Tag Archives: procurement
Spend Analytics Use Cases: AI & Data Science
In this post, you will learn about the high-level concepts of spend analytics in relation to procurement and how data science / machine learning & AI can be used to extract actionable insights as part of spend analytics. This will be useful for procurement professionals such as category managers, sourcing managers, and procurement analytics stakeholders looking to understand the concepts of spend analytics and how they can drive decisions based on spend analytics. What is Spend Analytics? Simply speaking, spend analytics is about performing systematic computational analysis to extract actionable insights from spend and savings data across different categories of spends in order to achieve desired business outcomes such as cost savings, …
Tail Spend Management & Spend Analytics
Do you know where your business is spending its money? And more importantly, do you know where your business SHOULD be spending its money? Many businesses don’t have a good handle on their tail spend – the money that’s spent on things that are not essential to the core operations of the company. Tail spend can be difficult to track and manage, but with the help of spend analytics tools and machine learning, it’s becoming easier than ever before. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what tail spend is, how to track it, and how to use analytics and machine learning to make better decisions about where to allocate your …
Supplier Relationship Management & Machine Learning / AI
Supplier relationship management (SRM) is the process of managing supplier relationships to develop and maintain a strategic procurement partnership. SRM includes focus areas such as supplier selection, procurement strategy development, procurement negotiation, and performance measurement and improvement. SRM has been around for over 20 years but we are now seeing new technologies such as machine learning come into play. What exactly does advanced analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) have to do with SRM? And how will AI/ML technologies transform procurement? What are some real-world machine learning use cases related to supplier relationships management? What are a few SRM KPIs/metrics which can be tracked by leveraging …
ESG Metrics & KPIs and ESG Reporting Concepts
This blog post is geared toward Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) professionals looking to understand different aspects of ESG and some metrics that can be reported via ESG reports as part of their organization’s ESG reporting in relation to representing the sustainability aspect of their business. An understanding of different aspects of ESG can help you in getting started with ESG initiatives and ESG reporting. ESG initiatives can help companies improve their overall sustainability factor while creating a positive impact on environmental, social, and governance issues. Getting started with ESG-related practices in your organization or department (such as procurement) requires a set of ESG initiatives and related performance measures including …
Procure-to-pay Processes & Machine Learning
The procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle or process consists of a set of steps that must be taken in order for an organization to procure and pay for goods and services. Procurement is the process by which organizations purchase goods, supplies, equipment, or services from outside sources. The procurement function may also serve as an intermediary between two internal departments or divisions that have overlapping needs. In this blog post, we will discuss how AI / machine learning can be leveraged to automate certain procure-to-pay processes such that procure-to-pay teams can focus on core business goals. What is the procure-to-pay cycle or process? The procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle or process is defined as …
Supplier risk management & machine learning techniques
Supplier risk management (SRM) is a serious issue for procurement professionals. Suppliers can be unreliable, have poor quality products, or fail to meet specifications. In this blog post we will discuss AI / machine learning algorithms / techniques that you can use to manage supplier risk and make your procurement process more efficient. What is supplier risk management? Supplier Risk Management (SRM) also known as Supplier Risk Optimization (SRO), refers to policies and technology that enables organizations to manage risks related with suppliers. This can be done by analyzing data about past purchases from the supplier, predicting future risks related with purchases from this particular company. It’s crucial for procurement …
Machine Learning Use Cases in Procurement
This post represents some of the important machine learning use cases in the procurement domain. These use cases can also be categorised as predictive analytics use cases for procurement. The list is not aimed to be exhaustive. However, some of the most important ones are listed. In case, you would like to add one or more use cases which I might have missed, pls feel free to suggest. The following are five key business function areas / department in procurement department. Demand management Category management Supplier management Sourcing management Contract management In all of the above function areas, there can be multiple use cases which can take advantage of machine …
