Though ‘agile’ principles originated with software developers, the central idea has universal value: move from idea to impact as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done without processes and systems that are agile by design.

Conventional spend analysis is bogged down by weeks, even months, of data gathering, cleansing, and mapping — usually by third parties and expensive experts — before any exploration can begin. What’s worse, that exploration is tethered by rigidly-defined data structures that constrain and limit analysis options.

That’s not very agile.

But, there’s good news: the spend analysis process doesn’t have to be tedious or cumbersome. With an analysis tool that’s lighter, faster, and easy enough to be used by the people who “own” the data, payback can be fast and frequent. A system that promotes rapid decision-making can produce a rapid impact on savings.

Spendata was developed specifically to break through the traditional roadblocks of spend analysis, and to get to insight and savings quickly. It’s easy to learn and inexpensive to acquire, making data exploration and immediate savings a reality for any organization.

• The Freedom to Explore: Rapid, incremental savings. Data structures that can be manipulated or changed for the analysis at hand are agile. Hierarchies that are set in concrete, as with conventional systems, are not; they stifle insight and exploration. Without the freedom of unimpeded exploration by individuals with the greatest familiarity of the terrain, agility is lost.

• The Power to Exploit: Capitalize on savings wherever they are. Agile spend analyses occur when the individuals who are closest to the data, such as category and purchasing managers, have complete independence to follow their noses and investigate spend categories that have low visibility, are vulnerable to abuse, or are previously unexplored.

• The Ability to Adapt: Improve processes intelligently. Agile spend analysis is able to achieve and maintain visibility, making it easier to identify and take actions that address changes in pricing, user demand, contract compliance, and off-contract buying. Improved processes then lead to better spend management and greater savings.

• The Flexibility to Move On: The only constant is change. Many spend analysis initiatives get bogged down before they get off the ground. The real genius of Spendata is the ease with which you can move through your spend data, explore, act, and move on to the next opportunity. It’s the very definition of agile: powerful, light on its feet, fast to value, and extremely affordable.