The long tail, handled without a buyer touching most of it.
Most purchases are small, repetitive and not worth a competition. The job is to let them happen quickly against prices already agreed, while keeping every one on the record and inside the budget.
Buy what is already agreed, at the price already agreed.
Where an item sits on an active arrangement, there is nothing to source. The request becomes a call-off at contracted prices and no competition is needed.
- FastRequesters search the catalogue first; a catalogue line carries its own price, supplier and contract
- ControlledIt still goes through approval by value and authority — quick is not the same as unapproved
- CodedCategory, cost centre and account code come from the catalogue line, so the coding is right without the requester knowing the chart of accounts
- MeasuredAnything bought outside this route is visible as off-process spend rather than invisible
Two minutes, and it is somebody's job by lunchtime.
The requester's experience of indirect buying decides whether they use the system at all. If it is slower than an email, they will send the email.
- SimpleSearch the catalogue, add what is needed, submit
- ThenWhere it is not in the catalogue, describe it and let the form collect the rest. The guidance panel says what will happen at that value
- ThenWatch it move: approved, ordered, received, paid, all on one screen
- ComplexReceipt against your own order where receiving is devolved, so the match can complete without a warehouse
Say what turned up, and the invoice can settle itself.
The receipt is the leg of the three-way match nobody enjoys doing, so it is made the smallest possible piece of work.
- SimpleOpen the order, record what arrived, note the delivery reference
- ThenRecord a short delivery or a damaged one, rather than accepting in full and arguing later
- ThenRaise a return against the order; approved as a replacement, it issues a zero-cost replacement order
- EffectA matched invoice needs no human decision at all — the exceptions are what reaches finance
Only the exceptions need a person.
The match runs automatically when the invoice arrives. What lands on a desk is the set of invoices that failed it, with the reason attached.
- SimpleWork the queue: matched invoices ready to approve, exceptions to decide
- ThenRead what the match found — price, quantity or receipt — rather than reconciling by hand
- ThenRe-run the match where the facts have changed, such as a late receipt or a change order
- ComplexDispute a genuinely wrong invoice, and take it up with the supplier from the record itself
The tail is where the leakage is, and now it is visible.
Indirect spend is usually the part nobody can describe. Measuring it is most of the work of reducing it.
- SeesOff-process spend as a share of the whole, by category and department
- SeesWhich suppliers are being used repeatedly with no contract behind them
- DoesPuts the recurring lines onto a standing arrangement, which converts the tail into catalogue buying
- ProofThe share of spend under contract moves, and the movement is attributable
