Ariba Spend Analysis Success: 5 Tips
The SAP Ariba Spend Management Tool is a complex system that requires a lot of buy-in from across the organization. But it is worth the effort. If your company's solution is not performing as it should, the right AMS program can help it get back on track.
Is your spend analysis tool working?
In our article series on Spend Management we offer many tips on how to make a success of your Ariba Spend Analysis tool. That includes an overview of spend management, visibility, and access. We also explored the challenges of a successful implementation of SAP Ariba’s Spend Analysis software.
This article is going to examine how Ariba Managed Support (AMS) can help your company meet those challenges head on and solve them for the long term.
Where AMS Can Help
1. Enrichment and Refinement
This is the most valuable tool in the spend analysis arsenal for providing visibility into your company’s spend. It helps organize, normalize, and enrich data for more accurate reporting. It also continually refines data to improve its relevancy. At CCP Global, we find that the customers most satisfied with their SAP Ariba Spend Analysis module are those that use this tool to its fullest extent.
2. User Adoption
The spend analysis tool is useless if it’s not being used. It’s human nature to want to do things the same way they’ve always been done. And to resist change. To avoid having your users revert to their old ways, which keeps you from maximum visibility into spend, you need to have the right support staff in place. That ensures a quick and timely response, including training and screen sharing with your users to help them feel comfortable using the tool.
3. Power Users
Our consultants at CCP Global functioned as the “power user” for multiple organizations until the right internal person was identified and trained. That “right person” plays an important role in the continuing success of your spend analysis tool because your other employees will be more comfortable with one of their peers guiding them.
4. Change Management
All the above three scenarios really boil down to this important factor. A 2018 McKinsey Global Survey showed that, across all types of transformations, only 37 percent of responders reported successful implementations. A big part of that is the reluctance of people to make changes to their behavior and systems. These reluctant adopters need to be handled with firmly, but with understanding. CCP Global is well versed in Change Management related to SAP Ariba modules and finding the perfect points to bring your organization along this transformation.
5. Ongoing Training
Most organizations are always in flux. People come and go, either permanently because they retire or change jobs, or temporarily, for a vacation or other leave. Having a resource your company can call on to help people learn the system at a moment’s notice is invaluable. For example, as part of a help desk function, a user can submit a ticket that they need to see some specific numbers for a meeting with a supplier. The AMS staff can get on a call and screen share with the user to teach them how to pull that data. And the next time they can do it themselves.
Your AMS Team is an Ongoing Partner
AMS is not about running things FOR you (although they can do that too). It’s about a having a helping hand available when you run into issues. And it’s best to begin the team in BEFORE the issues become entrenched.
In all five of the above scenarios, it’s about:
- Having someone to ensure that the data is updated, enriched and refined so users can get the best most relevant data to make business decisions.
- Making sure the tool is being used appropriately and by everyone.
- Pinpointing the most avid users to encourage others to use the tool.
- Gently persuading holdouts that this tool is worth using and that they can learn to use it and enjoy it.
- Having the resources at your fingertips to offer help right when it’s needed and to help train new users.
Why CCP Global?
CCP Global has been a top provider of SAP Ariba Managed Services for 25 years. Our proprietary AMS program, called SAP Ariba Application Managed Support, services many Fortune 500, mid-market, and small clients. Check out our educational AMS blog series to help you decide if our program could be a great fit for your company.
