All posts
Ronald Batenburg over Spend Intelligence: ‘You only start to see it once you understand it.’
.jpg)
Financial optimisation is about the five P's, writes Ronald Batenburg in his expert blog. And he advocates for Spend Intelligence: "Without Spend Intelligence, even the best CFO is flying blind."
"You only start to see it once you understand it": this legendary quote from Johan Cruyff means that insight and understanding are crucial for success, and that you only begin to see the deeper meaning of a situation after you have "grasped" or understood it.
The point is that you not only see the actions, but also recognise the underlying patterns, opportunities and choices. In other words, insight beyond the surface. You start to see the real value of something once you understand it, which goes beyond simple observation. This moment of "understanding" is a turning point at which you develop intuition and can act more quickly and effectively, often through experience and action.
So much for the lessons of Johan Cruyff. While this is, of course, about football, the same principle applies in a business context as well. Especially when it comes to financial optimisation.
The CFO: between data and direction
In the financial world, everything revolves around insight. But CFOs face an increasingly complex playing field: they are expected to drive transformation, markets demand growth, and at the same time every percentage point of margin must be protected against inflation, wage increases and unpredictable supply chains.
There is no shortage of data, and dashboards are rarely the problem. Where things often go wrong is that this data seldom provides direction. It lacks the actionable insights that make the difference for growth and innovation.
Why traditional reporting falls short
Many finance teams remain stuck in reactive patterns: resolving budget overruns, checking invoices and consolidating procurement data. Reports show what is being spent, but not where inefficiencies are hidden or what the first logical optimisation step should be. Key stumbling blocks include:
- Silos across spending categories and locations
- Lack of practical insights: knowing that something is inefficient, but not knowing how to improve it
- No reliable benchmarks: lacking the external standard against which to measure performance
- Time-consuming analysis that slows down decision-making
Spend Intelligence: turning insight into acceleration
So what is the solution? Spend Intelligence brings visibility and speed together. It is the capability to do much more than reporting. It means understanding your costs, identifying where improvements can be made and immediately knowing which actions are worthwhile.
This is certainly not only about the most visible part of your costs: the Price you pay. It is also about Protocols (what your policy is), the Products you use, the Partners (the parties you work with) and the Processes you have put in place. The combination of these five P's creates your current situation and forms the starting point for optimisation.
Platforms that support this are true game changers. They do not merely provide a dashboard; they function as an "opportunity engine". They bring together categories, suppliers, business units and KPIs, provide benchmarks and predict savings potential, implementation timelines and risk profiles. In other words, the CFO immediately gains direction and can take action.
The power of the opportunity assessment
Every optimisation effort should begin with an independent opportunity assessment, an in-depth review of spending (both direct and indirect). The objective is not to audit, but to make improvement potential visible and show the associated impact, timeline and required effort. For finance leaders, this means:
- Quantifying potential savings
- Building a re-investment business case for growth and innovation
- Identifying opportunities for supplier consolidation or renegotiation
- Exposing and optimising internal purchasing behaviour
- Prioritising actions based on effort versus return
- A low-threshold, risk-free entry point without major changes
Specialist support: deepening, not replacing
Optimisation requires specialised knowledge that is often lacking internally. Particularly in indirect spend, which is often fragmented and niche, no single employee has expertise in every area, and additional expertise is desirable. The insight of specialists, benchmarks and negotiation power complements that of internal teams, allowing blind spots in contracts and inefficiencies to surface without replacing existing capabilities.
The result: often double-digit optimisation
In my previous blog, this exact approach enabled the client to achieve substantial structural savings (in this case, USD 2.4 million per year) without damaging relationships with existing suppliers and without operational disruption.
Some of the ways this was achieved include:
- Optimising processes together with suppliers instead of focusing solely on reducing rates.
- Aligning contracts more carefully with actual market conditions.
Spend Intelligence: from data to action
The "understanding" that Cruyff refers to is translated into practice: CFOs who leverage Spend Intelligence can free up tied-up capital for:
- Digital transformation
- Investment in talent development
- Preparation for mergers or divestments
This makes it possible to proactively create financial capacity, rather than reactively searching for budgets afterwards. Savings are immediately used for strategic projects, turning every "yes" from the CFO into an accelerator for growth.
The cost of inaction
Especially in a market where margins are under pressure, standing still does not pay. Without Spend Intelligence, even the best CFO is flying blind, lacking the guidance needed to achieve the next margin point. Moving from data to direction, from dashboards to decisions, and from "cutting costs" to "finding savings to secure the future" is the step that takes optimisation from "Good" to "Great".
Would you like to learn more about how Spend Intelligence can help your organisation move forward? Start with an accessible opportunity assessment and discover where your "yes" can become the accelerator for growth.
