Companies are built off profitability. The investments you make are designed to support the products or services you sell. But let's be honest for a moment, you like buying the things that are core to your business because that’s what you care about. The secondary expenses that occur, those are less fun. Whether you’re dealing in electronics, retail, mortgages, or hamburgers, inevitably there are expenses that arise that don’t support your product. So how do you cut down on those expenses? And how can all the data gathered from shipping and receiving actually improve your profit margins? 

“What's not core to you is core to us. What I mean by core to your businesses is at Harley Davidson, they make motorcycles. They source and buy steel, bolts, oil, leather, so on and so forth. But what they also need to operate their business is they need marketing. They need packaging, they need stores to sell their motorcycles in. Their retail operation. They need to ship things. It's everything else.”

Craig Garno is the CTO at LogicSource and he’s helping companies such as LuluLemon, BIG Lots, and Tupperware cut down and streamline their spending. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Craig explains why companies that fail to focus on indirect services will struggle to scale the business while also paying more than fair market value. Plus he dives into how LogicSource is helping these businesses trim the fat on those investments, and the role data management plays in its efforts.Enjoy this episode.

Main Takeaways

• Lost in Time: One of the main challenges to solving indirect procurement problems is the lack of attention these services are afforded. In most cases, the data input is still done manually, which also means most of the technology is behind as well. Businesses need to invest in these services in order to not only understand the areas within the supply chain where they are experiencing disruptions, but also to have a better idea of the costs they are incurring on items such as packaging and delivery services.
• Understanding How to Use Data: Once companies begin investing in their internal structures, they need to follow that action by doing a deep dive into understanding what data points are most important to the overall success of the business. But you also need to have a better understanding across the business of how to read and understand what the data is telling you. Once this is accomplished, you will have a better idea of how to fix some of the challenges the company is facing when it comes to procurement spend.
• Keep it Simple: The key to good product design is to not overcomplicate the application. When apps are easy to read, agile, easy to scale, and simple to understand, you have a greater chance of the product gaining traction and more adoption.

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