Aggregate Spend Information Architecture Enablement

Establishing flexible, right-sized systems architecture to support Aggregate Spend requirements is a core program component to any initiative. Transparency reporting requirements, and accompanying dispute resolution processes place high demands on existing companies’ spend data management information architecture.

Collaborative works with organizations to establish “right-sized,” integrated information architectures that support Aggregate Spend programs. Changing regulatory landscapes require underlying information and technical architectures that must not only meet current requirements, but also ensure that systems architecture will readily assimilate and accommodate new domestic and international regulatory compliance requirements.

In conjunction with business process enhancement and optimization, Aggregate Spend initiatives often drive process and systems architecture improvements that more effectively support spend data capture, enterprise data integration, business intelligence, and workflow optimization.

Architecture Assessment and Planning

While transparency reporting requirements are common across the industry, architecturally each company is unique in its capability to collect, integrate, and report spend data as required by Aggregate Spend regulations.

Although many reportable spend transactions are captured systematically through traditional financial systems and many organizations have implemented solutions that support current states’ reporting requirements, national and future international spend management reporting needs may burden existing data management and reporting infrastructure.

Through development of conceptual, logical, and technical architecture design, Collaborative’s Aggregate Spend Architecture Planning services ensure that systems and technology infrastructure are poised to meet the myriad of challenges in capturing, integrating, consolidating, and accurately reporting spend data to state, federal, and international agencies.

Spend Capture Systems Enhancement

Whether through manual processes or automated systematic capture, spend data originates from multiple sources across an organization. Ensuring accurate, complete, and reliable delivery of spend data from these sources are high priority objectives in any Aggregate Spend program. In many cases, existing spend capture methods are challenged to meet data quality objectives and require improvements and remediation to processes and systems in order to capture data effectively.

Collaborative works with your business and IT teams to recommend appropriate enhancements and implement improvements such as automating manual processes, enhancing existing systems to improve data integrity by incorporating quality rules, and enriching spend data in financial reporting applications.

Aggregate Spend Solution Evaluation

Establishing the right Aggregate Spend solution platform requires accurate alignment of system features and functions to the specific, often unique requirements for system architecture components consisting of: data capture components, data repositories, master data and consolidation functions, reporting and analysis, and administrative applications for monitoring, data stewardship, and dispute tracking and resolution.

A variety of implementation options exist ranging from fully-outsourced commercially available platforms to custom-developed systems, as well as hybrid architectures that integrate components from commercial platforms in conjunction with custom components. Collaborative’s Architecture Planning services provide recommendations and assist organizations in determining the best combination of “bought vs. built” components.

For commercially available systems and services, Collaborative conducts solution evaluation using a structured methodology to develop assessment criteria based on industry best practice, manage the RFI/RFP process, objectively evaluate candidate solutions, and recommend options that best align to an organization’s business and technical requirements.

Aggregate Spend Solution Implementation

Collaborative’s Aggregate Spend Implementation services address the challenges that organizations typically encounter when integrating end-to-end, “capture through reporting” systems architectures. The Collaborative teams bring a unique combination of expertise in the nuances of spend data management and understanding of business processes that systems must support.

Collaborative assists your organization in developing and integrating a full range of commercially available and custom developed Aggregate Spend architecture components:

Spend Planning Applications
Spend Capture Systems Enhancement
Spend Data Repository Management
Master Data Management
Business Rules Management
Review and Approval Workflow
Dispute Tracking and Resolution
Data Stewarding Applications
State and Federal Reporting
Monitoring and Threshold Alerts
Data Warehouse Integration
Integrated Spend Analytics