Vendor and Supplier Use Case
A guide to implementing Auto Insights for a vendor and supplier use case, including data structure and sample questions.
Problem Statement
Procurement teams typically deal with the same scope of data but with different requirements for analysis; identification of cost savings, where should the team optimize pricing at, which supplier/vendor has been awarded multiple contracts across departments (key man risk), what has the past average price been at and if there's room for further contract negotiation.
An Example of Vendor and Supplier Data Structure
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Segments
A segment is a qualitative value, like names or categories. Here are some of the typical segments we find in vendor and supplier data:
Vendor attributes: Vendor name, vendor company size, vendor category
Product attributes: Product description, product sub-description, material description
Company attributes: Site/office location, project name, project description, entity
Other attributes: contract manager, contract status, ordering department, orderer name
Measures
A measure is a quantitative, numeric value. Here are some of the typical measures we find in vendor & supplier data:
Spend
Quantity purchased
Unit price
Average Unit Price per Product
Average Spend per Project
Average Spent per Department
Variance to Budget*
*To compare spending to budget and calculate variance to budget, you would need to upload a separate goals dataset. To learn more, go to the Upload Goals article.
What Sort of Insights Can Auto Insights Help Me Uncover?
Identify Cost Savings
Spend by site location
Unit price trend for Product last financial year
Optimize Pricing
Unit price trend by Product Category
Unit price trend by Product by Vendor
Unit price variance for a particular product
Spend by vendor
Support Supplier Negotiation and Vendor Management
Expired contracts by contract manager
Spend by contract status this financial year
Spend with preferred vendors last financial year
Spend with non-preferred vendors last quarter
Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly Reporting
Spend comparing contract manager in July 2021 vs June 2021
Spend comparing Departments in FY21 vs FY20
Average Spend per Project comparing Projects in FY22 Q1