Analytics… Procurement’s new Best Friend.

ata-driven decision-making is the next frontier of business management systems.

Procurement is no exception from this fact.

Analytics has topped the list for “technologies to make the biggest impact in the next two years” in — both — the 2017 & 2018 Deloitte CPO (Chief Procurement Officer) Survey.

For analytics to make the wide-sweeping impact that they are capable of, procurement-related data — of course — must be reliable. Procurement professionals have begun to understand the importance of storing and compiling data in scalable solutions. Without an effort on the side of procurement teams to store data-sets habitually, analytics aren’t really a possibility.

When data is stored in an agile and scalable manner (preferably utilizing cloud-based solutions) there is a lot more room to play with that data.

But, let’s take a step back…

Before you and your analytics can start skipping down the sidewalk — holding hands and humming along to “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bob McFerrin — you’re going to have to take the steps necessary to ensure the quality of your procurement-related data sets.

45% of CPOs in 2018 believe that the “quality of data” is one of the main barriers to the application of technological solutions into procurement.

To ensure quality, data cleansing needs to be a focus. Obtaining quality data is typically an effort — contingent upon — the collaboration of several parties. Working from the assumption that suppliers have produced some of your procurement team’s supplier-related data, the accuracy of underlying data isn’t always 100%.

For this reason, stakeholders may not always share the same enthusiasm, of a procurement team, to start utilizing data as a means to make purchasing decisions. In fact, 30% of CPOs in the 2018 CPO Survey listed “limited senior stakeholder endorsement and prioritization”, an as a main barrier to the effective application of digital technology in procurement (Deloitte 2018).

While there are no absolutes in business… you can be damn sure analytics are going to play a big role in the future of procurement, and supply chain management at large.

Tell that to your senior stakeholders…

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