Spend analysis is an essential component of procurement and purchasing. It refers to the process of collecting, categorizing, and analyzing an organization’s spending data to identify opportunities for cost savings, process improvements, and compliance with regulatory requirements. Spend analysis technology offers a range of features such as data visualization, supplier performance tracking, and predictive analytics to help organizations better understand their spending patterns.

Purchasing Magazine recently did something I wish they’d do more of taking a look at one sector and listing information about the major vendors in that space. In this particular instance, the space that Purchasing examined was spend analysis technology in “Purchasing’s Guide To Spend Analysis.” It offers a valuable resource for procurement and purchasing professionals looking to evaluate different spend analysis technologies, but a deeper analysis and pricing information would further enhance its usefulness.

In this Guide, Purchasing identifies over a dozen providers of spend analysis technologies, gives a bullet-point list of each vendor’s key features, and includes a “supplier claim.” One exercise in apparent futility was having a “pricing” field. All the vendors withheld their pricing, listing something like “annual subscription fee” or “fee is based on a number of users” or something else that is of no value whatsoever to the reader.

I definitely give Purchasing kudos for making this Guide available. I hope that they continue to offer such resources, which their readers will surely find to be useful. They will be even more useful if they offer a deeper analysis of the various solutions (possibly with a one- to five-star rating scale or a capabilities checklist/table) and force the vendors to give pricing, at least on some type of “typical pricing range for a company with $1B in annual revenue and 75 users” basis.

Become a member of one of the world’s largest procurement associations today.

Recommended Reading

• Competitive Bidding
• Supplier Guide
• How To Cut Procurement Certification Time In Half
• Procurement Shall Not Save On Spend Analysis Alone
• Procurement Risk

Visit NLPA Learning, the new home to all of our certifications and online courses. NLPA Learning also includes learning resources, including live and on-demand webinars, publications and reports, articles, templates, white papers, and much more!