Home Blog Reporting And Analytics – How Effective Are They In Procurement?

Reporting And Analytics – How Effective Are They In Procurement?

by Eyvo

Reporting And Analytics – How Effective Are They In Procurement?

Effectiveness of Reporting and Analytics in Procurement

When organizations adopt digital procurement, they look at it from a cost savings perspective but eProcurement goes way beyond that as we have discussed in our previous blog ‘Procurement Beyond Savings’. However, the points made in that blog are from a different perspective than what we are going to discuss now.

While we are not denying the fact that companies do take the reporting, budgeting and analysis features seriously, there are many who do not. Even if they do, the use of these features is not utilized to the best of their abilities.

Sometimes we do not realize the value of what we have unless someone points it out to us. In the same way, reporting is hidden behind all the other functions of digital procurement like creating a requisition or placing an order for materials.

The extent of reporting and analytics in procurement goes beyond just highlighting the spend and keeping control on maverick spending.

One of the many advantages of this wonderful feature called reporting is the power of visibility among many others. Let us look at the importance of reporting.

Importance of Reporting and Analytics

It is normal to think of what benefits can be achieved using reports or even if there are any benefits in the first place. There is often a misconception that if a procurement activity involves reporting, it must be complex. Or, the purchase order (PO) reports which are generated will be time-consuming to conclude. However, that is not the case.

The advantages of Reporting and Analytics in eProcurement lie much deeper than that. Most importantly, these reports have the power of providing visibility. While some organizations may think that the direct return on investment (ROI) from Reporting alone is zero but, the value is derived from the actions that are taken from the conclusions or deductions or as a result of the reports.

Here are a few benefits that can come out of Reporting and Analytics in digital procurement:

Increased transparency/visibility
One of the most important benefit that comes with this feature is in having visibility over every spend – be it total spend or category spend. Reports generate every detail of spend and aid immensely in spend tracking. An organization is seen to have a credible reputation in its procurement functions when it has spend knowledge and process visibility.

Trend Forecasting
Reports have the ability of forecasting trends based on previous results. This could be in spend tracking and forecasting how much a future deal would cost or it could be in forecasting when should the next order be placed tentatively based on previous consumption data.

Facilitates decision-making
Reporting and analytics come in most handy when a decision is to be made on selecting suppliers based on consistency. For example, if a supplier has been deficient with late deliveries or poor quality more than once or twice, the reports will show a downward trend against that supplier. This will help the purchasing department eliminate such suppliers and move on to better ones.

Value generation
Most of all, the reporting and analytics features generate value to companies. This value can be in the form of spend knowledge and process visibility, supplier performance, spend statistics and much more. Most companies look at value generation rather than just cost savings.

A different take on Reporting and Analytics

While the above benefits are a given, there are a few benefits which are not seen upfront. For example, in procurement, efficient reporting can also help to uncover inefficiencies or disconnected processes. This in turn will help the purchasing department or the person in charge take necessary steps to make the inefficiencies right and the processes to function correctly.

How can Eyvo help?

Eyvo’s eProcurement software provides reports in every module i.e. reports are available for the inventory module for the inventory manager, purchase order reports, etc. among many others. Further, our reports can be customized as per user requirements.

Our Dashboard provides users with crucial details like spend analysis e.g. Top Spend by Supplier, Buyer, Spend by Account Code, Category etc. Let’s take Top Spend by Supplier for example. This report will showcase the supplier and its code with the order value of each supplier and percentage of total order value. Similarly, our dashboard has many such reports which will help an organization in making the best decisions in their purchasing cycles.

Further, our eBuyerAssist also shows budgets available before placing an order. This means that the order amount will not exceed the budget and will help in faster decision-making. Not just this, our management reports are role-based. For example, an inventory manager will be able to view inventory reports and keep track of re-order quantity and so on.

Reporting and Analytics have been neglected by many if not all, for a long time. It is time you choose an eProcurement software that not only gives you customized reports but also helps you in faster decision making, process visibility and value generation. Eyvo does it all!