Introduction
Your company’s strategic spending management is the most important task you can perform. An effective strategic spend management program will help your organization deliver better services, meet tighter deadlines, and reduce costs. And if you don’t have one? You’re probably not going to be able to keep up with other organizations that do! So how do you begin? In this article we’ll explore six ways in which a company can improve its spending process:
Centralized procurement
When you centralize procurement activities and make them a higher priority, you can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your company’s procurement function. It’s important that each business unit has an individualized approach when it comes to purchasing products or services. For example, if a department needs to procure items from another department within your organization, then they should work directly with that team member instead of going through someone else (who may not be familiar with their needs). This also applies to vendors who work closely with multiple departments within your organization; having multiple points of contact will help ensure that all parties are on the same page when it comes time for negotiations or other matters related directly back to product development itself!
Delegated procurement
Delegated procurement is a process of outsourcing the procurement function to a third party. It is an excellent option for large organizations that want to focus on their core business and manage their internal resources more efficiently. For smaller organizations, delegating this role can be challenging because they do not have enough in-house expertise or knowledge about the market, but it’s worth trying out because it will save time and money by eliminating unnecessary processes like sourcing from multiple sources at once or bargaining with suppliers who don’t meet your needs exactly.
Consortia purchasing
A consortium is a group of pharmaceutical companies that come together to share resources, such as manufacturing sites and research facilities. This allows them to engage in greater economies of scale, which can help reduce the overall cost of producing a drug.
A consortium purchasing arrangement can also be effective for other purposes: for example, a manufacturer may want to maintain control over its product development process while still trying to get better pricing from suppliers. The best way forward here is through creating an internal committee whose members represent all stakeholders within your organization (including salespeople). Once this committee has agreed on how it will approach negotiations with external suppliers, you should start implementing changes so that everyone knows what’s expected from both sides—and why those expectations exist!
Standardized contracts and templated statements of work (SoW)
A contract is a binding agreement between two parties. A statement of work (SoW) is a document that defines the scope, requirements, and deliverables for a particular project or service. SoWs can be written in different ways depending on the type of work being performed, but they all provide clear guidelines for both parties to follow during negotiations, and as such are essential for effective strategic spend management efforts.
The benefits of standardized contracts and templated statements of work include:
- Improved communication – written agreements allow you to clearly define what will be done by whom; this helps avoid costly misunderstandings later down the road when it comes time for payment or billing terms. Plus, having these documents available ensures everyone has access to them at any time if questions arise during negotiations or prior commitments have been made—plus, who wants another email thread about why something wasn’t delivered? Everyone wins!
Centralization of the services management function
The benefits of centralization are many, but the most important is that it allows for a single point of contact for all services management activities. This can be done at either the project level or the program level.
For example, if you have a number of different projects under development with overlapping timelines and goals, each team will need to manage its own internal processes while also supporting your overall strategic objectives. A centralized service organization can provide this support by providing services such as sourcing vendors and managing contract negotiations on behalf of multiple teams within your organization.
Contract compliance and performance monitoring
In the event that the contract is not being met, it is important to ensure that you have adequate monitoring in place so you can take corrective action as necessary. This can be done through frequent reviews of contracts and monitoring performance on a regular basis.
Effective governance, reviews, and reporting processes
Effective governance, reviews, and reporting processes
If you want to be effective in your strategic spending decisions, it is important that you have a clear understanding of how your organization is governed. Governance provides a framework for decision-making, and as such, it can help ensure that the organization is acting in the best interests of its stakeholders. This includes developing policies and standards for key areas such as:
- Governance structure (e.g., board)
- Board composition (e.g., gender diversity)
- Risk management practices
The more you do to manage your spending effectively, the better off you will be.
The more you do to manage your spend effectively, the better off you will be. You need to have a good spend management strategy in place and then work with your team on processes and tools that support it. You also need good people who can help collect data from different departments and use it effectively to make informed decisions about how much money each department should spend or not spend on any given project. Finally, there needs to be governance so that everyone knows what’s going on throughout the company so they are accountable for their actions (and those around them).
Conclusion
We hope you’ve found this article helpful in starting to manage your spending more effectively. We want to reiterate that the best way to do this is through a combination of centralized procurement—where all your contracts are in one place and accessible to all employees—and delegation so that each department can make its own decisions about what they need when they need it, and at what price point. This approach will ensure that you aren’t wasting money on unnecessary purchases or ending up with too much paperwork in your finance department!
