...1. Why are data analysis skills and thinking so important to spend analysis? Can’t software applications be used to generate the information needed automatically? In today’s world, advanced technology has provided us with a lot of tools to help sift through and process huge amount of data. However, in spite of all this, the fact remains that data is useless without the skills to analyze it. Critical thinking is still a skill inherent only to humans. Software applications are much capable of generating data automatically, however, only one equipped with data analysis skills can translate that data into information that can support corporate decision-making. Equipped with the right data analysis skills, one would be able to select the significant data from the wide array available and turn it into actionable information. These skills are important in spend analysis as the most critical stage is making sense of the output and deriving strategic solutions based on the information available. The employment of data analysis skills and critical thinking in spend analysis is necessary to reach the goal of enjoying the benefits of spend data management which include reduced material and services costs, better supplier and product management, and lower inventory costs. 2. How might a structured process such as Six Sigma methodology be useful here? The Six Sigma Improvement Model known as DMAIC can be used in implementing spend management in the enterprise with the aim of continuous...
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...Spend Analysis & Data Analysis Robert Knieriem BUS 307 Professor Ray May 21, 2012 In today’s fast paced, technology heavy corporate world, data that pertains to any and every business aspect, regardless of size has become ever more important in daily operations and decision making. The data that results from these operations and decisions and its collection, analysis and concluding into upcoming decisions will have a deciding factor in how well or how poorly the company operates in the future. This data is made on its own, but putting it together and making sense of it all remains the challenge today’s companies have and continue to deal with. Data analysis and critical thinking skills are important to spend analysis because this information put out requires a human element to understand what is really being put out. As mentioned by Purchasing, data is only data until it’s analyzed and acted on, and only then does it become valuable information to the company. Further, today’s companies who actively collect data are finding themselves looking for those with the knowledge and skill to analyze this data and allow the company to act upon it (Bozarth & Handfield, 2008). Even with today’s most powerful software which simplifies the task of collecting and maintaining this data, the process of analyzing and understanding of this data requires the human touch and only someone with this background and knowledge can put the data into easy to read, easy to understand...
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...Spend analysis is performed in an organization to manage the spend tactically and strategically. The main objective of performing spend analysis in Rexel Canada is to achieve cost savings and to determine with which vendors it will be beneficial to maintain long term relationship in order to get better pricing and to get maximum service. Rexel Canada is an electrical components distribution company dealing with around 3500-4000 vendors. Thus it becomes very necessary to do good spend analysis to monitor organization spending. Spend Analysis is also important for various business strategies such as budgeting, inventory management and spending patterns. Steps used to conduct Goods Spend Analysis • Procurement department coordinate closely with accounts payable department to collect the data on annual spend for products and services at divisional level and matches with our ERP. • Gathered data is divided into Direct Spend and Indirect Spend Direct Spend includes organizational spending on goods and services related to business. Indirect spend includes spending on operational expenses such as stationeries, overhead expenditure etc. • Data collected is cleansed to rectify the error of duplication such as supplier's names spelled differently and treated as different suppliers. • Making sure the companies listed in our ERP recently merged with other listed vendor is not considered as separate vendor and thus considered as one vendor. • Converting the amount spend into...
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...SCOPE OF WORK The work performed by the contractor shall include, but not be limited to, all labor, tools and material to prepare surfaces and apply paint as described below: General 1. Prior to starting work, the contractor shall check color and product to assure conformity to specified color and finish as described on the builder's decorator information sheet. 2. Materials shall be applied without runs, sags or cracking. 3. The contractor is responsible for material damaged by paint and should cover material such as brick, concrete, roofing, cabinets and floors to avoid any potential damage. 4. The painter is to leave in the home a minimum of one quart of each color and/or stain for touch up. Each can is to be clearly marked. Builder will supply the cans. Interior 1. Any excessive drywall damages or missing rim is to be brought to the attention of the field manager prior to priming the house. 2. All dust must be wiped off walls and molding prior to applying all coats of paint. Floors must be swept prior to starting work. 3. Drywall is to be primed at 4 mils wet film thickness. Drywall can be sprayed, but it must be back rolled. 4. Sanding is required on all trim and drywall after the prime coat. Sandpaper grit #100 or finer should be used. Damage resulting from over sanding drywall will be the painter's responsibility to repair. 5. All point ups are to be sanded by painting contractor. 6. All rough trim is to be filled and sanded by...
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...MODULE 2 SESSION 1 STUDENT ID # 2001691 GOODS SPEND ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT Goods spend Analysis is the process of organizing a company’s spend, leveraging spend data for the purpose of gaining visibility into cost reduction, performance improvement and uncovering hidden savings opportunities. Spend Analysis consist of three different components which are; Suppliers, Customers and Commodities and Services. Each component should be measured in dollars and number of transactions which should be a potential source of improvement and cost saving. I believe spend Analysis serves three internal user groups in a company which comprises of: ❖ Leadership of the organization usually the chief executive officer and chief Operating officer who needs up-to- date reports to drive strategic direction. ❖ Managers, Accountants or Chief Financial officer who need to drill down into a spend data set to explore specific areas of interest or track down payment specifics. ❖ Sourcing power users who need to locate, drive, and monitor the next set of savings initiatives. Goods spend Analysis consists of both direct and indirect spend and my organization deals with both. I will be discussing the various steps I will use in conducting goods spend analysis in my organization. The first step is to identify the system containing spend data in my organization; there are many systems and...
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...Individual Assignment Goods Spend Analysis Prepared by: Date: January 13, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. Goods Spend Analysis: How is it conducted? 4 3. Key Triggers 5 4. How spend analysis fits the procurement strategy 6 1. Introduction Spend analysis is the process of collecting, cleansing, classifying and analyzing expenditure data with the purpose of reducing procurement costs, improving efficiency and monitoring compliance. It can also be leveraged in other areas of business such as inventory management, budgeting and planning, and product development. There are three core areas of spend analysis - visibility, analysis and process. By leveraging all three, companies can generate answers to the crucial questions affecting their spending, including: ▪ What am I really spending? ▪ With whom am I spending it? ▪ Am I getting what’s been promised for that spend? Spend analysis is often viewed as part of a larger domain known as spend management which incorporates spend analysis, commodity management and strategic sourcing. Companies perform spend analysis for several reasons. The core business driver for most organizations is profitability. In addition to improving compliance and reducing cycle times, performing detailed spend analysis helps companies find new areas of savings that previously went untapped, and hold onto past areas of savings that they have already negotiated. Benefits of Spend Data Management: [pic] ...
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...Subject: Services Spend Analysis 1. XXXX is an engineering and research company. Accordingly, there are many procured services that support daily operations. The following exercises will discuss procurement in services and Human Resources. XXXX’s HR service provider provides employee recruiting, distribution of employee benefits and employee contractors. The business process outsourcing of Human Resource Management is a critical operation that warrants examination. The HR Service Provider manages contract employees for XXXX. Professional contractors who work at XXXX consume significant spend activity. The contractor may serve in a variety of specialized occupations and non-technical positions. Depending on the job, the hiring of a contractor may be considered both direct and indirect spend for the services rendered: engineering, quality, information technology, supply chain, human resources and others. Professional occupations working directly with production materials will proportionately have a higher weight as a direct spend activity; while employees in Finance that provide support services are indirect spend activities. As such, the HR service provider is an important vendor that is able to source technical staff for XXXX that the local market may not provide. 2. This section will discuss the steps to conduct a spend analysis for HR Services. The ERP can be used to export Purchase Order data that can be used to generate metrics, charts and useful analytical...
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...I Cannot Live With You The poem “I Cannot Live with You” talks about a relationship that can’t be. How they can’t live together or die together because they are so different. This poem actually hits really close to home. A few months ago I was in a relationship where I just couldn’t live with someone. It all started in June during Badger Connection. That’s where I met Brittany Dyson. We spent the entire day together where we really learned a lot about each other. Brittany is from New Orleans, Louisiana where she graduated top of her class. We left Badger Connection being really good friends. We kept in contact over the rest of the break. Once school started we were right back where we started. We hung out a lot during the first week of school. Everyone thought that we were dating because we spent so much time together. We were not dating. One night we were sitting in the lobby in Toolen Hall watching “House M.D,” and she leans over and kisses me. It got so awkward that she left Toolen and I didn’t see her for two days. During those two days I started to think about our friendship and the kiss just kept playing over and over inside of my head. When I finally saw her again it was still pretty awkward between us, but I swallowed it and just talked to her. I told her that I had feelings for her and she told me the same. That day we decided to date. Dating lasted all of three days, then we decided to become official. Our friends were relived because it killed all of the tension...
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...Festival Halloween is a time of celebration where people wear costumes and party while in masks every once a year. It is a traditional holiday that takes place in most countries around the world. Halloween’s tradition began in Northern Ireland and Modern Britain, and it has spread to most of the countries all over the world. To some countries, Halloween is a formal holiday while to others it is still an informal break. The popularity of this festival continues to increase year after year. Media outlets such as radio, television, and movies have helped the festival to grow into America’s second largest commercial holiday. This growth contributes to bringing in an estimated revenue of around $6.9 billion dollars annually. Most people spend the day watching horror movies, visiting important attractions, theme parks, and having snacks at Halloween theme restaurants. I interviewed an American citizen who has quite a lot of information concerning other countries and his country’s Halloween parties. His name is Trevor A. Jonathan, and he was born in the year 1976 in California, United States of America. He joined Harvard University in the year 2002 and undertook a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies where he graduated in the year 2005 and joined the United Nation’s travel team. He has participated in a few countries’ Halloween’s holiday such as Russia, South Africa, Brazil, and China during his travel assignments around the world. a) What do you know about Halloween...
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...Individual Exercise Goods Spend Analysis in Your Organization Describe components of a goods spend analysis for your organization. Please feel free to bring any relevant information about your organization to class. There are three components to the exercise that must be handed in: 1. Show the steps you would use to conduct goods spend analysis for your organization. PO Mgmt Dept Fulfillment Buyer Accounting Payable Procurement Manager Procurement Category Buyer CFO Provide Primary spend data Accountably sign Spend analysis Approve Spend Analysis Draft Spend Analysis Verify Primary data Steps to conduct goods spend analysis Internal Goods Users 2. Describe specific key triggers and why you chose them. In general, we conduct goods spend analysis based on company management, procurement management and some other special reasons. Company management purposes: * Cost analysis * Budget, Forecasting and Planning Procurement management purposes: * Periodical summary, e.g. quarterly, monthly, semi-annual, annual * Top suppliers cognation for long-term relationship development * Quarterly major suppliers review of purchasing volume, capability and performance PO amounts and price review under Master agreement or stage prices * Negotiation/bidding preparation, e.g., category volume, suppliers’ history PO amounts, delivery, etc * KPIs as cost saving, purchasing amounts, workloads, etc. Special...
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...Spend Analysis Daniel Wheeler BUS 307 Operations Management & Quantitative Techniques Prof. Aaron Hensley January 26, 2014 Spend Analysis Because of today’s enormously competitive industry surroundings, spend analysis has turned out to be an essential strategic device. There are now a lot of foundations which use the spend analysis procedure; it becomes very important for the remaining associations to embrace this procedure in order to continue being competitive and contend in today’s worldwide markets. It is financially vital for associations to settle on educated spending decisions. Spend analysis furnishes this avenue by distinguishing opportunities to combine spending in order to arrange greater contracts, confirm and lessen maverick spending, and lastly enhance acquisition operations and dealer performance. Most of these conglomerations join programming applications into this procedure; however programming alone will not complete the task. In this paper, I will show the analytical information skills which are essential to accurate and proficient spend analysis, explain how consolidating an organized methods, for example Six Sigma technique can result to team effectiveness, and demonstrate how incorporating other key capacities can make a synergistic, effective spend analysis group. Data analysis needs excellent analytical abilities and detailed guidance in order to create precise decisions with regards to spend analysis. There are a lot of conglomerations...
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...2012 Spend Analysis I. Introduction The current condition of the economy in the United States (US) and increased economic pressures has reinvigorated many companies to rethink their purchasing practices. One of the best ways for a company to evaluate its spending patterns is through a spend analysis. “A spend analysis is the process of determining what is being spent, with whom and for what” (Hingorani, 2010, p. 58). In order to accomplish this task companies must use software programs to import and aggregate data from multiple systems. This paper will explore several components of the spend analysis process including the risk of using software programs alone to analyze spending patterns; how Lean Six Sigma processes might be useful when developing a spend analysis process, and why it is important to involve multiple functional areas, most notably finance. II. Relying on Software Alone While software programs offer a great platform for organizing data they do not provide a method of cleansing data. What I mean is, spend data can be housed in many different databases, and trying to consolidate the data correctly can prove to be very difficult. Ever heard of the saying “garbage in, garbage out”? That is exactly what you might get relying solely on software programs to complete your spend analysis. This is where analytical skills and critical thinking become very important when setting up a spend analysis process. First, you must determine...
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...tomorrow. Luanna is really smart and her parents are really strict and we work really well together. INFORMATION First Body Paragraph Topic sentence: • • • Proof/Example # 1 Proof Example # 2 Proof/Example # 3 First of all, Luanna is smart. The teacher always calls on her. She has the top mark in the class. She tutors other students. Because my friend is smart, I will ace my exam tomorrow if I spend the night at her house. Secondly, Luanna’s parents are really strict. They have given her a curfew. They ground her when she gets a low mark. They won’t let her watch TV on school nights. My friend’s parents are strict and if I spend the night at her house, I will ace my exam. Finally, Luanna and I work well together. We got 92% on our paired project. We look at the same problems differently and can teach each other. We have a contest between us to see who will get the highest mark. Since my friend and I work so well together, I will ace my exam if I study with her tonight. In conclusion, my friend Luanna is smart, her parents are really strict and we work well together. If I spend the night at her house tonight, I will ace my exam tomorrow. You’re always saying how you want me to get good grades and if you should let me study with Luanna, I’m much more likely to get a good grade. Concluding sentence: Second Body Paragraph Topic sentence: • • • Proof/Example # 1 Proof/Example # 2 Proof/Example # 3 Concluding sentence: Third Body Paragraph Topic sentence: • • • Proof/Example...
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...Since I am not currently in a relationship, I will reflect on my most recent relationship. We were together for 3 years and produced memories that will last a lifetime. As the saying goes “All good things must come to an end”. My memory of our relationship will always be a permanent staple in my life. The stage where the relationship ended was the termination stage. We decided to end the relationship to give each other the space we both were seeking. 1. Initiation – We met through a mutual friend at a restaurant on her birthday. I often told her I was the best birthday present she ever received. After a few cocktails, we engaged in deep conversation ranging from the weather to family. She was a breath of fresh air. We immediately “kicked it off”, we discovered we had the same taste in music and both had a passion for sports. Although it was her birthday, I was the one who received the gift. 2. Experimenting – Reflecting on my relationship, I found this stage to the most fun. This is where I was trying to impress her every time we spent time together. I will always acted on my best behavior and tried to think outside of the box to form a good impression. This stage is where the most flowers were sent, where the restaurants were tested and where we really enjoyed each other’s company. It was an adventure every time we met because we never knew what to expect from each other. 3. Intensifying - “Bri” and “Dre” were the nicknames we used for each other...
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...Retirement Case Today is your 30th birthday and you begin thinking about retirement. Your goal is to retire on your 65th birthday with enough money saved to: i) withdraw a payment of $200,000 on your 65th birthday to live on for your first year of retirement; ii) each year after that, on your birthday, withdraw a payment which is 3% larger than the payment on your previous birthday; and iii) give your favorite niece a gift of $50,000 on your 75th birthday. Your account should have enough money to cover a minimum of 20 years in retirement. Your assumption is that you will continue to earn a 5% annual return on your money during retirement. Questions 1) To meet your retirement goal, what is the minimum amount of money you must have in your retirement account on your 65th birthday, before you take your first retirement withdrawal of $200,000? 2) Now that you have calculated how much you will need in a retirement account on your 65th birthday you must plan on how you will accumulate the money! Your plan is to begin making deposits into a new retirement account beginning on your 31st birthday, and make the same deposit each year until the final deposit on your 65th birthday. If your retirement account pays a 5% annual return, what is the minimum annual deposit you must make into your retirement account to meet your retirement goal? Question #1 1. Must have $200,000 2. *have to find present value of growing annuity 3. PV= 200,000 x (1/.05-.03) x[ 1- (1.03/1.05)20...
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