April 18, 2024 4 Jobs Simplified by Contractor Data & Spend Management

Collaboration across stakeholders and their teams is imperative for industrial operations to remain agile and support overall productivity.

by Mike Mantooth, director of capital projects, Management Controls

Success in industrial operations relies on the collaboration of diverse internal stakeholders, each with their own set of priorities.

While plant managers advocate for personal safety, productivity, and profitability, maintenance managers navigate vendor relationships, site safety, budgets, and timelines. Similarly, turnaround and procurement managers work to ensure the best terms, conditions, and rates are negotiated with contractors on behalf of their company, whereas finance managers focus on promoting fiscal performance through data-driven decisions.

The right technology eases all these stakeholders’ burdens and enables cross-team collaboration. Everyone wins.

How Technology Helps Key Stakeholders

Most industrial plants rely on contractors to help with increased workloads. However, without the right technology, keeping track of job grades/classifications, skill rates, overtime, and fluctuating labor costs can be challenging. The combination of outdated technology and the absence of modern data leaves many manufacturers grappling with how to better track, measure, manage, and improve their contractor services.

Contractor data and spend management software combines data and analytics to make the above-mentioned stakeholders’ jobs easier. In fact, McKinsey suggests facilities using AI and other advanced technologies by 2024 are likely to see a 122% positive cash flow change. 

Here’s how data and spend management software addresses each stakeholder’s distinctive priorities:

• Plant managers can use real-time data to advance worksite productivity and safety. With instant visibility into operations, they can make informed decisions that improve both. Process automation ensures enforcement of safety measures and effortless tracking of worker hours and fatigue management. 
• Maintenance managers can navigate budgets and oversee vendor relationships through automated cost control and payment management technology, which provides transparency of both and enables meticulous tracking and expense management. And since vendor invoices can be cross-checked with payments, double billing is eliminated, helping to build vendor trust. 
• Turnaround and procurement managers can use technology to easily gain visibility of organized data tied to every project to reinforce compliance. In doing so, technology empowers them to eliminate costly audits and mitigate risks linked to unqualified contractors.
• Finance executives can improve their fiscal performance since this technology reduces mistakes in timesheets and invoices. Methodically tracking billable hours for accuracy can mean cost savings of up to 15%.       

Failing to optimize your contractor and spend management data can lead to efficiency gaps and puts you at risk. The flip side is that optimizing this technology unites diverse stakeholders through efficiency, transparency, and collaboration among departments. Contractor management software can help companies save millions of dollars on total contractor spend annually.

Automating the management of contractor labor, equipment, and material spend benefits every member of the manufacturing organization. Each stakeholder can access the insight and transparency needed to make informed decisions to advance their teams, responsibilities, and the organization.

Unleash Potential with Contractor Data Management

Contractor data and spend management software empowers manufacturing and industrial operations to collaborate for overall company success. It is also a growing market space, expected to surpass $4 billion by the end of 2028. 

As industries evolve and digital transformation accelerates, a unified approach to stakeholder priorities is increasingly important. Technology empowers manufacturers to meet diverse stakeholder needs and align various perspectives for a common goal—a prosperous, safe, and efficient future. 

Technology helps divergent stakeholder priorities come to fruition in industrial operations. Specifically, contractor data and spend management software caters to stakeholder needs, benefitting the overall company, and setting the stage for cross-team collaboration. It helps organizations thrive.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Whether your role involves timekeeping, maintenance, CapEx, procurement, contracts, or accounts payable, contractor data and spend management software give you a single source of truth. 

The right platform’s real-time data visibility empowers you to make better-informed decisions, build stronger relationships with vendors, and ensure compliance with parameters set forth in each contract.

Far from being “Big Brother,” monitoring contractor activities helps you improve safety based on accurate, real-time data. For example, manpower visibility enables you to see daily onsite workforce by vendor, skill, and count. The software then matches that information with the plan. Should a safety incident occur, this information becomes invaluable by enabling site planners to know who is onsite and when.

This type of technology can even ensure hours and costs are correctly calculated and pre-audited, providing a reliable basis for project management and decision-making.

Simplify Contractor-Related Complexities

When operating at capacity, managing siloed, legacy systems, and juggling complex contractor agreements, it can be tough to find efficiencies and improvements. Contractor data and spend management technology is key. It can help various stakeholders find opportunities and realize organization-wide benefits, including saving considerable time and money, across your entire contract ecosystem.

Mike Mantooth is a supply chain professional at Management Controls, Inc. (MCi), specializing in procurement, operations, and production. His areas of expertise include project management, contract negotiation, vendor management and Lean Six Sigma Process improvement practices. Mike has achieved several milestones in his career through different departments molding and he is driven by bringing value, profitability, synergy and teamwork to his teams.

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