Category Management Software

Today, driving savings is a goal not just for the procurement team, but for the whole business. And people across the enterprise have a stake and role to play in the success of the broader procurement operation.

This is where category management comes in. Fact is, it’s not just the purchase price that determines the success of a procurement project. The supplier landscape and risk, nature of players in the market, cost drivers, and many other factors now have a bearing on whether your business can achieve its strategic goals for saving.

While strategic sourcing is a short-term, quick-win tactical arrangement, category management involves long-term strategic planning based on more than just pure-play cost reduction.

Powerful, Comprehensive Category Workbench

GEP SMART provides category managers a comprehensive category management workbench with real-time information. From opportunity analysis, project planning and full source-to-pay processes, GEP SMART’s category management workbench helps you drive value and increase stakeholder engagement across the enterprise.

As a one-point reference for all category related enquiries and information, GEP SMART's category workbench provides the visibility, decision support and strategic planning hub around which procurement processes like sourcing, purchasing, contract management and supplier management can work most efficiently. All your source-to-pay processes are streamlined and relevant information collated in one place to help you make informed spend management decisions.

From at-a-glance Day One analysis through full category positioning, you can identify your key cost drivers and influencing factors, capture strategic plans and drive them through execution to deliver realized savings. Category KPIs are at the heart of the GEP SMART category workbench — from a single dashboard you can review performance of your key suppliers, monitor savings by project, by sourcing event, by region and more.

GEP has been our partner in procurement organization transformation from the beginning. They have really supported and validated the design of the organization that we should implement… the key success factor to me is that GEP has the ability to operate like somebody wearing our name badge

— Craig Fix, Corporate Director of Global Procurement and Sourcing, Dentsply Corporation

THE GEP SMART ADVANTAGE

KPI Monitoring

Stay on top of all the key performance metrics for any particular category, track supplier performance and project savings. GEP SMART lets you monitor and compare results against targets and take corrective measures if required

Drive Category Strategies

Design your category plans around tried-and-tested best-practice strategies, with full oversight and stakeholder engagement. GEP SMART provides complete control and visibility at a category level to help you execute your category strategies

Stakeholder Engagement

GEP SMART lets you move from tactical sourcing to business-wide strategic planning and engage business owners across the enterprise. Increase collboration with colleagues across the business to drive more value for every category

Category Positioning

Establish a clear understanding of the key value objectives for your category, developing a set of executable strategies. Profile each category in terms of market and supplier complexity versus business criticality and track its evolution over time

Improved Governance

Once you have a category strategy in place, build a compelling case for your category management program using data and evidence from across procurement. Share it with business leaders and stakeholders to generate buy-in and approvals

Category Intelligence

GEP SMART lets you combine your own category intel with real-time market intelligence from GEP's inhouse category experts in a single dashboard. Monitor the trends and changes in the market that drive your category plans