2018 Innovator Forum on Business Intelligence

Many procurement teams have embraced the role of data analytics in the past several years. Some have purchased spend analytics software to help them understand spend patterns at a deeper level, and some have built procurement data warehouses and created engaging scorecards and analytics to be shared with internal customer groups. As procurement has advanced in analytical capability, it is important to make sure that the function does not become predominantly a report generation engine. If we are to make a major impact on value creation, then procurement needs to advance toward producing true business intelligence. This requires us to go beyond spend pattern reviews and to bring advanced data analytics to the table to answer bigger, strategic questions. Answers to the strategic questions usually requires strong data analysis capabilities. The Innovators Forum group is focused on advancing their business intelligence functions to the next level and believe it is a critical practice area regardless of size or capability.

How can we ‘sell’ the idea that a greater procurement business intelligence capability is needed? A common mistake that many procurement leaders make is starting from the proposition that new technology is required. The Innovators argue that a better approach is to start with the questions or outcomes that the executive team is trying to resolve.

Let’s assume for this discussion that you are the Chief Procurement Officer and you need to convince the Chief Financial Officer to support your proposal to invest greater resources in business intelligence. The Chief Financial Officer is wrestling with big strategic questions and is charged with finding the funds to deliver on various strategic priorities. The economic model for most universities has changed over the years such that state funding is unreliable, federal funding is not as robust, and there is considerable pressure to make college affordable. Therefore, the ability to increase tuition rates is challenged. It is natural that when faced with a set of management challenges all of us will gravitate to the easier solutions first before pursuing the more difficult courses of action. In this scenario, increasing tuition rates is the path of least effort. However, now comes the reality that to continue innovating and competing for the best students, the executive team must deploy some of those more difficult solutions. The Chief Financial Officer wants to know how you as the Chief Procurement Officer can be an ‘essential strategic partner’ and help him or her to find the resources necessary to fund the university’s strategic priorities.

Read on to see what the Innovators Forum group suggests for your elevator speech to convince the CFO to support your proposal for increased business intelligence resources. Download the full report here.

 

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