Spend Analytics & Performance Management
See the spend. Spot the opportunity. Track the impact.
Turn Data into Direction
Cost optimization must start with knowing the current status of your procurement operation, and identifying the areas for improvement. To support this, a strong spend analytics and performance management framework helps teams pinpoint inefficiencies and track value delivery. It also supports building the business case for change. At Sourcing Champions, we enable procurement functions to translate data into strategic directions, embedding cost optimization as an ongoing, trackable process.
Spend Cube & Cost Mapping
A structured view of current spend is the starting point for meaningful cost optimization, and Spend Cube analysis is the ideal method to achieve it. By breaking down spend across multiple dimensions such as category group, volume, and supplier, the Spend Cube creates full transparency. This clarity allows procurement teams to identify inefficiencies, spot high-impact opportunities, and lay the groundwork for strategic sourcing decisions.
Discover our Category Management Strategy
ABC segmentation adds another layer of insight by classifying suppliers based on their strategic relevance and contribution to overall spend. This allows procurement teams to tailor cost optimization efforts, from highly individualized negotiations with A-suppliers to streamlined approaches for long-tail C-suppliers, ensuring the right level of effort is applied to the right supplier segments.
Building on that foundation, cost mapping takes the next step, translating spend visibility and supplier segmentation into actionable insights. We structure the analysis along the category taxonomy to assess cost structures across different levels, allowing procurement teams to systematically analyze cost structures across defined levels. This approach helps identify where costs are concentrated, how they differ across suppliers, and where inefficiencies or outliers may exist.
More than just tracking expenditure, cost mapping answers whether, and why, certain categories are cost-intensive, and where there is potential for optimization. When combined with tools like negotiation playbooks and supplier performance analysis, it becomes the backbone of a focused, category-specific cost optimization strategy.
Opportunity Assessment & Lever Workshop
Opportunity assessment and lever workshop are where insights become strategy. This begins by reviewing major spend blocks from the spend cube and evaluating what actions to take: should we renegotiate terms, explore alternative suppliers, run a tender or auction, or consolidate volumes? This structured approach ensures that the focus stays on high-impact areas, guided by both spend size and business criticality.
Lever workshop is a cross-functional process that brings procurement together with key departments to identify practical cost-saving levers. The workshop zooms in on major spend areas within each function and explores what can realistically be optimized. This is where data meets action, converting abstract savings potential into a tangible, department-backed cost optimization roadmap with new initiatives.
Want to build your cost optimization roadmap? Contact us today
Degree of Implementation Methodology
To ensure that cost-saving initiatives move beyond the idea stage and deliver measurable results, we apply a structured Degrees of Implementation (DOI) framework. This funnel guides each measure through clearly defined 6 stages, from opportunity / idea (DOI 0) to Validation (DOI 5). It offers a systematic way to qualify, prioritize, and track initiatives as they mature. Rather than simply collecting cost-saving ideas, the DOI funnel ensures that each initiative is critically reviewed, aligned with cross-functional stakeholders, supported by decision-making checkpoints, and fully implemented. This process brings transparency, accountability, and strategic discipline to savings realization, while enabling organizations to monitor the health and progress of their cost optimization pipeline at any given time.
Measure Tracking Manual
To ensure consistency and credibility in reported savings, we support you with a Measure Tracking Manual, a governance tool that defines how cost-saving initiatives are measured and classified. The manual defines standardized rules for calculating savings. It covers hard savings, soft savings, and scenarios like supplier switches, contract re-baselining, or scope changes. This ensures alignment on what counts as a validated saving and how it should be tracked. By applying these rules systematically, organizations avoid inaccurate figures, build internal trust, and maintain transparency in performance reporting.
Reporting
Throughout the process, we place strong emphasis on reporting, particularly in tracking how each department or category is progressing toward its savings target. This ensures measurable accountability and keeps cost optimization efforts visible, relevant, and firmly rooted in departmental ownership.
