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 a book-end, we've explored how creating a proper process puts you a great position to be able to tackle tail spend but we firmly beleive that behind that process should be a great tech solution helping you to join the dots.
How tech can bring the plan together
Our client - a global property firm - has more than 20,000 staff spread across 400 offices worldwide. Like a lot of large businesses, after time, supplier category pools can become overpopulated with it becoming increasingly difficult to work out, from the hundreds of options available, who the best providers might be. The client wanted an easy way to consolidate their growing supplier bases but also give multiple stakeholders the ability to do this collaboratively.
With the process and planning in place, we focused the test stage on their recruitment pool. Three complex recruitment projects were launched on the platform simultaneously to ascertain the health of the supplier pool and to benchmark providers for consolidation.
The platforms ability to quickly and intuitively assist in the creation of Statements of Requirements and scoring criteria meant that stakeholders were able to start the process with the best chance of success from the outset. Once up and running, each tender was able to be monitored and assessed in real time from multiple locations, enabling stakeholders to quickly view the data and collaborate for the best outcome, which in this instance resulted in a reduction of suppliers from 130 to 30 and a chance to negotiate better contracts which has provided visibility to a forecasted saving of around £750k per annum.
Why data visibility matters
The other benefit this client gains from having a smart tail spend management platform - and another positive of automation - is the data collection opportunities it now provides. This powerful by-product of digitally transforming the purchasing process starts to build a bigger and better picture of exactly how money is being spent, by whom and when, leading to better informed buying decisions and the ability to forecast the traditionally unforecastable.
Our clients achieve a purpose-driven process, made easy by using an intuitive centralised platform which not only helps procurement teams tender and contract more efficiently but also automatically captures and presents data linked to spending patterns.
This combination delivers a straightforward, efficient and informed method for both sourcing and contracting which delivers results. The tendering process is made easy with built-in approvals, pre-set governance, user hierarchy and CPO oversight.
For our real estate customer, these initial proof of concept projects transformed their recruitment category - and having proved the concept here, we’re ready to move on into other areas of the business, to consolidate, streamline and increase spend visibility further.
To find out how Maistro can help you gain better visibility in your own tail, get in touch for a demo
