As a concerned taxpayer, DC area resident, and Spend Management professional, it’s difficult for me to not look at the just-passed federal stimulus package (and other programs) first and foremost as the biggest Spend Management challenges in history. Whether or not you agree with the plan, everyone must admit that “managing this spend” will be difficult in the extreme.

All of the core tenets of Spend Management that we’ve preached over the years will be desperately needed to ensure that the massive sums of money in these plans make it to their intended destination with as little waste and inefficiency as possible.

We’ve learned several lessons about Spend Management that should be top of mind here:

1. Create competition wherever possible - Always bid out contracts.
2. Visibility and transparency drive intended behavior - Sunshine cures a lot of ills.
3. Compliance must be driven both proactively (i.e. authority to spend) and reactively (reporting on where it went).
4. Structured and repeatable processes for managing spend make a difference - even though you’re in a hurry, take the extra step to do it right.
5. A level, open playing field for suppliers results in the best deal for both buyer and suppliers.
6. Automate wherever possible to drive efficiency, standardization and repeat-ability.

While it is true that government procurement is a very different animal than the private sector spend management environment I typically work in, I hope for the sake of my grandchildren that everyone involved in these enormous programs takes the hard-won lessons of Spend Management to heart when allocating these funds.

Now if only I could talk President Obama into running an online auction for his new helicopter…

Kris Colby is a Director in Ariba’s Spend Management Services group. Kris specializes in strategic sourcing and risk reduction with retail and CPG companies.