2-8.2 Define and Extract Data

Spend information from the client organization needs to be defined and gathered to begin the spend analysis process. Data collection can be a large effort, depending on the level of sophistication, usage, and degree of integration of the back-office systems.

Typical data elements required to understand the spend analysis include:

• Purchasing organization.
• Supplier name and number.
• Category name and code.
• Commodity name and code.
• Spend amount.
• Quantity.
• Number of purchase orders, deliveries, and invoices.
• Contract number.
• Purchase and invoice transaction types.

Typical sources of spend data include:

• Relevant information systems (e.g., Finance, including accounts payable, supplier master file; Purchasing, such as Corporate Supply Management Open Strategy [COSMOS]; and Asset Management, such as Material Distribution Inventory Management System [MDIMS]).
• Purchase card management reports.
• Manual systems (e.g., spreadsheets).
• Hard-copy invoices, purchase orders, and contracts.
• Stakeholder interviews.
• Supplier interviews.