Negotiations are a usual procurement activity. Depending on the size of the sourcing activity, negotiations can stretch out and include several rounds
Before or during negotiations, a lot of data has to be manually gathered and reviewed
Contract proposals are reviewed manually
Target state
The idea is to have an analytics toolbox that supports buyers during negotiation by providing category/supplier specific data and market analysis, as well as simulation capabilities
The nature of the tools is ad-hoc and simulation driven
The toolbox generates insights which are useful during the negotiation. Insights are not transparency (e.g. preparing data in a certain way) but rather using the available data to generate actionable items
The toolbox enables the sourcers to react quicker to the changing nature of a negotiation and give an edge
Negotiations utilizing the toolbox are more time efficient than the status quo
First initiatives within company
The following topics have been identified as potentially relevant for the sourcing analytics: Supplier/Industry cost structure, smart supplier profiles, smart contract checks, volume & price simulation, contract duration analysis, price benchmarking
Need for support
We need support in the realization of the idea to create a digital toolbox for the strategic sourcers. We are at an early stage and support could be finalizing the use-cases, helping to identify the external data sources and implementing them in an internal or external solution
Inspirations on use-cases for sourcing analytics toolbox are highly welcome
Concept for digital tool to analyze Covestro internal data sources automatically (e.g. supplier fact sheets)
Implementation of Web-Crawler functionality for public external data sources
Integration of paid data services into Toolbox required
Obtaining data sources on should cost and industry/supplier cost structure is crucial and we have yet to identify them
