....Customer demands "Where is the tangible translation of my Compliance to revenue you promised from my SRM solution, show me? "
Has a post implementation experience ever hunted you down with such statements from the customer?
Are you ready with the metrics, have you even thought about how to have these metrics strategized and signed off even before you could possibly track them.
How can you measure it, how will you show that realization from day 30 post go-live, 1month would be a very tight time frame to really show benefits on the P&L, but today’s customers, for sure are going to.
Trying to pitch in for a recent SRM proposal, I have been asked these questions on what your strategy is going to be, to make me realize on post implementation benefits.
Are you going to fool us in the rhetoric of an opportunity by showing flashy Aberdeen figures on what best in class people have reaped, and wash your hands off, post implementation, or you’ll assure us with metrics, track them post go live.
Will you reassure us of getting feedback from the CFO desk comes back saying “what a wonderful solution you’ve implemented, you’ve reduced transactional, operational costs with the auditors being really happy with the compliant transactions, processes etc, WOW we can see the affect on the P&L, great job done!!!!!!
Now let’s go one step below trying to collaborate the thought process of the SRM fraternity to arrive at some strategy, can we build a template that’s true by itself to help consultants keep their face upright with metrics to address heavy customer questions.
What are those possible metrics?
Q) What are those metrics that can translate compliant transactions to remarkable tangible savings (indirectly the revenue)?
Track maverick spend before go live and directly compare with contractual spend post go-live
Q) Should we do this category wise before and after the implementation
Identify those top 10 categories accounting to the highest spend, give a percentage that is achievable and then track it post go-live
Q) Implementation of Enterprise wide Contract Management v/s a customer situation with no such traces
Most companies wouldn’t have had the thought for Buy/Sell side Contract management, will this before and after comparison help?
Q) Analyzing Spend and giving them the facts about their very own state of affairs with the existing SRM landscape if any
This would typically translate to running the spend analytics tool and giving them a picture of their spend health, where they stand in terms of compliance, maverism, their weak links, whether they need strong backing from kicking off Sourcing projects (typical category management) or even do a business process re-engineering before opting for a full blown implementation.
This is what all I could think of, if there are real facts that you’ve faced in the demanding regime of tough customers, let’s arrive at a broader discussion frontier
I would say there is no demanding customer, lets reasonable customer. We are all Customer’s at the end of the day.
“Why would I be investing in a solar powered heating system in my house, would I benefit on lowering my electricity bill, on an average I want to see @least 200 bucks saving every month, so do you call me demanding or questioning something I’ve been promised of”.
Are you ready with the metrics, have you even thought about how to have these metrics strategized and signed off even before you could possibly track them.
How can you measure it, how will you show that realization from day 30 post go-live, 1month would be a very tight time frame to really show benefits on the P&L, but today’s customers, for sure are going to.
Trying to pitch in for a recent SRM proposal, I have been asked these questions on what your strategy is going to be, to make me realize on post implementation benefits.
Are you going to fool us in the rhetoric of an opportunity by showing flashy Aberdeen figures on what best in class people have reaped, and wash your hands off, post implementation, or you’ll assure us with metrics, track them post go live.
Will you reassure us of getting feedback from the CFO desk comes back saying “what a wonderful solution you’ve implemented, you’ve reduced transactional, operational costs with the auditors being really happy with the compliant transactions, processes etc, WOW we can see the affect on the P&L, great job done!!!!!!
Now let’s go one step below trying to collaborate the thought process of the SRM fraternity to arrive at some strategy, can we build a template that’s true by itself to help consultants keep their face upright with metrics to address heavy customer questions.
What are those possible metrics?
Q) What are those metrics that can translate compliant transactions to remarkable tangible savings (indirectly the revenue)?
Track maverick spend before go live and directly compare with contractual spend post go-live
Q) Should we do this category wise before and after the implementation
Identify those top 10 categories accounting to the highest spend, give a percentage that is achievable and then track it post go-live
Q) Implementation of Enterprise wide Contract Management v/s a customer situation with no such traces
Most companies wouldn’t have had the thought for Buy/Sell side Contract management, will this before and after comparison help?
Q) Analyzing Spend and giving them the facts about their very own state of affairs with the existing SRM landscape if any
This would typically translate to running the spend analytics tool and giving them a picture of their spend health, where they stand in terms of compliance, maverism, their weak links, whether they need strong backing from kicking off Sourcing projects (typical category management) or even do a business process re-engineering before opting for a full blown implementation.
This is what all I could think of, if there are real facts that you’ve faced in the demanding regime of tough customers, let’s arrive at a broader discussion frontier
I would say there is no demanding customer, lets reasonable customer. We are all Customer’s at the end of the day.
“Why would I be investing in a solar powered heating system in my house, would I benefit on lowering my electricity bill, on an average I want to see @least 200 bucks saving every month, so do you call me demanding or questioning something I’ve been promised of”.
Let’s work towards building some metrics around these lines coming handy in getting the customers, Value for their money, their lean IT budgets.
I repeat what I ended the last time with, "Whatever it is it has to be real"
-Tridip
