Spend Analytics Services

See where every pound goes, and where you can save.

Our spend analytics services help UK organisations turn messy purchasing data into clear savings opportunities. We collect, cleanse and classify your spend, analyse it by supplier and category, and give you a practical plan to cut costs and control spending. For Block Solutions, our analysis of supplier spend and agreements delivered £250k in immediate savings and identified a further £1m. Book a free consultation to talk through your spend data.

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What is spend analytics?

Spend analytics is the process of collecting, cleansing, classifying and analysing spending data to reduce costs, improve efficiency and monitor supplier performance. It breaks spend analysis into logical steps, which protects data quality and helps organisations find savings opportunities. By looking at where and why money is spent, businesses can make informed strategic decisions and get the best value from every pound.

The benefits of spend analytics

Understanding your spend is essential in a fast-changing market. One of the main benefits of spend analytics is finding cost-saving opportunities, which can significantly improve profitability. Spend analytics gives you a clear picture of your costs, and it also leads to real financial benefits and smoother operations.

With spend analytics, you can:

• Control your procurement and supply chain process using data. Gain visibility and control over spending, improve working capital and reduce costs.
• Spot savings by rationalising suppliers and negotiating better deals.
• Make the most of pricing opportunities, accurate classification and payment terms management.
• Improve visibility of spending and reduce unapproved, off-contract spend.
• Monitor and refine your procurement performance over time, to keep spending compliant and maximise returns.

What's included in our spend analytics services

You can use the full service or choose the elements you need.

Cost control

We show you where your spending comes from and why. This helps you improve cash flow, find potential savings and spot areas that need to change. Good contract management also plays a key part in improving compliance and supplier relationships, so we link spend back to the contracts behind it.

Identifying savings opportunities

We help you get more value from what you spend and cut wasteful spending. You receive impartial advice and end-to-end support, from first consultation to delivery. Effective supplier management is also essential for improving supplier relationships and strengthening your negotiating position, so our analysis covers your supplier base as well as your categories.

Data consolidation and analysis

We bring your spend data together from finance, purchasing and other systems into one dataset. You can invest heavily in spend analytics platforms such as GEP SMART, Coupa and Ivalua. Our in-house tools offer an alternative designed to deliver the same results. They speed up the process, so you get insight sooner and can act on it faster, at lower cost, with analysis tailored to your business.

Data cleansing and classification

Data cleansing and classification are critical steps in spend analysis. We remove errors, inconsistencies and duplicates from the data and sort it into spend categories that make sense for your organisation. The classified data is then used to create actionable insights, find savings opportunities and build cost-saving strategies. We can do this quickly without compromising data quality or classification.

Actionable insights

We cleanse, convert and transfer your data for full analysis on our analytics platform. The analysis gives you a clear strategic sourcing path to savings: the opportunities, the savings strategy and the actions to take.

Seamless implementation

We load your cleansed data into our secure environment, giving you access to a wide range of analytical tools and custom analytics views.

Advanced spend analysis tools

Our tools give you commercial insight, from understanding your supplier portfolio to spotting market trends and finding savings opportunities.

Training

Understanding spend analytics is one thing. Applying it well is another. Our training programme helps your team use our platform and our outputs, and covers wider procurement and commercial strategy, so they can keep finding savings.

Ongoing support

We offer flexible support options. Our service desk, with self-service features, is ready to help whenever you hit a problem, so your work carries on smoothly.

Spend analytics software

If you want your own platform, we partner with ISPnext to provide spend analytics software as part of a full source-to-contract suite.

Not sure what your data can tell you? Book a consultation and we will talk you through it.

How we work

Our spend analysis process follows five steps. Each step has a clear output, so you always know where the analysis stands.

1. Scope and collect. We agree the period, entities and data sources to cover, then collect your spend data from finance, purchasing and contract records. Output: agreed scope and raw dataset.
2. Consolidate and cleanse. We bring the data together and remove errors, inconsistencies and duplicates, including duplicate supplier records. Output: one clean dataset.
3. Classify. We sort every line of spend into categories that make sense for your organisation. Output: classified spend cube.
4. Analyse and find savings. We analyse spend by supplier, category and business unit, benchmark against the market and identify savings opportunities. Output: savings opportunities and a recommended plan.
5. Act, train and monitor. We help you deliver the savings, train your team on the outputs and set up ongoing reporting so performance keeps improving. Output: savings delivered and a monitoring dashboard.

Proof: results from our spend analytics work

£250k savings and a supplier database delivered for Block Solutions

Block Solutions needed to find supplier cost savings and improve visibility of its key supplier agreements. We analysed the supplier agreements, identified cost-saving opportunities and built a central database of supplier contracts. The database includes a detailed schedule of goods and services and a summary of key commercial terms. - Result: £250k in immediate supplier savings, and a further £1m in potential savings identified through a recommendation plan. - Read the Block Solutions case study

£2m savings and stronger supplier management for Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey faced challenges managing supplier relationships and negotiating cost-efficient contracts with key IT suppliers. We worked with the procurement and IT teams, negotiated with major suppliers and put in place a best-practice framework and tools for supplier performance management. - Result: £2m in cost savings from negotiations with Dell, Cisco and IT software providers. - Read the Johnson Matthey case study

More savings results

• £9m savings through a revised contract model for Fujitsu.
• Supply chain strategy supporting a £150m investment for Broadway Partners, with sourcing led across all categories.

Our own framework credentials

Public sector buyers can access our services through government frameworks. - G-Cloud 14 – Athena secures a place on G-Cloud 14 - DOS 7 (Digital Outcomes and Specialists), Lots 1 and 3 – Athena awarded a place on DOS 7

Sectors we support

Defence

Defence organisations and their supply chains often have spend spread across many suppliers, sites and programmes. Spend analytics gives you one view of it. Our team holds Security Check (SC) clearance, so we can work with sensitive data.

NHS and health

NHS and health organisations face constant pressure to get value from every pound. Clean, classified spend data shows where buying can be consolidated, where off-contract spend is happening and where frameworks could deliver better prices.

Construction

Construction spend is spread across projects, subcontractors and materials suppliers, which makes it hard to see the full picture. Spend analytics brings it together so you can compare suppliers, control project costs and support open book pricing.

Technology

Technology spend is often fragmented across licences, subscriptions, hardware and services. Analysing it can reveal duplicate tools and unused licences. For Johnson Matthey, negotiations with Dell, Cisco and software providers secured £2m in savings. Read our practical steps to reduce IT costs.

Your partner in spend analytics

Whether you want to control costs, work more efficiently or understand your spending better, our spend analytics services are designed to deliver real results by improving your procurement processes. With our expertise and tools, your procurement will work harder and every pound will go further.

Talk to us about turning your spending data into actionable insights and better decisions.