Most companies have more purchasing data than they know what to do with. They can see what they’re spending, where they’re spending it and what products they’re buying. They can compare plants, suppliers, product categories and purchasing trends.
That’s useful information, but simply putting it into a dashboard doesn’t necessarily make it valuable.
At VANTAGE Electrical Group, we think reporting should help answer practical questions. Are we buying what we think we’re buying? Are our locations taking advantage of negotiated contracts? Are there products we should be concerned about because they’re becoming obsolete? Is there something in our purchasing history that could help us save money or plan better?
That’s where reporting becomes much more than a collection of charts.
What Can Your Purchasing Data Tell You?
For a company with multiple plants or locations, electrical purchasing can involve thousands of transactions across distributors, manufacturers and product categories. Looking at those transactions individually doesn’t tell you much. Bring them together, however, and patterns begin to emerge.
VANTAGE consolidates purchasing information across locations so customers can see their electrical spend as a whole. That gives us an opportunity to look beyond how much was spent and start asking why it was spent that way.
One example is contract leakage. A company may have negotiated pricing or preferred purchasing programs in place, but individual locations aren’t always purchasing through them. Reporting can identify where that’s happening and, more importantly, give the customer an opportunity to find out why.
Maybe a plant can’t get a particular product through the established program. Maybe employees are continuing to purchase from a supplier they’ve used for years. Or maybe there is an opportunity to standardize products across several locations and consolidate more of the company’s spend.
Knowing that 12% of purchases occurred outside a program is interesting. Understanding what’s behind that 12% and determining whether something should change is far more useful.
Finding Obsolescence Before You Need the Part
Purchasing history can also tell you something about what’s ahead.
Consider a component that several plants purchase regularly. If the manufacturer announces that the product is being discontinued, that’s something the customer would rather know while the component is still available, not when a maintenance team needs one immediately.
By looking at purchasing data alongside available manufacturer obsolescence information, VANTAGE can help identify products that may need attention. That gives the customer time to evaluate replacements, look at alternatives and determine whether other facilities are using the same component.
It turns an urgent sourcing problem into something that can be planned for.
Lead Times Matter Before a Project Starts
The same thinking applies to capital projects and planned maintenance.
A bill of materials may include everything needed for a project, but availability is another matter. One component with a significantly longer lead time can affect an otherwise well-planned schedule.
Looking at current lead times against the BOM can help identify those potential problems earlier. If something stands out, the team has time to order it sooner, look at an alternative or make another adjustment before it becomes a scheduling issue.
Nobody wants to discover halfway through a project that one critical electrical component is 16 weeks out.
Better Data Can Also Help Distributors Serve Their Customers
This kind of reporting isn’t only valuable to the end customer. It can give VANTAGE distributor partners a much better understanding of what’s happening within their accounts.
Instead of calling a customer simply because there’s a product to sell, a distributor can have a conversation based on something that’s actually happening in the customer’s business.
They may notice that a customer is buying the same type of product several different ways across multiple facilities. They may see an opportunity to capture more contracted spend, flag a product that’s approaching obsolescence or identify a potential issue with an upcoming project.
Those are useful conversations. They’re based on the customer’s operation and a problem or opportunity that actually exists.
The Chart Is Where the Conversation Starts
There’s nothing wrong with a good dashboard. Making complicated purchasing information easy to understand is an important part of reporting, but the dashboard isn’t the end product.
The real value is being able to look at the information and recognize something worth acting on. Sometimes that’s a cost-saving opportunity. Sometimes it’s contract leakage. Sometimes it’s an obsolete component or a potential problem with a project that’s still months away.
VANTAGE has access to purchasing information across customer locations because we’re part of the transaction process. Our reporting brings that information together so customers can see what’s happening across their electrical spend. Our goal is to help them do something useful with what they see.
Because a pretty chart is nice. Knowing what to do next is better.