In today’s digital era, every business is on a constant quest to optimize operations and strategies. Procurement, an integral part of any organization, is no exception. Procurement analytics has emerged as a powerful tool that can transform the procurement process, driving efficiency, cost savings, and data-driven decision-making. But what exactly is procurement analytics? Let’s demystify it!

What is Procurement Analytics?

Procurement analytics is a systematic approach that leverages data and statistical methods to derive valuable insights from historical organizational data. These insights then become the catalysts for decision-making, strategy formulation, and procurement process optimization. In simpler terms, procurement analytics takes the bewildering array of figures and data related to procurement and presents it in a clear, easy-to-understand manner. It’s like having a magic crystal ball that reveals crucial business insights!

Why is Data Analysis Important in Procurement?

With data becoming the new oil, its significance in every sector is undeniable. In procurement, data analytics plays a pivotal role in optimizing spending and enhancing efficiency. Organizations invested in procurement analytics access extensive data, which can be analyzed using statistical analysis, data mining, and machine learning techniques. The result is an improved understanding of the data, identification of spending patterns, establishment of relationships between different data types, and prediction of future trends. In short, data analysis is the key that unlocks the treasure trove of insights hidden in procurement data.

Benefits of Procurement Analytics

Procurement analytics offers a plethora of benefits that can propel your organization towards success. Here’s a rundown of some key advantages:

• Enhanced Decision-Making: Real-time access to crucial data enables procurement professionals to make informed decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information.
• Cost Optimization: By analyzing spending patterns and identifying areas of waste, organizations can uncover cost-saving opportunities.
• Supplier Performance Management: Analytics allows businesses to track and evaluate supplier performance, fostering strong and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
• Risk Mitigation: Procurement analytics provides real-time visibility into supplier data, market conditions, and regulatory compliance, aiding in the proactive monitoring and mitigation of potential risks.
• Process Efficiency: Automation of manual tasks such as data entry and invoice processing reduces errors, saves time, and frees up resources for strategic activities.

How Analytics Can Be Used in Procurement

Procurement analytics can be a game-changer at all stages of the procurement process. Here’s how:

Planning and Sourcing

During the planning stage, organizations determine what products or services to procure and when. The procurement plan guides the buying process, ensuring the right products or services are procured at the right time. In the sourcing stage, data analytics can be used to understand trends in supplier pricing, quality, and delivery time, helping to select the best-fit suppliers.

Contract Award and Management

The contract award and management stage involves awarding a contract to a supplier and then managing it over its term. Analytics can ensure that the supplier meets their contractual obligations, monitor spending against the contract, and aid in the renewal or termination of the contract.

Supplier Performance Management

Supplier performance management involves monitoring and managing supplier performance to ensure it meets the organization’s needs. Analytics can set performance targets, measure progress against those targets, and take action to improve performance as needed.

Spend Analysis

Spend analysis involves understanding how an organization spends its money. This includes identifying spending patterns, understanding what drives spending, and finding ways to reduce or optimize spending.

Why is Procurement Analytics Helpful for Businesses?

Procurement analytics provides a baseline for understanding business operations and identifying growth opportunities. It allows organizations to have a better understanding of their spending, which in turn, enables them to save money. In this day and age, it is important for companies to be as cost-effective as possible, and procurement analytics is one way to achieve this goal.

What Are the Key Activities in Procurement Analytics?

Procurement analytics involves several activities that can improve decision-making. These activities generally include:

• Analysis of Past Activities: Past procurement data is analyzed to identify trends, patterns, and relationships that can be used to make better decisions in the future.
• Predictive Analytics: Predictive analytics is used to predict future trends. This involves using data from past years to predict how prices for certain commodities might fluctuate in the future, which can then be used to help organizations make more strategic decisions about their procurements.

Applying Procurement Analytics in Business Operations

Procurement analytics can be used in several ways, depending on an organization’s specific needs. Some of the most common applications include:

• Spend Analysis: Spend data analysis is one of the most important types of procurement analytics. This analysis looks at an organization’s spending patterns to identify areas of waste and potential savings.
• Contract Management: Contract management involves analyzing data from contracts to improve the negotiation process, identify errors or discrepancies, and ensure that the terms of the contract are being met.
• Supplier Performance Analysis: Supplier performance analysis allows you to track performance of suppliers over time and identify any issues that may arise.

What Does a Procurement Data Analyst Do?

Procurement data analysts play a crucial role in procurement analytics. They need to have strong analytical skills and communicate their findings to stakeholders effectively. Their responsibilities include:

• Identifying Trends and Areas for Improvement: Analysts review spend data and conduct market analysis to help identify trends and areas of improvement within the process.
• Analyzing and Communicating Insights from Data: Analysts are responsible for analyzing data to support decision-making on sourcing, negotiating, and employing strategies. They also communicate these findings as actionable insights.

Importance of Analysts in Your Business

The role of a procurement data analyst is vital in organizations, as their work can directly impact the bottom line. With their skills and expertise, they can bring clarity to the numbers and help the organization make informed and strategic decisions.

Investing in Procurement Analytics for Success

Procurement analytics is a tool that companies should invest in to become more successful. It not only helps businesses grow but also ensures that this growth is more sustainable. It allows them to have a better understanding of their spending, which in turn allows them to save money.

In this day and age, it is important for companies to be as cost-effective as possible, and procurement analytics is one way to achieve this goal. With procurement analytics, companies can become more aware of their performance, preventing them from becoming complacent with their success.

In conclusion, procurement analytics is a powerful tool that can transform your procurement strategy, making it more efficient and cost-effective. By leveraging data-driven insights, organizations can make better decisions, optimize costs, and improve supplier relationships. So whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, investing in procurement analytics can be a game-changer for your procurement operations.

This is where Zapro steps in. Zapro is an innovative solution that offers advanced procurement analytics capabilities. With Zapro, you can gain real-time insights into your procurement processes, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. Experience the power of procurement analytics with Zapro today!

In the realm of business, the key to success hinges on effectively managing operational expenses and refining the procurement process. As the business landscape evolves, the expectation from procurement teams extends beyond mere cost reductions. To drive value beyond savings, procurement teams need complete and accurate information about the company’s transactions and the right analytical tools. This is where the concept of “spend analysis” comes into play.

What is Spend Analysis?

Spend analysis is a process that involves gathering, cleaning, classifying, and examining procurement spend data to uncover cost reduction opportunities, enhance efficiency, and promote value beyond savings. Essentially, it offers insights into an organization’s spend structure and helps bring about strategic changes.

In simpler terms, spend analysis is the practice of transforming raw data into valuable information. The insights derived from spend analysis can enhance spend-management visibility, facilitate sustainable cost reduction, and help achieve strategic procurement objectives.

Why is Spend Analysis Important?

The importance of spend analysis cannot be overstated. It brings numerous benefits to an organization, some of which include:

• Full Visibility on Spend: One of the primary benefits of spend analysis is that it provides complete visibility and actionable spend intelligence. It offers a comprehensive view of the metrics that drive improved cost savings, process efficiency, and supply-chain performance.
• Identify Savings Opportunities: Spend analysis helps meet cost reduction goals and also follow up on incremental savings initiatives. Improved visibility helps identify cost-saving opportunities by reducing wasteful and maverick spending.
• Streamline Operations: Spend analysis contributes to cost-effectiveness and process efficiency in many organizations. It reduces the cycle time for creating reports and ad-hoc analyses, thereby reducing labor costs and freeing up time for more productive work.
• Manage Risks: Good spend analysis data will allow you to track and identify suppliers who have non-contracted spend and spend with non-contracted vendors. Enriching spend data with suppliers’ credit scores and other revenue information can better assess your organization’s overall supply chain failure risk.
• Improve Supplier Performance: Once the organization determines which suppliers offer the best value, it can work with them to establish more evolved procurement processes and inventory programs.

What is Spend Analysis Software?

A spend analysis software is a tool that helps businesses collect and categorizes robust spend data from numerous sources, including POs, invoices, and other financial documents. It enables companies to analyze this data to gain insights, streamline their procurement processes, cut costs, and enhance their financial performance. Additionally, spend analysis software also help its users visualize their spending data and create graphical reports that make complex financial information more understandable to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Spend Analytics vs. Spend Analysis

Spend analysis is often used interchangeably with spend analytics. In reality, they differ in many ways. Spend analysis is the end-to-end collecting, cleaning, classifying, and analyzing procurement data to gain spending insights.

On the other hand, Spend analytics uses data analytics techniques to analyze spending data to spot patterns, trends, and cost-saving opportunities. It focuses more on statistical analysis and machine learning techniques.

The Process of Spend Analysis

A rigorous spend analysis process involves several key steps.

1. Identify Your Objective

The first step in conducting a spend analysis is to identify your objective. The purpose of the analysis will guide the entire process and help you locate relevant data patterns.

2. Identify Data Source

The next step is to identify all possible data sources across your organization. This includes data from accounts payable, general ledgers, ERP systems, and any other internal systems or external sources that contain relevant information.

3. Consolidate Spend Data

Once you have identified your data sources, the next step is to gather this data and consolidate it into one central database. This step may prove challenging as data may be in different formats, languages, and currencies, but it is crucial for a successful spend analysis.

4. Clean and Organize Data

Cleaning and organizing your data is a critical step in the spend analysis process. This involves removing errors and discrepancies in descriptions and transactions to ensure the accuracy of the data.

5. Classified Spend Data

Organize and categorize your consolidated spend data based on predetermined criteria. Classifying expenditures by department, type, or other relevant factors enhances precision in analysis and facilitates strategic decision-making.

6. Link Spend Data to Suppliers

Linking your spend data to the relevant suppliers is an essential step if your spend analysis objective is related to the supply chain. Grouping all purchases made from suppliers belonging to the same parent company will give you a clearer picture of your supply chain.

7. Develop a Category Strategy

Categorizing your spend data using a standardized category system can provide spend-management visibility and help you achieve sustainable cost reduction.

8. Analyze Spend Data

The last step in the process is to analyze your data using your spend analysis tools. Measure your spend data against key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand your performance.

9. Repeat Regularly

Given that your spend data is continuously changing, it is crucial to perform regular spend analysis. Regular analysis can help you uncover new savings opportunities, identify new risks, and continually improve your procurement process.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Spend Analysis

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that demonstrate the effectiveness of a company’s business objectives. In spend analysis, KPIs are used to measure the effectiveness and performance of procurement management. Some common KPIs for spend analysis include:

• Process Efficiency Through Requisition-to-Order Time: Requisition-to-order time is the average period between the submission of a requisition and the issuance of a Purchase Order.
• Compliance Through Pre-Approved Spend: Pre-approved spend is the percentage of spend that is approved before an order is made.
• Savings Through Realized Saving: Realized savings is the amount of savings realized through supplier contracts.
• Supply Resiliency via Spend Consolidation: Evaluate the resilience of the supply chain through strategic spend consolidation.
• Risk Management: Assess the effectiveness of strategies in mitigating procurement-related risks.

Top Benefits of Spend Analysis

Conducting a thorough spend analysis can bring numerous benefits to your business. Here are a few key benefits:

• Reduce Maverick Purchasing: Maverick purchasing refers to purchases that do not align with your company’s procurement policy. Spend analysis can help track maverick purchasing and identify savings opportunities by minimizing this type of spending.
• Supply Base Reduction: Spend analysis can help identify opportunities for driving more value from fewer suppliers, leading to a reduction in your supply base.
• Free Your Working Capital: Spend analysis can help optimize your working capital. By identifying suppliers with lower-than-agreed payment terms, you can renegotiate these terms to free up working capital for other business needs.
• Reduce Delivery Delays: Spend analysis can help identify the reasons for delivery delays. If the delay is due to supplier performance, sharing this information with suppliers can significantly improve delivery performance.
• Minimize Supply Chain Disturbances: Spend analysis can help minimize disturbances in the supply chain by identifying single-sourced items and developing a multiple supplier base for these items.

The 14 Best Spend Analysis Software in 2023

Now that you know the features you must watch when selecting spend analysis software, it’s time to decide. To rid you of the burdensome task of researching the numerous options available out there, we have done the heavy lifting and shortlisted the 14 best spend analysis software that you can consider for your business needs:

Let us dive deeper into each of these tools and explore their features.

1. Zapro

Zapro is a spend analysis software that increases your working capital by reducing unnecessary spending and payables across your business units. It has earned the top spot on the list because it dramatically simplifies the purchase process and automates spend management like no other. Implementing Zapro for your spend analysis will guarantee you deliver strategic cost savings and secure reliable supply sources by leveraging its robust source-to-contract capabilities.

G2 Rating: 4.7 (14 Reviews) Free Trial: Available

Features:

• e-Procurement, Assisted Buying
• Hosted and Punchout Catalogs
• Services Procurement
• AP Automation and Compliances
• Store Management
• Contracts Lifecycle with Compliance Management
• Two Way, Three-way, Multi-Way Matching
• Cloud Deployment
• No Code Customizable Platform
• Slack / Teams Integration
• Reports and Analytics
• Webhooks and API Support

Pros:

• Gain a holistic, data-driven view across your supply chain and supplier base.
• Mitigate third-party risk and establish supplier compliance.
• Drive deeper collaboration with suppliers and vendor management.
• Reduce or eliminate eSourcing process workflow inefficiencies.
• Establish a seamless, high level of collaboration between stakeholders internal and external.
• Significantly reduce cycle times to accelerate business opportunities.
• Better manage spend to cut costs and increase savings across categories.
• Create contracts faster and more easily directly from sourcing events.

2. SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba is a cloud-based spend analysis software that helps businesses gain visibility into their spending habits and make data-driven decisions to reduce costs and improve efficiency. It offers a suite of e-procurement tools and analytics solutions that help streamline procurement processes, manage suppliers, and optimize spending.

Features:

• Automated data analysis to identify spending patterns and trends
• Customizable reports and dashboards for better spend analysis
• Supplier management tools for managing supplier relationships and optimizing procurement
• Direct B2B contacts and vendor base buildup

Pros:

• Customizable reports and dashboards allow businesses to track spending in real time.
• Supplier management tools improve procurement team efficiency.

Cons:

• SAP Ariba is a complex solution that requires significant setup and configuration, which can be time-consuming and challenging for small business units.
• The software can be expensive, which may not be feasible for small businesses with limited budgets.
• Some users have reported difficulty with the user interface and finding certain features.

3. Zycus

Zycus is a procurement software suite that offers a range of modules to help organizations streamline their procurement processes and reduce costs. Its flagship product, the Zycus Procure-to-Pay (P2P) solution, is designed to automate and simplify the procurement process from requisition to payment.

Features:

• Automates the procurement process from requisition to payment
• Manage contracts more efficiently by reducing the risk of non-compliance.
• Granular, consistent & timely data classification with AI technology.
• Multilingual data recognition.
• Intuitive & actionable dynamic dashboards with real-time data refresh.

Pros:

• Sufficient storage
• Ideal software for auditing
• Zycus Supplier Management helps organizations manage supplier relationships more effectively, reducing risk and improving supplier performance.

Cons:

• Inadequate technical advancements
• Poor customer service
• Some of the software’s more advanced features may require effective training and expertise.

4. GEP Smart

GEP Smart is an intelligent unified procurement software built to streamline direct and indirect procurement spending. The platform’s spend analysis technology comprehensively examines your business spend to promote reduced compliance issues, spending efficiency, costs, and wasteful purchases.

G2 Rating: 4.4 (23 reviews)Pricing: Available on request

Features:

• Supplier management and category management
• Integration with SAP ERP, Oracle ERP, JD Edwards
• Customizable reporting and dashboards
• Procure-to-pay capabilities

Pros:

• Scalable
• Provides an informative supplier performance analysis
• Advanced analytics capabilities for procurement optimization

Cons:

• Limited pricing plans

5. Happay

Happay is a T&E platform that leverages spend analysis technology to acquire accurate and elaborate information on spending, compliance, efficiency, and policy violations. Its spend analysis feature allows users to analyze, control, and optimize their costs to prevent overspending and improve decision-making.

G2 Rating: 4.5 (292 reviews)Free Trial: Not Available

Features:

• Customizable expense policies
• Integrates with Tally, QuickBooks

Pros:

• Smart audit features
• Efficient expense management and reporting
• Convenient for auditing

Cons:

• Subscriptions are limited

6. Precoro

Precoro is an innovative cloud-based software for small and mid-sized businesses for optimizing procurement processes. Precoro helps eliminate manual, error-prone procedures, improves visibility, coordinates purchase processes, and reduces expenses.

G2 Rating: 4.7 (114 Reviews)Pricing: Starting from $35.00/month Free Trial: Available

Features:

• Streamline the approval workflow by adding as many steps as you need.
• Automated operations and centralized purchasing processes only.
• Access data from anywhere with real-time tracking.
• Create, approve, and track POs or transfer orders from Amazon Business via Punch-in.
• Manage suppliers, item catalogs, inventory, and more within one platform.

Pros:

• It integrates with Slack, Zero, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Amazon Business Punch-in.
• It creates paperless approval by electronic purchase orders efficiently.
• It reduces staff time in the procurement process.

Cons:

• The inventory module lacks functionality.
• Lack of deep dive into visual analytics
• Editing POs is a complicated process

7. Sievo

Sievo Spend Analysis is a fully featured eProcurement software combining procurement expertise and machine learning for faster and more reliable spend visibility. It is designed to serve SMEs and startups and provides end-to-end solutions designed for Web App.

G2 Rating: 3.5 (3 Reviews) Pricing: Prices available on requestFree Trial: Available

Features:

• It categorizes the spend data, reducing the need for manual categorization with the help of advanced algorithms.
• It offers advanced data visualization tools that identify spending patterns and trends quickly.
• It allows businesses to measure actual and projected spend in real time across different departments.

Pros:

• It boosts the value of the contract lifecycle by merging spend data and contract management solutions.
• It allows businesses to design detailed budgets and forecasts based on transaction-level purchasing data incorporated from multiple sources.

Cons:

• It is a high-end software
• Meant for enterprise-level organizations only

8. ProcurePort

ProcurePort is a cloud-based procurement software that provides end-to-end solutions for Web-App designed to serve agencies and enterprises. It helps businesses automate their procurement processes, improve spending management and manage supplier relationships.

G2 Rating: 4 (13 Reviews)Â Pricing: Pricing available on request Free Trial: Available

Features:

• It automates the entire source-to-pay procurement process.
• It helps identify areas of potential savings and optimize procurement strategies through advanced analytics.
• It effortlessly integrates with third-party ERPs and requires minimal configuration.

Pros:

• It helps users create custom workflows and approval processes and can be customized to specific business needs.
• Its user interface is intuitive and user-friendly.
• It offers affordable pricing plans suitable to businesses of all sizes.

Cons:

• Its reporting system lacks advancement.

9. Ivalua

Ivalua is a procurement empowerment platform that helps businesses implement Source to Pay processes for all categories. It is designed for agility, performance, and scale. It is an industry-leading cloud environment that allows you to scale up or down with the highest security and performance standards, regardless of place or device.

G2 Rating: 4 (17 Reviews)Â Pricing: On Request Free Trial: Available

Features:

• Fully digitalized procurement and supply chain processes
• Manages all spending categories
• Improves transparency and data quality

Pros:

• Easy configuration and easy to use
• Meet your users’ needs, from custom UI and workflows to new forms and fields
• It collaborates with suppliers and other stakeholders by customizing processes to their needs

Cons:

• Fewer templates for e-Auction
• It doesn’t integrate easily with the existing platform and warehouse ERP for end-to-end automation
• Customer support could respond a bit quicker

10. Coupa

Coupa is a dynamic and intuitive cloud-based procurement software designed to help businesses manage their procurement processes, automate workflows, and improve spend management. The software is a time-saving and profitable solution, offering various features to streamline procurement workflows and improve supplier relationships.

G2 Rating: 4.2 (238 Reviews)Â Pricing: Pricing available on request Free Trial: Available

Features:

• It helps conduct events, with a feature to add project briefs to the sourcing events
• Its procure-to-pay features help businesses streamline procurement processes and reduce costs
• Its advanced expense management feature includes travel and expense management, invoicing, and payment processing

Pros:

• It is a one-stop shop for procurement needs as it offers a comprehensive set of procurement features
• It helps reduce risk and improve supplier performance
• It facilitates quicker approval processes that boost strong customer relationships

Cons:

• It does not support complete accounting
• It lacks a project accounting suite which may be challenging for project-driven organizations

11. Kissflow Procurement Cloud

Kissflow Procurement Cloud is a flexible procure-to-pay software that allows businesses of all sizes to streamline their procurement processes. The software solution offers everything from purchasing to vendor management in one platform. It also includes Purchase Orders, Purchase requisitions, Vendor Management, Purchase Invoicing, Analytics, and Integrations.

G2 Rating: 4.8 (2 Reviews)Â Pricing: Pricing available on request Free Trial: Available

Features:

• Quick implementation with the least disruption for businesses automating their procurement processes
• Tools to manage procurement needs for goods and services and address compliance requirements
• Self-service portals for suppliers to update personal data and receive notifications of new orders or pending payments

Pros:

• It has a flexible and modular solution approach
• It helps monitor product levels, place purchase requests, and track real-time status through automated updates

Cons:

• Master list updating is not automated
• Some features are a bit too rigid

12. Corcentric

Corcentric is an end-to-end global procurement provider of accounts payable and accounts receivable solutions. It offers full Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash solutions that focus on reducing costs, improving working capital, and unlocking revenue to transform how companies buy, pay, and get paid.

G2 Rating: 3 (5 Reviews)Â Pricing: On Request Free Trial: Available

Features:

• It includes Analytics, Sourcing, Supplier Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, Procurement, Invoice Management, Financial Management, and Payment solutions.
• Integrates data and workflows across purchasing, suppliers, finance, and contracts.
• Streamlines processes to save money, improve efficiency, reduce risk, and increase working capital to drive measurable results.

Pros:

• It provides a complete view of spend, suppliers, and contracts to help businesses maximize procurement performance.
• It enables frictionless purchasing, compliant spending, and streamlined payments.
• It improves working capital and cash flow with guaranteed payments, eliminates credit risk, and reduces DSO.

Cons:

• Functionality could be more flexible.
• The user interface is not intuitive.

13. JAGGAER

JAGGAER Spend Analytics is a platform designed to Identify savings opportunities and grow revenue that provides actionable insights across all spends. It specializes in uncovering areas for optimization, reducing unit prices, minimizing non-compliant spending, consolidating suppliers, and creating business unit collaboration.

G2 Rating: 4.4 (27 reviews)Pricing: Prices are available on request, and a free demo is available

Features:

• Contract management, spend analysis
• Supplier performance evaluation
• Customizable procurement workflows

Pros:

• Integration with SAP, Oracle, Coupa
• Procurement Analytics
• Efficient contract management

Cons:

• Custom pricing

14. Spend HQ

SpendHQ primarily focuses on solving spend visibility challenges for its customers. It is an easy-to-use spend analysis SaaS application that provides your internal partners and users with a clear overview of business spending. It is a good platform able to identify untapped savings opportunities, view benchmarks, and create custom reports.

G2 Rating: 4.6 (27 reviews)Pricing: Prices are available on request with the option of a free demo

Features:

• Supplier management, custom reporting
• Integrates with QuickBooks, NetSuite

Pros:

• Simplified supplier performance evaluation
• Customizable reporting and dashboards
• User-friendly interface

Cons:

• Deployment typically takes up to 3 months.

What to keep in mind when choosing the best spend analysis softw are

As promised, let’s take a look at the critical factors you must look into when selecting a spend analysis software before investing in a solution:

1. Spend Data Visibility

“Data visibility is essential to building a spend management strategy. It’s not, for example, knowing how many pens we purchased. The question becomes what are we doing with that insight to save money on office supplies.” – Joe Payne, Senior VP of Source-to-Pay at Corcentric.

Your company’s spending data is critical to the spending analysis puzzle. The more clarity you have on your spending patterns, the easier it will be to build a spend management strategy. So ensure you invest in a spend analysis software that gives you clarity on your company’s spending patterns.

2. Data Integration

The tool should be able to integrate with various data sources, such as ERPs accounting systems and supplier portals, to collect all the relevant spending data. Remember, by engaging in spend analysis software that smoothly integrates with your existing systems; you streamline your data transfer and accuracy.

3. Data Quality

The accuracy of your data classification is an essential factor affecting your spend analysis’s reliability. Hence your chosen tool must reflect this necessity and have robust data cleansing and classification capabilities. With such software, the accuracy and consistency of data will never be a problem again.

4. Customization

Every business has its unique processes, requirements, and goals. A good tool should be customizable and flexible enough to meet your organization’s and industry’s needs. So look for customizable software matching your terminologies, workflows, and other requirements.

Remember, your investment should allow you to tailor the spend software to bend to your company’s growing needs dynamically. In other words, it should have custom user permissions, roles, reporting, and dashboards.

Even the best customizations are only worthwhile if the software is scalable, takes time to deploy, and is too expensive. So pick a solution that can scale along with your growth, can be quickly deployed, and is cost-effective.

5. Analytics

Data visualization and reporting are two of the most critical capabilities any spend analysis software should have. The tool must provide easy-to-use data visualization and reporting capabilities, simplifying how you find key spend patterns and trends. Most importantly, it should give you all the information you need to make strategic data-driven decisions.

6. Supplier Management

Building strong relationships with vendors and suppliers is one of the most critical drivers of controlled spending. A capable spend analysis tool should allow you to achieve this. Let me explain. When your spend analysis software has supplier management capabilities that will enable you to track supplier performance and identify potential risks, it keeps you well informed of current market rates and allows you to negotiate better terms.

7. Security and Compliance

The tool should have robust security measures to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of your data. It should also comply with relevant regulations and standards, such as GDPR and SOC 2. Engaging in such software can safeguard your sensitive financial information from suffering a potentially damaging breach.

8. Easy UI

Even the best tool will only yield the intended results if its users embrace it. This also applies to the software you choose as your spend analysis software. For the tool to succeed, ensure it has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and use for both technical and non-technical users. The most successful tools can be instantly deployed and used without extensive training.

9. Support

However user-friendly the software is, there may come a time when you may need help troubleshooting an issue or require additional information on some of its features. When that time arrives, your spend analysis software provider should be ready to offer adequate customer support and training to ensure users can effectively utilize the tool and maximize its benefits. So find a provider that offers highly responsive customer support and is ready to walk you through any challenge or requirement you face.

Wrapping it Up

Improving spend analysis puts companies in the position to identify trends in time to take a proactive, rather than a reactive, approach that positions the company for the future.

Leaders who focus on spend analysis are well-positioned to meet the challenges of a modern business environment head-on. Finance leaders who fail to take spend management to the next level risk losing out on cost savings and efficiencies. There is also a real danger of falling behind by being unaware of the importance of spend analysis and not considering the consequences of ignoring this vital tool.

Discover Accelerated, Accurate Spend Analytics With Zapro

Zapro’s eProcurement solution is the best way to get value out of your spend. Our Procurement spend analysis platform will instantly enable you to drive powerful insights to cut costs and increase throughput across categories. If you’re still on the fence about the ideal software, why not try ours before you buy? Schedule a demo with us today to transform how you manage your business spend.

“Take your procurement strategy to the next level with Zapro. Trusted by 1,000+ companies.