Efficiency through e-Sourcing
In this depressed economy, companies need to streamline purchasing spend through e-Sourcing to obtain optimum bottom line benefits. Spend analysis is perhaps the most important component of a strategic sourcing initiative. Yet, such analysis is typically plagued by problems such as fragmented data from multiple enterprise systems and slow, expensive spend classification methods that are difficult to scale up and replicate.

For spend analysis to be effective, it should be an ongoing process and should have the depth and capacity to handle data coming from disparate sources. As per industry statistics, an effective ongoing spend analysis programme can produce net savings in the range of 7-10 percent, which is equivalent to a 30-40 percent increase in sales. In addition to management and control of spend, spend analysis can serve as a yardstick to measure contract compliance. Leveraging it, contract compliance, which typically deteriorates to somewhere near 30 percent, can be improved to as much as 80 percent.

Other benefits include streamlined supplier relationships, faster sourcing cycles, reduced inventory, quicker deployment of best practices, better trend analysis and more accurate economic forecasting.

Currently, 90 percent of the fortune 500 companies have started strategic sourcing initiatives in some form or the other, and some of them have registered savings to the tune of millions of dollars. However, the majority have not been able to fully realise the benefits of strategic sourcing primarily due to their inability to carry out ongoing enterprise-level detailed spend analysis due to their inability to consolidate, clean and classify enterprise-wide spend data from different systems. With the market becoming increasingly competitive, companies cannot afford to ignore spend analysis as just another emerging application or a one-time activity.

Nilanjan Ray
Mumbai

Train the trainers
It was good to read your editorial ‘Doing something about hardware’ (Express Computer July 22, 2002). India has immense scope in the PC hardware/networking industry for marketing or servicing these products. The computer institutes that offer these training in these areas should ensure that the lecturers are certified (CNE/MCSE/CCNE etc) / BE /DE (Diploma) professionals. Before taking admission students should also be entitled to check the qualification of these lecturers and ask them to provide proof of the same.

Sunil Anant Pedgaonkar,

Via e-mailChange your attitude
Foreign organisations are bleeding our country dry and our fatalistic attitude has ensured that we humbly accept this fate of ours without raising our voice against them. It’s a wonder that a country with so much untapped potential like ours continues to remain a follower instead of taking the lead in the global technological revolution. Why can’t we have a research agency of our own? Why do we have to depend on a Media Lab Asia or the likes to develop solutions for us? No amount of technology will help us unless we change our basic mental attitude to doing things ourselves. All the technology in the world won’t save us from the effects of a lackadaisical attitude to everything, be it work, research, business, competition, defence etc.

Abhijit Nath
Kolkata

Bridging the digital divide
This is with reference to your India Computes section. The article provides for very interesting reading especially the Bytes for All section. It is heartening to know that there are organisations, which are actually converting the vision of IT-to-the-masses into a reality. The role played by various NGOs as well as government agencies indicates that much is being done for rural India despite media reports to the contrary. The projects may not appear to be very dramatic. But these small scale projects when taken together amounts to quite a lot.

Sushir Rane
Mumbai