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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