Driving smarter decisions
How analytics tools are shifting the culture the of procurement
SPONSORED BY
Procurement is no longer simply about pricing negotiations and cost-cutting. It’s now a strategic driver of innovation and efficiency. It reflects a shift in business priorities from reactive measures to agile, forward-thinking activities that drive competitive differentiation, risk management, and long-term growth. Best of all, these shifts are driven by powerful analytics tools that are easy to use.
Here's a guide to managing these shifts and a roadmap for how your organization can implement and benefit from them.
Shift 1:
From reactive to predictive
Advanced analytics are driving procurement transformation and empowering teams to forecast budgets (and key performance metrics) with greater accuracy by examining historical trends, real-time purchasing data, and market fluctuations.
The old way
Traditional procurement
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Reactive mode, responding to needs as they arise
Frequent budget overruns
Missed opportunities for cost savings
Inventory bottlenecks
Smarter supply chain management
Seizing cost savings
Increased spend control
Predictive mode, anticipating purchasing needs and aligning with business goals
Click through the anomalies to see what they mean to your business.
From reactive to predictive
Fragmented data, siloed visibility
Shift 3:
From traditional analytics to AI-powered
AI is driving the trend of predictive purchasing strategies. It can help identify patterns such as cost fluctuations and make recommendations on the next best actions to take. Interactive, visual dashboards offer easy-to-understand insights to users no matter their analytics experience level.
The old way
Traditional procurement
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Real-time data insights
Faster, smarter decisions (amid complexity of global trade, supply chain disruptions, and inflation)
Improved accuracy
With powerful analytics and insights at their disposal, the role of procurement teams is increasingly-strategic. Improved spend visibility lets teams zoom in on areas such as supplier and spend policy compliance and set KPIs that support business priorities.
Shift 4:
From cost-cutters to value creators
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Creators of longer-term business value
Case-by-case negotiators
The old way
Traditional procurement
Unclear opportunities for cost savings
The old way
Traditional procurement
Cost-saving opportunities surfaced by analytics tools
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Procurement operating in a silo, impacts isolated to one function
The old way
Traditional procurement
Procurement aligned with strategic business goals
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
New skillsets are necessary to seize the advantages of AI-powered procurement. Organizations can support teams by instilling an agile, problem-solving culture where every member is empowered to automate processes or reallocate resources to align with business goals.
Shift 5:
From dependent to empowered teams
Need to run decisions up the chain before acting
Reliant on outdated data
Procurement teams dependent on analytics and data experts
Teams empowered to make decisions quickly
Able to act on real-time data
Empowering procurement teams with data literacy
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
The old way
Traditional procurement
Enable analytics-powered procurement with Amazon Business today.
Sponsor content is produced in collaboration with advertisers by Insider Studios, the branded content team at Insider Inc. Insider's editorial staff is not involed in the creation of this content.
Learn more
Learn more
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
The old way
Traditional procurement
Error-prone, manual analysis
Decision-making made difficult through poor visibility, lack of agreement on factors involved
Insights based on periodic data, or reports requested from analysts
The old way
Traditional procurement
Fragmented data, siloed visibility
The old way
Traditional procurement
Increased costs from maverick spending
The old way
Traditional procurement
Case-by-case evaluation of spend decisions
The old way
Traditional procurement
Fragmented data, siloed visibility
The old way
Traditional procurement
Increased costs from maverick spending
The old way
Traditional procurement
Case-by-case evaluation of spend decisions
The old way
Traditional procurement
Delays and inefficiencies caused by waiting for approvals
The old way
Traditional procurement
The old way
Traditional procurement
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Error-prone, manual analysis
Decision-making made difficult through poor visibility, lack of agreement on factors involved
Insights based on periodic data, or reports requested from analysts
Case-by-case negotiators
The old way
Traditional procurement
Case-by-case negotiators
The old way
Traditional procurement
Creators of longer-term business value
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Unclear opportunities for cost savings
The old way
Traditional procurement
Cost-saving opportunities surfaced by analytics tools
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
Missed opportunities for cost savings
Frequent budget overruns
Reactive mode, responding to needs as they arise
Seizing cost savings
Increased spend control
Predictive mode, anticipating purchasing needs and aligning with business goals
The new way
Analytics-powered procurementent
The old way
Traditional procurement
Find out more about how Amazon Business can help centralize your procurement function.
Sponsor content is produced in collaboration with advertisers by Insider Studios, the branded content team at Insider Inc. Insider's editorial staff is not involed in the creation of this content.
Learn more
How can I make purchasing easier for my teams?
Use Guided Buying features to help steer employees toward preferred products and suppliers, limit purchasing to approved items, and create easy-to-follow buying guidelines.
You can also create buying groups, assign specific permissions, and use Single Sign-on (SSO) to streamline access.
How can I buy more efficiently?
Amazon Business offers several ways to buy more efficiently:
Use bulk buying to get instant savings on products
Create reorder lists for frequently purchased items
Set up buying policies with transparent guardrails
Take advantage of quantity discounts starting from just two units
Use the Request for Quote tool for large volume purchases
How can I configure my Amazon Business account?
Your Amazon Business account lets you:
Add team members with specific roles
Create buying groups to organize purchases
Set up approval workflows
Configure account permissions based on roles or groups
Two new technologies build on Amazon’s deep understanding of purchasing — and your organization’s purchasing history — to help save time and money. The new Amazon Business Assistant provides AI-powered purchasing guidance through an easy-to-use chat interface. New Spend Anomaly Monitoring gives you more awareness and control over rogue spend.
Smarter purchasing and spend tracking
Delays and inefficiencies caused by waiting for approvals
Case-by-case evaluation of
spend decisions
Increased costs from maverick spending
How can I make purchasing easier for my teams?
Use Guided Buying features to help steer employees toward preferred products and suppliers, limit purchasing to approved items, and create easy-to-follow buying guidelines.
You can also create buying groups, assign specific permissions, and use Single Sign-on (SSO) to streamline access.
How can I buy more efficiently?
Amazon Business offers several ways to buy more efficiently:
Use bulk buying to get instant savings on products
Create reorder lists for frequently purchased items
Set up buying policies with transparent guardrails
Take advantage of quantity discounts starting from just two units
Use the Request for Quote tool for large volume purchases
Manage costs and budget constraints
Business Essentials offers sharp pricing on the essential items that keep your business running smoothly. Quantity discounts and optimal pack sizes provide budget-stretching savings.
Your Amazon Business account lets you:
Add team members with specific roles
Create buying groups to organize purchases
Set up approval workflows
Configure account permissions based on roles or groups
There’s more to efficiency than AI. Amazon Business has responded to its enterprise customers’ growing needs through a new program called Business Essentials. This program simplifies business buying and makes it easier to find relevant items in business-friendly pack sizes, with fast delivery — making business buying easier.
Simplifying everyday procurement
Advanced analytics are driving procurement transformation and empowering teams to forecast budgets (and key performance metrics) with greater accuracy by examining historical trends, real-time purchasing data, and market fluctuations.
Shift 1:
Driving smarter decisions
How analytics tools are shifting the culture of procurement
Smarter supply chain management
Inventory bottlenecks
Increased spend control
Frequent budget overruns
Predictive mode, anticipating purchasing needs and aligning with business goals
Reactive mode, responding to needs as they arise
The new way
Analytics-powered procurement
The old way
Traditional procurement
New skillsets are necessary to seize the advantages of AI-powered procurement. Organizations can support teams by instilling an agile, problem-solving culture where every member is empowered to automate processes or reallocate resources to align with business goals.
Shift 5:
From dependent to empowered teams
Seizing cost savings
Missed opportunities for cost savings
Centralized spend visibility dashboards help procurement teams make smarter budgeting decisions, highlight compliance issues, and uncover savings opportunities. Spend patterns and off-policy purchases can easily be analyzed — for example, by buyer, department, period, or category — and proactively addressed.
From siloed visibility to centralized spend
Shift 2:
The old way Traditional procurement
The old way Traditional procurement
The old way Traditional procurement
The old way Traditional procurement
Centralized data, enterprise-wide visibility
The new way Analytics-powered procurement
Reduced costs through centralized compliance
The new way Analytics-powered procurement
Identifying spend patterns
The new way Analytics-powered procurement
Automation of approvals based on data-driven thresholds
The new way Analytics-powered procurement