shown through this blog series, getting the process right is key to unlocking the enormous potential of unmanaged spend.

Once a complex contract is signed there can sometimes be a natural sigh of relief. But it is important to keep in mind that the process shouldnt come to an end quite yet. Contract management is the single most impactful thing you can do to ensure cost-savings continue to be made in the tail.

It’s said that Steve Jobs once commented: “If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution”. And as we reach the end of part 2 of our Tail Spend Management series, we find ourselves exactly here. In part 1, we used analysis to drill down into tail spend habits, clearly profiling the problem. Now we’ve piloted our solution by running a number of beta tests in the real world. So how much have you got right? In this blog we’ll look back at the key steps of effective testing and find out why this stage is all about building a strong and sustainable supplier network.

Tender results are in - now selecting your suppliers and getting to work with them needs to be seamless. Speed to contract can be a big barrier for small suppliers looking to work with large organisations, yet a reduced tender-to-contract time benefits everyone. In this blog we’ll look at how to create a streamlined and successful route to contract, ensuring a swift process which results in gaining what you need from each contractor relationship.

Anything new takes time to settle in. Psychology shows that people are innately opposed to change - so to succeed in managing your tail spend long term, you need to make sure new processes have a chance of being adopted into working culture.

Action: How to set up an effective beta test The test phase of your plan is where the real world comes in. Any new process needs rigorous testing and evaluation to demonstrate efficiency - and refining the product is an essential part of planning. In this blog we’ll investigate how to set up your first tenders to test your new programme - and find out why choosing the right projects is critical to success.