Over recent years, there have been various industry developments that served as or caused trends in procurement. These procurement trends include technology changes, novel strategic approaches, new processes, and necessary adaptations to change. As supply chains become increasingly complex, procurement has become highly crucial and influential in the production process and continues to grow.

Category Market Intelligence
Transcend your category intelligence goals beyond cost-saving advantages by making the best of SpendEdge’s business intelligence solutions.
Overview
Category market intelligence is now a key driver of world-class procurement organizations. The importance of category intelligence has solidified through the years as procurement intelligence itself has evolved beyond cost savings and into a strategic business role. Category managers now are expected to deliver value across the supply chain, and as such can no longer lean on the standard cost-saving optimization tactics of direct procurement categories. The realities of today’s business world are that companies are expected to deliver ongoing cost savings and maximize their value over time, and while finding the most competitive commodity prices will take a company somewhere, it definitely will not be sufficient to compete in the marketplace without the best category intelligence services in place.
At SpendEdge, we work with companies across 100+ industries and sectors to deliver a winning category intelligence strategy that is based on actionable, reliable, need-specific business intelligence solutions. Our work spans across all critical components of procurement intelligence such as supply market assessment, supplier identification and capabilities assessment, cost-saving opportunities, risk management, negotiation levers and contracting best practices, and many more. See below for a comprehensive but not exhaustive list of areas covered.
We work with our clients to devise holistic spend optimization strategies, including all categories of spend rather than simply direct spend. Indirect categories of spend (HR, IT, marketing, finance, etc.) have become critical factors in generating value, as many category managers recognize the opportunities for spend and process optimizations. However, they still are some of the most challenging categories to tackle due to in part to the lack of functional expertise on the part of category managers, and in part to the traditional ways of structuring departments in organizations where product and functional stakeholders often planned and strategized in silo. By strategically approaching our clients’ indirect procurement processes, we identify practices that can help enterprises reduce the risks of working with new vendors, quicken onboarding processes, and increase the effectiveness of indirect sourcing practices. In the past 16 years, we have worked with numerous clients who have faced similar challenges, and have written multiple case studies on this topic specifically to aid other companies that might be in a similar situation. Should you be interested in discussing the SpendEdge experience and services with regards to category management and category market intelligence, we’d be happy to assist. Connect with our client services team today.
CATEGORY MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Typical Coverage Areas and Key Questions Answered
Typical Coverage Areas
- Market sizing
- Assessment of market dynamics, drivers and niches
- Overview of players and supply chain, supplier diversity
- Implication/barriers, opportunities, market trends
- Innovation, capability to innovate, history of innovation
- Suppliers pricing, cost structure and price model analysis
- Technology landscape assessment
- Assessment of competitors’ category strategies
- Assessment of risks, compliance and regulatory/safety/environmental responsibility/policy
- Procurement best practices assessment
- SWOT analysis
- Quick win analysis
- Day one analysis
- PEST/PESTLE analysis
- Portfolio analysis
- Buyer insights
- Risk analysis
- Metrics for supplier relationship management
Key Questions Answered
- How is the market performing?
- What are the latest trends and developments?
- How is the market likely to shape up in the near and far future?
- What are the key risks?
- What are the procurement best practices?
Testimonials
The best thing about the report is that – if utilized correctly for strategy creation, it will assist category teams in unlocking true value.
We appreciate the quality of the reports and the way they were structured. Very easy to understand and acts as a good reference in our category specific sourcing decisions.
The information was very useful to the category strategy, especially for our local teams. They are very happy with the recommendations that they received from the team.
Case Studies

Identifying Profitable Projects for a Mining Equipment Company with the Help of Category Market Intelligence

How Category Market Intelligence Services Helped a Retail Company Increase Sales by 150%

Assessing Competitors’ Category Strategies and Risks with the Aid of Category Market Intelligence
Featured Whitepaper:
An Expert’s Guide to Create Winning Category Plans for Retail
Featured Case Study:
Category Market Intelligence to Enhance Product Development and Offer Superior Products: A SpendEdge Case Study for a Bioelectronics Company
Featured Press Release:
Category Market Intelligence Study: Procurement Best Practices in the Legal Services Sector
Featured Case Study:
Category Intelligence to Improve Market Presence by Assessing Competitors’ Category Strategies: A SpendEdge Case Study for a Retail Company