3 Barriers Blocking Your Procurement Data IQ

We’re nothing in Procurement without accurate data – but even with the latest technology, you may still find barriers obstructing the proper flow of your operations

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Are you running your contract management and spend reporting on spreadsheets? You’re not alone. Many procurement teams around the world are still struggling to gain reliable and accurate data.

Poor data leads to frustrated procurement pros

Data is one of the critical tools that every procurement pro needs to be successful. Yet we often don’t own the data, contracts or budget. We’re left with either manually tracking things through spreadsheets or trying to extract information from finance or P2P systems.

Procurement is often asked to provide supplier relationship history, category analysis plans, negotiation and pricing strategies, market scans of commodities and provide reporting on the performance of contracts. How often have we been let down by poor data? 

In this SpendHQ Masterclass series you will learn why Data IQ is integral for your organisation to thrive and we’ll give you tips on how to get started.

 What is Data IQ?

Data IQ describes the ability to have clean, accurate data combined with analysis tools to help you apply the information in a way that unlocks and transforms business operations.

Data IQ helps you to move away from the dreaded dirty data pitfall where a person or a crude code runs havoc on your raw spend material. Quality in = quality out! If the raw data isn’t coded or analysed in the right way then you will be missing out on opportunities you didn’t even know existed.

Why do we need Data IQ?

Data insights help the modern procurement practitioner to gain the necessary transparency on their supply chain and category. Without accurate data, it is impossible to have a sourcing and procurement strategy that ensures we as buyers are meeting our obligations and commitments to ethical sourcing.

Procurement is no longer about hard numbers and cost. There are many other assurance requirements that require quality data: 

• Modern slavery
• Diversity
• Sustainability
• Health, safety and wellbeing
• Risk

Upping your Data IQ game will help you to:

1. Build a roadmap for a category or sourcing strategy
2. Identify tail spend – the miscoded, uncoded or “rats & mice” that, on their own, don’t attract attention but signal wasted time and effort.
3. Improve compliance through visibility: you don’t need to rely on what people tell you – let the data talk
4. Improve supplier relationships. It is always surprising to learn how you actually spend with a supplier versus how much you thought you did. You can leverage unrelated business opportunities but negotiating with the supplier about your whole portfolio, not just one product line.
5. Improve decision making. Everyone involved in all layers of the organisation will be able to make more informed decisions when there is accurate, reliable data providing the foundation.

Barriers that are blocking your success

It seems these days it doesn’t matter if your organisation is running on spreadsheets or has a fancy P2P system. The holy grail of data source and conversion into meaningful information still seems to allude most of us.

But why?

3 reasons that block data IQ success:

1. Access. Data can be stored in multiple different locations and sources and held by different departments or in systems that don’t “talk” to each other. There are often complex permission levels that are required and procurement often won’t get a look in!
2. Time. Procurement pros are busy people! In a reactive environment where it feels like you’re fighting fires all day it can be too hard to carve out the time to tackle what seems like a monumental task.
3. Data doesn’t exist. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of a contract term and realising the organisation doesn’t have a copy of the original contract. Many procurement pros can relate to that awkward feeling when you have to ask your suppliers. If you’re finding yourself needing to rely on external suppliers for data or contract information then you need to up your data IQ game.

Looking for the answers to how to move forward on these blocks? Then register for the SpendHQ ‘Level Up’ your Data IQ podcast series now!