No. Data visualisation is just the final step of the spend analysis journey. As they say, rubbish in, rubbish out meaning that if the data underneath is poorly organised or messy, then the visualisation will be wrong. Spend Sphere aims to assist Procurement Team circumvent the complicated journey of organising spend data, cleaning it, analysing it, and then visualising it.
The key difference between an application like Spend Sphere and data visualization software like Power BI or Tableau is the scope of functionality: Application: Spend Sphere is a comprehensive tool that covers the entire data management process, from integrating, cleaning, and joining data to searching with AI and visualizing insights. It handles the full data workflow, providing a complete solution for procurement professionals to manage and analyze their spend data. Data Visualization Software: Tools like Power BI and Tableau primarily focus on presenting data in visual formats (charts, graphs, dashboards) after the data has already been processed. They are specialized in creating visual representations but often require additional tools or systems for data cleaning, integration, and more complex workflows. In essence, an application like Spend Sphere offers end-to-end data management and analysis, whereas visualization tools are mostly used for the final stage: presenting the data visually.
SpendSphere stands apart from procurement software offerings like Coupa, Zycus, and Ariba in several key ways. While those platforms offer a spend analytics solution, they focus on data from within their own ecosystems. SpendSphere, on the other hand, is designed to aggregate data from multiple sources. This includes invoices from your financial system, contracts from your Contract Management System, purchase card data from your bank, and external data enrichment from sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Unlike its competitors, where spend analytics is often an add-on feature, SpendSphere was purpose-built specifically for spend analytics, offering a more focused and effective solution. You can use SpendSphere in collaboration with these solutions where you might have your purchase orders in Coupa but invoices in your financial (ERP) system. It's also significantly more affordable than other options, making it accessible to a broader range of businesses. Additionally, SpendSphere is designed in Australia, with a dedicated support team based in Brisbane, Queensland, ensuring local expertise and faster response times.
No. Our solutions are a fixed cost per organisation. We believe that shared visibility is a key requirement to influencing change and driving down cost for yor organisation.
Spend Sphere is purpose-built to be able to address all the specific requirements needed for advanced spend analytics and for speed. Therefore the system was designed from scratch to ensure we had fully flexibility and customisation for our clients.
SpendSphere was designed for significant scalability. It can easily cope with millions of lines of spend data. Furthermore, it was deisgned to get faster when more people use the system as it remembers what others have previously searched for, and better yet, it remembers what you searched for.
Yes, we can connect to many different data sources such as statistics data (i.e. ABS), Australian business registry, as well an any other service that allows for data intergration - oh, and some data respositiories that don't make it that easy - we connect to them too.
Yes! Every client instance of Spend Sphere is unique and clients can have as many customer dashboards or analysis as they would like.
No. As we work with more and more clients, we continiously improve the solution and roll-out (with client's consent) improve features all the time.
We have developed a propriatory AI model to help users quickly find what they are looking for by simply writing (or asking) the question and also clean up free-text data.
Data is stored within a secure data centre in Australia which complies with strict Australian government requirements.
Yes. This is possible for our enterprise level solutions. Please contact one of our team to discuss your requirements.
It can be refreshed daily if required. However, our clients typically like to refresh the data every month or couple of months.
No. You can load your inoices, purchase orders, contracts directly from Excel into the tool. Spend Sphere does all the connecting and cleaning of the data. If you have this data in Excel already (even just starting with Invoie data) you can start using Spend Sphere.
Yes. We can connect directly to almost any financial system, purchase ordering system (i.e. Coupa), Contract Management System (i.e. Open Windows / Readytech). However, this process can involve lots of engagement with IT departments as they are managing lots of IT requests for integrations. Most of our clients start with uploading Excel files that they can export from their system. This usually takes 5 minutes everytime they wish to refresh their data.
We take data security very seriously. SpendSphere uses industry-standard encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA), and is hosted on servers approved for use by the Australian Government
Yes. We can easily setup SSO.
Yes, we are compliant with ISO27001 and are in the process of being certified.
We believe that your business needs a taxonomy that works for you and your collegaues. We provide an easy to use interface that allows you to create, adjust, and apply your taxonomy to your spend at different levels . This allows you to continue to improve your taxonomy as your procurement function matures. If you need support with your classification, our consultants can assist you.
Yes. Spend Sphere works on a heirarcy classification system that tries to classify invoice line item levels first, then contracts, and then supplier. This means that there is no limit to how many classifications a supplier can be assigned to.
We found that the issue with dashboards is that you have to have to export the data to check the detail. With Spend Sphere, we took a different approach. You can easily navidate to Purchase Order and Invoice line item level to check that the classification is correct. If not, it can be quickly updated.
We can classify to 4 levels. However, you don't have to implement all 4 levels initially and some of our clients only use 2. They can then easily expand their taxomony structure as their procurement function matures.
Free text entries can be a challenge in any system, but SpendSphere’s data cleaning tools are designed to handle this. We use natural language processing (NLP) to analyze and categorise free text entries, improving classification accuracy and reducing manual cleanup efforts.
SpendSphere can clean and rationalise supplier names (especially helpful when dealing with purchase card data), fix contract numbers that are incorrectly added, and also clean up purchase order and invoice line item data.
Yes, SpendSphere is designed to be scalable for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses can use the platform to gain better control over their expenses, while larger organisations can benefit from its robust reporting and advanced analytics capabilities.
Dramatically disseminate real-time portals rather than top-line action items. Uniquely provide access to low-risk high-yield products without dynamic products. Progressively re-engineer low-risk high-yield ideas rather than emerging alignments.
Yes, SpendSphere is highly customisable. You can tailor the platform to fit your company’s department structure, set custom spend categories, and with the help of the SpendSphere Team, design personalised reporting dashboards.
SpendSphere provides a wide range of customisable reports, including expense summaries, spending trends, budget vs. actuals, and departmental breakdowns. You can also create tailored reports to meet specific business needs.
In many organizations, procurement functions tend to be last in line when it comes to technology updates. Roadmaps often prioritize other parts of the business—such as finance, sales, or asset management—leaving procurement teams waiting for solutions that may not fully address their needs when they finally arrive. This delay can be costly, both in terms of time and lost opportunities to optimize spend. SpendSphere.ai offers a flexible, low-cost solution that can run in parallel with your existing roadmap. It allows you to start gaining valuable spend insights right away, without waiting for long-term IT projects to be completed. Because SpendSphere is easy to implement and doesn't require deep integration, you can switch it on or off as needed, making it an ideal interim solution while your broader business systems evolve. This way, procurement can stay agile and effective, driving immediate value without waiting on the roadmap to catch up.
You can sign up for a free trial on our website to explore the platform's features. Once you're ready, you can choose from our range of subscription plans that best suit your business needs.
SpendSphere is quick and easy to set up and run. For the free version, we can have you up and running in a matter of days, for the full-featured package expect approximately 4 weeks.
In our experience, data availability/extraction from your ERP/systems is the biggest factor determining setup timeframes. We can help you move through this process as painlessly as possible.
Yes! SpendSphere is designed to handle messy data. Our platform includes advanced data cleaning and classification tools to process, structure, and organise even the most unstructured financial data, ensuring that you can get valuable insights right from the start.
SpendSphere is easy to implement with minimal IT intervention. Our cloud-based platform requires no complicated infrastructure or long setup times. We also offer comprehensive onboarding and support services to ensure a smooth integration process without needing extensive IT involvement.
SpendSphere offers flexible pricing plans based on your business size and feature needs. We provide monthly and annual subscription options. You can find detailed pricing information on our pricing page.