7-2.1 Requirements

The CMCs within the Postal Service are ultimately responsible for the purchase of goods and services that allow the Postal Service to function. As explained in Section 1-11, Define Requirements, every client and every CMC has specific requirements for the products and services that they purchase, and this information must be known throughout every CMC. When developing category strategies, the actual requirements and objectives of the client are the basis for any planning. Analyzing and understanding the client’s needs (once identified) are the foundation of any category strategy, as explained in Section 1-1, Define and Understand Client Needs, Goals, and Strategies. These objectives are used to develop a category strategy.

Spend analysis is also used to discover what financial requirements exist and to plan for the eventual allocation of monetary resources. Spend analysis (which is generated from data that describe the amount spent, number of suppliers used, clients served, purchasing locations, and commonality of suppliers) is properly carried out in Section 2-8, Conduct Spend Analysis. Spend analysis is an extremely important tool that must be leveraged to understand what dollar amounts are spent on each commodity and, inherently, on each supplier. In SCM, knowing what financial resources are required for purchases is extremely important to developing category strategies.