Easy Guide to Conquer Spend Control and New Supplier Requests

In the margin-sensitive dynamics of procurement, spend control and managing supplier requests effectively can make the difference between a healthy business and one struggling to stay afloat.

For procurement teams still relying on manual processes such as emails and spreadsheets, the stakes are even higher. Without integrated tools and processes, spend management becomes cumbersome, spend data remains inaccessible, and cash flow can spiral out of control.

This blog will explore strategies for mastering spend control and managing new supplier requests, illustrated with real-world insights from Market Dojo’s expertise and customer case studies. 

By adopting these practices, procurement teams can move away from inefficient manual processes, improve supplier relationships, and protect their bottom line.

Spend control and managing supplier requests effectively can make the difference between
a healthy business and one struggling to stay afloat

The challenges of manual procurement processes

Many procurement teams still depend on spreadsheets and email chains to manage complex sourcing and procurement tasks. While these tools may be familiar, they lack the agility, transparency, and scalability needed in modern supply chain management.

Some of the most pressing issues with manual processes include

• Lack of spend data visibility: Procurement teams often struggle to track and analyse how money is spent. This makes it difficult to enforce spending limits and spot cost-saving opportunities.
• Slow supplier onboarding: Relying on emails for new supplier requests delays operations and creates bottlenecks.
• Spend reports are error-prone: Manual spend management leads to inaccuracies, undermining financial planning and impacting the bottom line.
• Missed opportunities for competitive bidding: Without centralised tools, teams miss out on leveraging competitive bidding, such as ranked auctions, for raw materials or indirect procurement.
• Strained collaboration: Finance teams, procurement teams, and suppliers struggle to collaborate effectively when processes are fragmented.

To transition from manual processes to a more streamlined approach, procurement teams must implement a robust framework for spend control. This includes improving visibility, enhancing supplier relationships through greater transparency and professionalism, and leveraging technology to automate repetitive tasks.

Start by consolidating all spend data into a single platform. This step ensures you have a comprehensive view of where spend is going, whether on raw materials or indirect procurement categories like office supplies or services. 

Market Dojo’s sourcing solutions enable procurement teams to centralise spend data effortlessly, offering real-time insights that drive better financial planning.

Customer Anecdote: IWG’s Transformation

IWG, the global leader in hybrid working, needed to shape its supply chain for faster and profitable growth, whilst maintaining the best-in-class customer experience. By adopting Market Dojo’s platform, IWG achieved unprecedented visibility into its procurement operations.

Market Dojo Sourcing has been instrumental to the IWG Procurement function to deliver savings in excess of 3% of addressable spend and achieve those results faster.  The tool continues to deliver for both central sourcing approaches as well as local sourcing efforts.

“Market Dojo has a great reputation in the market, and we quickly saw why.  Their highly intuitive tools combined with the proactive support & advice from their Customer Success team helped us enormously. Our objective was simple: faster and profitable growth. Market Dojo Sourcing uniquely offered an affordable on-demand model with instant access, clearly evidencing their ability to hit our brief. Market Dojo Sourcing was the right tool for the right context.” IWG’s procurement and supply chain leader.

The next logical step is to review and rationalise existing processes and procedures. Standardised workflows and automated approval processes ensures adherence to procurement policies and reduces maverick spending.

Switching to a competitive bidding process for sourcing raw materials or selecting a product or service provider can significantly reduce costs. Market Dojo’s eSourcing tools empower procurement teams to run seamless bidding events, allowing them to achieve the best value while maintaining transparency.

Switching to a competitive bidding process can significantly reduce costs

Streamlining new supplier requests

Managing new supplier requests is a critical aspect of procurement that often gets bogged down in manual processes. However, a structured approach can accelerate onboarding, improve supplier relationships, and align sourcing strategies with business goals.

Before engaging new suppliers, establish clear qualification criteria, including financial stability, ESG credentials, and capacity to meet your requirements. This ensures you only onboard suppliers that align with your procurement policies.

By using a procurement platform like Market Dojo, you can standardise and automate the supplier onboarding process to not only save time, but minimise errors. Also, it creates a central repository of supplier information to maintain regulatory compliance and simplify audit requirements.

Customer Insight: Aggreko’s supplier success

Aggreko, global leaders in temporary power, heating and cooling, partnered with Market Dojo to develop an extensive dynamic supplier onboarding solution to fit Aggreko’s complex needs.

Unlike competitive tools, Market Dojo Supplier Onboarding automatically tailors the onboarding process determined by a weighted risk profile of the supplier. For large supply chains, having a dynamic process that allows users to focus on high risk categories has a huge impact. Using the same logic, the solution automatically determines the appropriate local and central approval workflow (from 100 different options) that is required to vet the supplier. The solution even has built-in escalation workflows should any given approver request their line manager to step in.

Given the extent of this project, and its complexity, the benefits were evident in a relatively short amount of time. Aggreko is now able to onboard new suppliers within two days in most cases and, for more complex suppliers, no more than 20 days.

“Within months, we migrated 8,500 existing suppliers and onboarded 3,000 new ones. We also migrated 55,000 documents which provided comfort to stakeholders in knowing that they hadn’t lost the last four years of work.” Aggreko’s procurement team lead.

On average, this is a 70% reduction in time spent onboarding suppliers evidenced in their responsive, accurate reporting dashboards, powered by Microsoft PowerBI. Plus the data is augmented with other critical information”another neat win!

Close collaboration between procurement and finance teams is vital for managing spend and ensuring robust financial management and insights. Integrated platforms, such as Market Dojo & Esker’s Source-to-Pay suite, help Procurement and Finance leaders meet their goals by streamlining procurement processes, enforcing policy compliance and improving supplier relationships with increased visibility over the whole buying process. 

By aligning finance and procurement, CFOs and CPOs can enhance collaboration throughout their processes and facilitate increased efficiency, greater scalability, enhanced experience and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

How Market Dojo empowers procurement teams

Market Dojo offers intuitive, cost effective solutions tailored for procurement professionals. Whether you’re dealing with indirect procurement, sourcing raw materials, or managing supplier relationships, Market Dojo’s platform provides the tools to streamline processes and improve the bottom line.

• Enhanced visibility: Access spend data in real time to make informed decisions 
• Efficient supplier onboarding: Simplify the process for new supplier requests and onboarding with digitised workflows
• Competitive bidding made easy: Organise eAuctions to ensure market prices without compromising quality or supplier relationships
• Long-term planning: Use data-driven insights to align procurement strategies with business goals
• One solution: Reduce manual effort and errors with integrated sourcing and supplier management tools, available on-demand or through cost effective, modular packages

Achieving a sustainable bottom line

Controlling spend and managing supplier requests effectively isn’t just about cutting costs”it’s about building a resilient procurement framework that supports long-term success. 

By replacing manual processes with streamlined, digital solutions like Market Dojo, procurement can gain control over spend data, foster strong supplier relationships, and improve supply chain management.

1. Audit your current processes: Identify inefficiencies in spend management and supplier onboarding

2. Invest in technology: Choose a platform like Market Dojo to digitise and centralise procurement workflows 

3. Embrace data-driven decision-making: Use spend data insights to enforce spending limits and optimise cash flow

4. Foster collaboration: Strengthen partnerships between procurement and finance teams to align on financial goals

5. Evaluate outcomes: Regularly review your procurement strategies to ensure they’re delivering value and supporting the bottom line

FAQs

1. What is spend control in procurement, and why is it important?

Spend control refers to the process of monitoring, managing, and optimising organisational expenses to stay within budget and achieve financial goals. Effective spend control prevents overspending, ensures compliance with policies, and maximises cost-saving opportunities.

2. What are the common challenges in managing new supplier requests?

Procurement teams often face challenges such as slow onboarding processes, fragmented communication, inconsistent qualification criteria, and errors due to manual workflows. These issues can delay operations and strain supplier relationships.

3. How can digitisation improve spend management and supplier onboarding?

Digitising spend management and supplier onboarding centralises data, automates repetitive tasks, and streamlines workflows. Tools like Market Dojo provide real-time spend insights, automate supplier qualification, and enhance collaboration between procurement and finance teams.

4. What are the best practices for managing new supplier requests?

Best practices include standardising qualification criteria, leveraging procurement technology for digitised workflows, and closely aligning supplier onboarding with business objectives to ensure compliance and efficiency.

5. How do eSourcing tools support better spend control?

eSourcing tools like those offered by Market Dojo enable organisations to run competitive bidding events, centralise procurement data, and automate processes. These capabilities reduce costs, improve transparency, and ensure compliance with procurement policies.

6. How can collaboration between finance and procurement teams enhance spend control?

By sharing insights and aligning goals, finance and procurement teams can enforce spending policies, optimise cash flow, and ensure robust financial planning. Integrated platforms help facilitate this collaboration for better outcomes.

Your next step

Market Dojo’s e-sourcing solutions save time, money and sanity. We deliver strategic sourcing, contract and supplier management solutions rated by customers as ‘easy to use and flexible’ with ‘exceptional customer support’. Take the next step “ Watch On-demand Demo

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