There's No Supplier Relationship Management Without Spend Analytics

Managing relationships between people who share a common goal is hard enough, but procurement professionals have it harder than most. Their success depends on lowering costs while working with vendors who are focused on maximizing them.

This tension can quickly create a difficult dynamic. But as Pierre Laprée, Chief Procurement Officer at SpendHQ said in a recent interview, “When you look at how the world is changing, one of the tricky things that Procurement is facing is managing scarcity and overcoming shortages. For me, the only way to address this is by becoming a customer of choice for your suppliers.”

So how do you conduct supplier relationship management in a way that positions you as a customer of choice and look out for the business’ best interests at the same time? 20+ years of Procurement experience have shown us that the answer lies in understanding organizational spend. Here are three supplier relationship factors spend analytics allow you to see.