The use of the phrase "spend visibility initiative" in Purchasing refers to tracking what is being spent in a company and analyzing that spend for the purposes of making it more efficient to produce cost savings. See this article about Giant Eagle Inc. (Google Finance Info.)as an example.
I have another definition of the term "spend visibility initiative" that I would like to propose. Companies should engage in making their spend available to their employees in an effort to educate the employees on how the company's resources are used, thereby also motivating them to save money and showing them how it can be done.
What would this sharing spend numbers with all employees accomplish? It would allow them the opportunity to realize how what they do and how the items they consume at work impact the company's bottom line.
Many employees would be shocked to see how low dollar, high volume commodities like office supplies quickly can add up to millions of dollars of annual spend even in mid-size companies. Although they may enjoy perks at work such as "free" beverages or food items, if employees learned the true cost of these amenities, they may prefer that money be added into to the salary increase pool instead.
I know that this would be controversial because people are always afraid this kind of information could fall into competitor's hands. Any type of information could potentially do the same and we manage to find ways to protect it so this spend information could be treated similarly.
What do you think about this new kind of spend visibility initiative?
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