Companies need to procure products and services for various purposes. They need to spend to procure products or services, which can be both direct as well as indirect. A direct spend pertains to any products or services that has been procured to produce the product or services offered by the company. An example of this is any raw material that need to be procured to manufacture a product. The second type of spend is indirect spend, which pertains to amount spent on procuring support services, like office services, IT hardware etc. To understand where they are spending as well as to determine if there are opportunities to reduce or optimize their spend, companies need detailed visibility and insights into their spend. This is what a spend intelligence solution provides.

Companies need to procure products and services for various purposes. They need to spend to procure products or services, which can be both direct as well as indirect. A direct spend pertains to any products or services that has been procured to produce the product or services offered by the company. An example of this is any raw material that need to be procured to manufacture a product. The second type of spend is indirect spend, which pertains to amount spent on procuring support services, like office services, IT hardware etc. To understand where they are spending as well as to determine if there are opportunities to reduce or optimize their spend, companies need detailed visibility and insights into their spend. This is what a spend intelligence solution provides.

SAP offers a portfolio of spend management solutions that can allow organizations to manage every source of spend across multiple categories of spend, direct and indirect spending, external services and contingent labor, travel and expense, in a single unified view. This required visibility into their spend helps organizations make fast, intelligent decisions to help them optimize their spend. Following spend intelligence solutions are available in SAP portfolio:

  • SAP Ariba: SAP Ariba integrates the entire buying process across your entire organization. SAP Ariba offers an end-to-end automated system that removes complexity and allows buyers and suppliers to manage everything from contracts to payments all in one place.
  • SAP Fieldglass: SAP Fieldglass is a software company providing a cloud-based Vendor Management System (VMS) to manage services procurement and external workforce management programs
  • SAP Concur: SAP Concur is an American SaaS company, providing travel and expense management services to businesses

Enhance supply chain efficiency with spend management visibility: In this article, experts from PwC discuss how procurement teams today face increasing challenges due to supply chain uncertainty and touch upon how technology innovation across spend management can enable real-time procurement visibility to navigate supply chain complexity

The future of intelligent spend management for the public sector: In this video session, leaders from Deloitte share a practical vision of the future of spend management in the public sector, focusing on leading technology accelerators and process blueprints.

An introduction to spend analysis: This article introduces readers to fundamentals of spend analysis in order to develop a better understanding of how it can be leveraged to generate valuable insights into various types of organizational spend.

13 results

  1. Australian Unity’s Procurement Transformation Journey Focused on People, Process and Technology

    Discover how Australian Unity, a leading member-owned wellbeing company delivering health, wealth, and care services to its members and the broader Australian community, reimagined its procurement function to become a strategic business enabler – uniting people, process, and technology for real impact. In this fireside chat, Andy will share how his team moved from paper-based...…

  2. Innovations in Procurement

    You’ll witness the latest capabilities in Procurement, including demonstrations of AI, Joule, Intake Management, Spend Control Tower, Category Management, Central Invoice Management and use of VCards in Guided Buying. Solutions will include SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP S/4 Public Cloud and Taulia.... Mastering SAP Premium Access Membership Required You must be a Mastering SAP Premium…

  3. Procurement Transformation: Fonterra’s Simplification Journey

    Fonterra, a global leader in the dairy industry, has embarked on a transformative Source to Pay (S2P) journey to get better value from their $6b annual spend, through standardised and simplified procurement practices. Initiated in 2022 under the leadership of Emily Dawe, S2P Program Director, and in collaboration with SAP, this transformation aims to improve...…

  4. Breaking Barriers to Adoption: Enabling Change Management in Procurement Transformation

    Change management continues to rank among the top challenges in procurement transformation, according to industry studies. This session explores common barriers faced by leading organisations and how they’re tackling them. Hear real-world examples and discover how AI-powered tools like WalkMe, an SAP company is helping drive adoption, streamline processes, reduce inefficiencies and boost ROI. Click...…

  5. Leading with Purpose in a Technologically Complex World

    Drawing on decades of leadership experience, Rob Halsall will share first-hand lessons from leading major procurement transformations and supporting organisations through high stakes change. Now advising and training professionals in leadership, commercial and risk management, Rob brings a grounded, practitioner lens to navigating procurement challenges. This session will explore real-world examples of how organisations have...…

  6. Demo: AI in Procurement

    Demonstration of various Cloud ERP AI capabilities using Joule, including navigational, transactional, informational, insight cards and situations. Click HERE to view the presentation deck slides.... Mastering SAP Premium Access Membership Required You must be a Mastering SAP Premium Access member to access this content.Join NowAlready a member? Log in here

  7. Optimising External Workforce Management in Asset-Intensive Industries: Strategic Insights & Energy Queensland Case Study

    Managing a large and diverse contractor workforce in asset-intensive industries requires precision, compliance, and visibility. This session explores how SAP Fieldglass supports organisations in gaining practical strategies for navigating the complexities of contractor management. We’ll explore how SAP Fieldglass enables greater visibility, supports the complex legislative loopholes, and compliance in environments where precision and safety...…

  8. Procurement in an Era of Polycrisis – Insights from Global Procurement Study from the Economist & SAP Ariba

    Procurement Imperative, now in its fourth year, surveyed 2,026 C-suite executives on the key challenges, priorities and expectations for the function. In this session we will review the ANZ results, both in the context of global and regional findings. What do CPOs in ANZ and globally state are the current priorities and risks? What does...…

  9. Driving Procurement Success in 2025: Thriving Amid Uncertainty with SAP Agentic AI and Unified Data

    Procurement leaders face growing pressure to adapt to global disruptions, evolving regulations, and ESG priorities. This session explores how SAP Ariba’s agentic AI and harmonized data capabilities empower teams to make faster, smarter decisions across spend analytics, category management, and source-to-pay processes—turning complexity into competitive advantage. This presentation was not made available for distribution.... Mastering…

  10. SAP Financial Close

    Mayekawa Wins SAP Concur Innovation Award

    Published: 02/April/2025

    Reading time: 2 mins

    Mayekawa Mfg Co Ltd received the SAP Concur Innovation Award for successfully streamlining its expense management processes through automation, significantly reducing its Finance team’s workload and improving compliance and visibility.