There are many reasons why “complex spend management” (sometimes called complex category management or services procurement) has been the focus of my professional career and why Payables Place (and sister-site CPO Rising) devotes significant space to the area. Here are a few:
- The categories often represent large buckets of spend for the average enterprise
- Many enterprises consider them to be “high-priority,” if not critical categories
- Leading-edge practices in the management of these categories continue to shift and evolve in rapid fashion
- Mastering the management of these categories is critical to achieving Best-in-Class procure-to-pay (P2P) performance
Inevitably, every business function undergoes some type of evolution in due time. Accounts payable, once a clear back-office set of processes, is now proving to drive true strategic value within the typical organization. Complex spend management has seen its share of new and exciting developments, from the emergence of the contingent workforce umbrella to the new-found concept of engagement management (for meetings spend) … and then, there’s marketing and print spend.
Ardent Partners’ research has shown that the average organization will spend anywhere from between 6% to 10% of its annual budget on a spend category that is proving to be “more” complex than most complex categories: marketing materials, printed materials, and related services. And, to boot, this isn’t your father’s marketing spend management program anymore. That’s right … we have a whole, new, digital world to worry about now.
In future articles, Payables Place will feature discussions regarding best practices for how P2P professionals can appropriately attack this category of spend and pinpoint key points of leverage in an enterprise’s marketing and print management program. For now, let’s start by introducing a few high-level concepts to properly frame the world of print management:
- It’s all about the brand: visibility, consistency, and protection. Any complex category will have a sharp focus on the cost aspects of its spend management inner workings. Cost savings and reductions will always play a vital role in print management, however, the majority of organizations will have concerns about brand above all other issues. Not only does brand visibility play a critical part in print management, brand consistency and protection are also high-priority issues. An enterprise’s brand can be its most important asset, thus a focus on ensuring that marketing materials are created and leveraged in a manner consistent with the enterprise’s values is critical and can impact sales – like protecting the brand against unwanted, negative attention (such as non-sustainable packaging).
- As we mentioned above, digital is the new kid in the print management room. While digital marketing can be a fantastic means of broadening an audience and reaching a maximum threshold of potential customers and prospects, there are various regulations and an ever-changing landscape of options available for the 21st century marketing team. The traditional processes or best practices of a traditional print management program are not generally suited to optimize digital media – new strategies and tools are needed.
- Procurement’s ability to positively influence print and marketing has been proven in the market. Remember the bit about cost savings in the first bullet? Well, of course, that’s where procurement (and the larger P2P team) comes in. Robust supplier management and strategic sourcing techniques can go a long way in ensuring that the marketing and print category doesn’t overextend its budget. But procurement’s influence doesn’t have to end there – rationalizing requirements, benchmarking spend, managing SLAs, and working collaboratively to improve supplier performance are all areas where Best-in-Class P2P teams have made their mark. Of course, it becomes crucial for procurement and marketing to work as hand-in-hand partners to drive true strategic value.
Stay tuned for upcoming articles that will highlight best practices in the marketing and print management world, as well as a full discussion of the many ways that procurement can revolutionize an enterprise’s management of its print, marketing and related materials and services spend.
Check out these related articles:
The Significance of Complex Spend Management
The Compliance Management Checklist, Part II: Complex Compliance
What’s the Best Way to Maximize Your Business Travel Budget?
