Expenses for items such as individual company mobile phone usage, printing and copaying is typically billed centrally against a centrally negotiated contract. The costs incurred, however, are often both a mystery and black hole of unaudited, unchecked invoices.

They needn't be.

All organisations can access individual employee expense data if they so wish. The reality is that few of them do. Which is really a lost opportunity, when you consider all of the anomalies, discrepancies and consumption-driven cost reduction which can be attained here through just having the right data.

My guest this week, Anthony Devine, explains how organisations can, through the power of well presented data and a culture of transparency, use this data to drive awareness of cost and usage, and make a serious dent into the overall spend on these services.

2:50

Anthony tells a fascinating story of how he discovered this was a problem from a very different original career path he had been on.

4:45

What does Finfo define as indirect employee expenses for the purpose of what the tool can track?

6:31

How can these expenses be broken down to show what each employee or username is consuming? What are the means and mechanisms used to be able to get hold of the data and present it in an easily understandable format?

8:59

What is preventing the client from accessing this data themselves? Anthony’s answer is surprising in that the barriers to entry are relatively low but the penetration rate of clients actually requesting this data natively is very low.

11:08

I ask Anthony how they are able to fulfil the data privacy requirements of GDPR, and what data they are actually able to legally display within their own organisation.

14:47

Anthony walks us through how Finfo onboards a new client, and how they go about giving them visibility of the data which could generate an easy return on investment with regard to going after the low hanging fruit.

18:14

The savings figure in Year 1 that Anthony alludes to is an eye-popping number you won’t want to miss if you’re an IT or telecoms procurement professional!

21:41

Beyond year 1, how does Finfo manage to deliver value beyond implementing the initial quick wins?

23:01

How procurement category managers can benefit from a third party provider (such as Finfo) as a means to having better knowledge of their competitive position with regard to their contract terms with telecomms and printer/copier suppliers.

26:05

I ask Anthony to give me the elevator pitch of how Procurement Managers should be positioning this to persuade budget holders to invest in tools to assist with cost transparency

Anthony's LinkedIn profile

finfo website