Purchasing audit
Analyze the existing situation before making decisions
Take back control of your purchasing: save money and administrative time
Definition of purchasing audit parameters
AI enables you to define problematic purchasing categories (direct, indirect, strategic, non-strategic) and crucial analysis periods. Compilation of heterogeneous documents (catalogs, price lists, quotes, purchase orders, invoices, etc.), data extraction and format standardization, logical classification for simplified reading.
Definition of purchasing audit objectives
AI proposes a list of items to be optimized (cost reduction, process improvement, supplier security, compliance with negotiated prices, current disputes, etc.).
Mobilizing teams
Use AI to involve all structures involved in the purchasing process. Real-time data provision, immediate updating and automated reporting
Real-time anomaly detection
AI conducts a comparative analysis of archived and real-time data. The purchasing audit is no longer an observation, but a means of making short-term operational decisions.
Multi-criteria comparison
AI creates focus from a heterogeneous compilation of data. Unlike humans, AI can extract discrepancies with no apparent logic. The collection and consolidation of expenditure data is linked to the departments concerned (who buys what, from which supplier, at what price). This saves time, enabling strategic thinking and progress on purchasing methodology.
Diagnosis and mapping
The entire supply chain is analyzed, and deviations are also detected when procedures are not followed (data feedback, quotation/invoice cross-checking, purchase order/delivery note cross-checking). Redundant suppliers and out-of-market prices are highlighted.
Purchasing audit and heterogeneous data
AI compiles and classifies
- Time-saving
AI normalizes and categorizes purchasing statistics to create a homogeneous picture, based on a model of the compiled data. In just a few minutes, AI creates a logical arrangement of the data collected at the time of the audit.
- Strategic consistency
The work carried out by the IA enables decision-makers to assess the involvement of departments, and to objectively reason about the coherence between the organization of purchasing procedures (centralized or decentralized) and the company’s overall strategy. The audit can cover tools, skills and departmental workloads.
- Action plan with no implementation deadline
AI can serve as a rallying point for the compilation of future data, pending the standardization of procedures. There’s no need to wait for validation of procedural and data collection formalism before taking priority action for immediate savings. The AI can dispense with the need for a timetable for implementing harmonized nomenclatures, in order to carry out a reasoned compilation and comparison of purchasing data.
Spend analysis and purchasing audit
Which department buys what, from whom, in what quantities and at what price?
Categorizing purchases
The AI classifies and compares purchases by level of execution (in renegotiation, in delivery, in dispute...), by supplier, by service and using a single pricing nomenclature. Even at this stage, it is possible to detect data entry errors and price discrepancies with negotiated conditions. Savings of up to 15% can be achieved (average observed from the first gross compilation).
Analysis and decision-making
AI identifies opportunities for massification (grouping together dispersed purchasing volumes), targets strategic suppliers for preference, and non-strategic or low-volume suppliers. This simplified automatic control process saves up to 70% of time compared to a conventional data cross-referencing run without AI.