Fortune 500 companies have long understood that sourcing and procurement offer HUGE opportunities for savings. So they brought those operations up out of the dingy company basement, invested in people and technology…and reaped the rewards. But as we move down to mid-market companies to see how they’ve addressed spend management, the picture isn’t nearly as bright.

It’s no surprise that mid-market companies experience different challenges around spend management than larger companies. Many are drowning in paper (or Excel spreadsheets) and manual approaches. And, with limited resources and fewer investment funds, the implications of failure are greater. Specifically in the mid-market, they’re:

• Grappling with the proper mix of inhouse staff, utilizing 3rd parties and upgrading technology to meet their goals
• Defining and implementing a spend management strategy as they realize the need to shift to more comprehensive approaches to reduce costs, increase productivity and ensure compliance
  
• Directly linking their efforts with results to the bottom line

And that is the framework for a webcast I’m presenting on Wednesday, June 4th with Paul Teague, Chief Editor of Purchasing, and 3 panelists from mid-market companies in various stages of their spend management evolution (Registration here). The audience participation - through polling and open Q&A - coupled with a great panel should make for some interesting debate on best practices, experiences and the direction spend management is heading for mid-market companies.

I’m looking forward to getting their thoughts on the good, bad and ugly aspects of spend management in this slice of the market. And I’ll be posting some of the highlights here in the coming weeks.

Paul Tong is a Senior Marketing Manager in Ariba’s Growing Enterprise group.

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