E&I Members: How likely are you to recommend E&I Cooperative Services to a peer?
Most colleges and universities are not suffering from a lack of procurement data. In fact, the opposite is often true. Every purchase order, supplier invoice, P-card transaction, and contract generates valuable information. The challenge is turning that information into something useful.
54% of procurement leaders cite insufficient data quality and cross-system integration as their single greatest operational barrier, especially for those wanting to integrate AI tools into their tech stack. 50% of procurement leaders believe real-time data visibility will take an increasing role in managing risk, compliance, and financial performance moving forward.
Procurement data rarely exists in a single location. A typical institution may have procurement data spread across enterprise resource planning systems, accounts payable platforms, purchasing card programs, departmental purchasing tools, contract management systems, and supplier portals.
Each system captures a different piece of the spending picture. Bringing those pieces together can be difficult, particularly when data standards differ across departments and platforms.
Even when procurement teams have access to spending data, the information itself may be inconsistent. A supplier might appear under multiple names across different systems. Similar purchases may be categorized differently by separate departments. Some transactions may contain limited descriptions, while others may be missing category information altogether.
These inconsistencies make it difficult to answer seemingly simple questions such as:
Without clean, organized data, procurement teams often struggle to identify opportunities that may already exist within their current spending patterns.
Once spend data is organized and standardized, procurement teams can begin extracting meaningful insights from it. Using spend data analysis, you can evaluate purchasing data to better understand how institutional funds are being spent, where opportunities exist, and how procurement strategies can be improved.
One of the first steps requires spend categorization. By grouping purchases into meaningful procurement categories, patterns start to emerge. It makes it easier to see where duplication occurs and consolidation opportunities can save time or money.
Procurement teams often discover that multiple departments are purchasing similar products from different suppliers or find significant spending occurring outside existing contracts. Spend data analysis can also reveal contract utilization gaps, unmanaged spending categories, and purchasing behaviors that create unnecessary administrative costs.
Analysis can also uncover:
While many institutions have access to spend reports, reports alone do not necessarily identify opportunities for improvement. For example, a dashboard or report may show how much your institution spent in categories and suppliers, but a strategic spend assessment can uncover where your spending could be optimized within those categories or with those same suppliers.
E&I’s Strategic Spend Assessment is designed specifically for educational institutions. The process begins with a review of institutional spend data from accounts payable systems, purchasing cards, and other procurement sources. That data is then normalized, categorized, and analyzed to create a clearer picture of institutional spending.
E&I’s procurement experts evaluate spending patterns, identifying opportunities for supplier consolidation, ways to bring more spend under contract, and areas where moving to a cooperative contract can lower your costs. You may realize immediate cost savings and wind up with a strategic roadmap to take action.
For E&I members, Strategic Spend Assessments are just one more benefit. There is no cost to have an E&I Sourcing Consultant and Strategic Sourcing Analyst evaluate your spend data to look for ways to lower costs and reduce your administrative burden. Having E&I conduct a confidential SSA means not having to spend money to hire outside third-party data consultants. At the same time, since E&I is the only member-owned nonprofit sourcing cooperative that focuses solely on education, E&I brings deep expertise to evaluating higher education spend and helping you optimize your procurement process.
Get started with a Strategic Spend Assessment from E&I Cooperative Services.