...Individual Assignment Goods Spend Analysis Prepared by: Date: January 13, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. Goods Spend Analysis: How is it conducted? 4 3. Key Triggers 5 4. How spend analysis fits the procurement strategy 6 1. Introduction Spend analysis is the process of collecting, cleansing, classifying and analyzing expenditure data with the purpose of reducing procurement costs, improving efficiency and monitoring compliance. It can also be leveraged in other areas of business such as inventory management, budgeting and planning, and product development. There are three core areas of spend analysis - visibility, analysis and process. By leveraging all three, companies can generate answers to the crucial questions affecting their spending, including: ▪ What am I really spending? ▪ With whom am I spending it? ▪ Am I getting what’s been promised for that spend? Spend analysis is often viewed as part of a larger domain known as spend management which incorporates spend analysis, commodity management and strategic sourcing. Companies perform spend analysis for several reasons. The core business driver for most organizations is profitability. In addition to improving compliance and reducing cycle times, performing detailed spend analysis helps companies find new areas of savings that previously went untapped, and hold onto past areas of savings that they have already negotiated. Benefits of Spend Data Management: [pic] ...
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...Spend Analysis Lisa Fitzsimons BUS 307 Instructor Peter Thuleen 02/23/2015 Spend analysis is a process that an organization can perform that will allow them to identify wasteful spending and increase company profits. A spend analysis will also show spending patterns and bottlenecks that occur, which will increase company long-term savings (Sharfaei, 2013). This process may be difficult and time consuming, however, with cooperation with each department and proper data analysis and presentation, a spend analysis will be extremely beneficial in the long run. The following information describes what a spend analysis is, skills and tools needed for the data analysis, how a Six Sigma methodology will help with a spend analysis, and what makes up the analysis team who will work to create the spend analysis. What is a Spend Analysis Spend analysis is the application of quantitative techniques to purchasing data in an effort to better understand spending patterns and identify opportunities for improvement. This process involve collecting, cleansing, classifying, and analyzing the expenditures within an organization with the purpose of reducing procurement costs, improving organizational efficiency, and monitoring organizational compliance (Bozarth & Handfield, 2012). A spend analysis can be used to identify a number of different questions regarding where is the bulk of company spending, how much is the organization spending with their suppliers, and does the organization...
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...Importance of Employee Development Learn why creating formal employee training and development strategies is essential for the continued success of your business. ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form May 1, 2005 Many entrepreneurs seem to view employee training and development as more optional than essential...a viewpoint that can be costly to both short-term profits and long-term progress. The primary reason training is considered optional by so many business owners is because it's viewed more as an expense than an investment. This is completely understandable when you realize that in many companies, training and development aren't focused on producing a targeted result for the business. As a result, business owners frequently send their people to training courses that seem right and sound good without knowing what to expect in return. But without measurable results, it's almost impossible to view training as anything more than an expense. Now contrast that approach to one where training's viewed as a capital investment with thoughtful consideration as to how you're going to obtain an acceptable rate of return on your investment. And a good place to start your "thoughtful consideration" is with a needs analysis. As it relates to training and development, a needs analysis is really an outcome analysis--what do you want out of this training? Ask yourself, "What's going to change in my business or in the behavior or performance of my employees as...
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...HBR.ORG ApRil 2012 reprinT F1204A Good Data Won’t Guarantee Good Decisions Most companies have too few analyticssavvy workers. here’s how to develop them. by Shvetank Shah, Andrew Horne, and Jaime Capellá Idea Watch For artIcle reprInts call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500, or vIsIt hbR.oRG Good data Won’t Guarantee Good decisions FIRSt G Most companies have too few analytics-savvy workers. Here’s how to develop them. by Shvetank Shah, Andrew Horne, and Jaime Capellá lobal businesses have entered a new era of decision making. The ability to gather, store, access, and analyze data has grown exponentially over the past decade, and companies now spend tens of millions of dollars to manage the information streaming in from suppliers and customers. For all the breathless promises about the return on investment in Big Data, however, companies face a challenge. Investments in analytics can be useless, even harmful, unless employees can incorporate that data into complex decision making. Our research offers a succinct warning to managers. At this very moment, there’s an odds-on chance that someone in your organization is making a poor decision on the basis of information that was enormously expensive to collect. To help organizations measure and improve employees’ facility with data-driven decision making, Corporate Executive Board created the Insight IQ, which assesses the ability to find and analyze relevant information. We evaluated 5,000 employees at 22 global...
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...2012 Spend Analysis I. Introduction The current condition of the economy in the United States (US) and increased economic pressures has reinvigorated many companies to rethink their purchasing practices. One of the best ways for a company to evaluate its spending patterns is through a spend analysis. “A spend analysis is the process of determining what is being spent, with whom and for what” (Hingorani, 2010, p. 58). In order to accomplish this task companies must use software programs to import and aggregate data from multiple systems. This paper will explore several components of the spend analysis process including the risk of using software programs alone to analyze spending patterns; how Lean Six Sigma processes might be useful when developing a spend analysis process, and why it is important to involve multiple functional areas, most notably finance. II. Relying on Software Alone While software programs offer a great platform for organizing data they do not provide a method of cleansing data. What I mean is, spend data can be housed in many different databases, and trying to consolidate the data correctly can prove to be very difficult. Ever heard of the saying “garbage in, garbage out”? That is exactly what you might get relying solely on software programs to complete your spend analysis. This is where analytical skills and critical thinking become very important when setting up a spend analysis process. First, you must determine...
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...Plan by Linda Pophal www.stratcommunications.com Marketing is an exciting process and one that lends itself to creativity, enthusiasm and innovation. Preparation of a marketing plan requires information that is available within the organization (e.g. sales data) and information that is external to the organization (e.g. demographic trends). Development of a marketing plan can be approached in a variety of ways and, of course, is impacted by the size of the organization, the number of products and services offered and the number and size of the target market segments. Generally, though, each marketing plan will share certain common elements and the approach will be very similar to the one described below. Follow these steps to provide focus and direction to your marketing planning process. 1) Situation analysis A situation analysis, according to the American Marketing Association (AMA), is “the systematic collection and study of past and present data to identify trends, forces, and conditions with the potential to influence the performance of the business and the choice of appropriate strategies.” The situation analysis involves a thorough review of your industry, your market and your competition. Industry analysis What industry does your organization consider itself part of? Are you in the health care industry? The banking industry? The textiles industry? The transportation industry? What is the status of that industry in terms of its position in the marketplace? The airline industry...
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...When we think of risk management techniques, our first thoughts are to evaluate what are risks are then create value by purchasing insurance to protect potential financial loses. Others start creating financial nest eggs by placing money into savings. While both techniques are valid techniques, they are but pieces of a larger risk management pie that requires techniques to consider when looking into solutions for optimal risk management. There are many perspectives on how to manage financial risk but for the purpose of this analysis I will be evaluating two specific experts Dr. James Kallman and Robert S. Kaplan and Co-Author Annette Mikes on their techniques for managing risk. Dr. Kallman utilizes a risk management solution tree which involves the GEICO approach, these risk prevention techniques include: Government mandates, Education, Information management, Contractual Transfer, and Operations Management; these techniques preserve assets, save lives, and save risk financing costs. In analyzing Robert Kaplan & Annette Mikes techniques requires a qualitative distinction between the risk levels in order to properly categorize them as Preventable risk, Strategy Risks, or External Risks, with the belief that we can influence risk by not buying into standard forecasting and biases which leads to misreading ambiguous threats. After analyzing both Dr. Kallman’s assessment of Financial Risk Management techniques and comparing to Robert S. Kaplan & Annette Mike’s techniques I believe...
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..................3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................4 Advantages of opening new branch in South East London .........................................6 Disadvantages of opening new branch in South East London .....................................7 Literature Review .........................................................................................................8 PEST analysis ...............................................................................................................9 SWOT analysis ............................................................................................................11 Michael Porters five forces ..........................................................................................13 Boston Consulting Group ............................................................................................15 Stakeholders Analysis ..................................................................................................17 Lewins Model ..............................................................................................................19 Research Methods .......................................................................................................21 Primary research method...
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...understand the important role that business plays in the economy and its influence on your standard of living, imagine a world in which you personally had to produce everything you consume. You would have to grow your own food, sew your own clothes, cook all of your meals, and build your own car, computer, cell phone, house, and furniture. It would be impossible to actually complete all of these activities on your own. Only a fraction of these activities could be completed because it takes a lot of time and resources to learn how and to build a car, computer, house, and so forth. Time and resources are scarce, and people have to make choices about how they spend them. Because business is present in the economy, we are able to consume and enjoy many more goods and services than we otherwise could if we had to produce everything on our own. You eat food that is grown and often prepared by someone else. Your clothes are sewn by someone else. Your car, MP3 player, computer, and cell phone were produced by someone else. The movies you watch and the music you listen to were all created by someone else. If you produced everything on your own, you would have little access to medical and dental care. These items are a part of everyday life and would not be available if not for markets and business. For-profit and nonprofit organizations play important roles in the economy. For-profit organizations produce goods and services, and provide employment with the primary goal of generating financial...
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...the twentieth century, Harvard Business School professors Robert Eccles and Nitin Nohria reframed Drucker’s view to offer a perspective of management that few others have seen. “To see management in its proper light,” they write, “managers need first to take language seriously.”2 In particular, they argue, a coherent view of management must focus on three issues: the use of rhetoric to achieve a manager’s goals, the shaping of a managerial identity, and taking action to achieve the goals of the organizations that employ us. Above all, they say, “the essence of what management is all about [is] the effective use of language to get things done.”3 The job of becoming a competent, effective manager thus becomes one of understanding language and action. It also involves finding ways to shape how others see and think of you in your role as a manager. A number of noted researchers have examined the important relationship between communication and action within large and complex organizations and conclude that the two are inseparable. Without the right words, used in the right...
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...Performance improvement strategy Strategy goals Strategic goals are long term planning of any company or organization" Strategy in business, is the combination of planning and decision- making that prepares an enterprise to achieve long-term goals and manage the consequences of contemporary decisions. "A lesson learned was that one needs to properly construct long-term objectives to be able to align to the company strategic goals. This helped in some development of my strategic plan .For instance, if the CEO of a company wants to establish a strong competitive position and cares less about profits in the short-term, then a possible strategy would be to keep prices low in order to establish the within market. In order to arrive at an objective,...
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...Week One – DQ 1, What is the definition of marketing? What are the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating marketing into the sales function of an organization? Do you think that marketing should be included as part of the sales organization within a company? Explain why or why not. Marketing is the foundation, direction, and/or functions an entity uses to produce a product, service, or idea and makes certain that the product, service, or idea they produce reaches consumers. There are a couple benefits and drawbacks to incorporating marketing into the sales function of an organization. The benefits of incorporating marketing into the sales function of an organization is the marketing function can decrease operating expense defining the consumer’s needs and wants which will decrease the cost. The drawbacks of incorporating marketing into the sales function of an organization deals with micro marketing and macro marketing. Being socially responsible and ethical to both, consumers and non consumers, may increase sales costs, due to production costs, and decrease sales profits (Perreault, Cannon, McCarthy, 2011). I do feel that marketing should be included as part of the sales organization within the company because services that the company provides in a marketing sales aspect can apply the analysis so that the consumers needs and wants can be analyzed. Perreault, W. D. Jr., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. (2011).Basic marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach (18th...
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...Planning in Administration because the administrating team does majority the tedious task to make the daily operations run more smoothly. So the big question is why is Strategic planning so important in administration? Strategic planning is so important because it is the “road map” to the success of the company. It helps a company have more organization on where to focus, where resources will disburse and to make sure everyone is on the same page. Strategic planning is critical to business success and differs from classic business planning; the strategic variety involves vision, mission and outside-of-the-box thinking. Strategic planning gives you a better understanding on where you want your company to go, not necessarily how you're going to get there. However, like all other "travel plans," without knowing where you want to go, creating details on how to arrive are meaningless. Strategic planning defines the "where" that your company is heading. Mission Statement According to ( Businessdictionary.com 2013), a mission statement is “A sentence describing a company's function, markets and competitive advantages; a short written statement of your business goals and philosophies” Strategic planning starts with defining a company mission. A mission is important to an...
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...1. Why are environmental scanning and analysis important to marketers? They are important to marketers because you can gather information about forces in the environment and get to interpret it then you can market based on what you feel would be the best way to either use or avoid the forces. 2. What are four types of competition? Which is most important to marketers? The four types are brand competitors, product competitors, generic competitors, total budget competitors. Brand competitors are most important to marketers because the products are very similar. 3. Define income, disposable income, and discretionary income. How does each type of income affect consumer buying power? Income is how much money people make. The more they make the more they are willing to spend. Disposable income is what you get after tax. The less taxes that get taken out will make your more be able to spend more on products. Discretionary income is disposable income available for spending and saving after individual has purchased their basic necessities. If people still have enough money after getting what they need they will be more able to spend money on what they want. 4. What factors influence a buyer’s willingness to spend? Willingness to spend is inclination to buy because of expected satisfaction from a product. A products price and value also influence almost all of us. Another factor is if people have the power to buy. 5. What are the goals of the Federal Trade commission? List the...
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...The Role of Management Accounting in the Organization The purpose of management accounting in the organization is to support competitive decision making by collecting, processing, and communicating information that helps management plan, control, and evaluate business processes and company strategy. The interesting thing about management accounting is that it is rare to find an individual within a company with the title of “management accountant.” Often many individuals function as accountants within the organization, but these individuals typically operate as financial accountants, costs accountants, tax accountants, or internal auditors. However, the ability to develop and use good management accounting (which covers a lot more ground than the product costing done by cost accountants) is actually an important ability for many individuals, including finance professionals, operational and marketing managers, top-level executives, and information technologists. Generally, in a very large company, each division has a top accountant called the controller, and much of the management accounting that is done in these divisions comes under the leadership of the controller. On the other hand, the controller usually reports to the vice president of finance for the division who, in turn, reports to the division’s president and/or overall chief financial officer (CFO). All of these individuals are responsible for the flow of good accounting information that supports the planning...
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