My little bicycle computer tells me that so far this week I have cycled for three hours, covering 42.6 miles at an average of 14.2 miles an hour. It tells me that I need to work on my average speed and the Tour de France is not beckoning.
Data is also crucial to managing companies and organisations; in procurement terms this is normally to track and control spend, for instance, how many suppliers are used and how spend is distributed among them. This allows areas of leverage to be identified and maximised and un-procured vendors to be identified and brought under procurement control and commercial management.
At the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), spend is under particular scrutiny as we seek to track the economic benefits of the Games, which is almost entirely based within the UK. We are regularly asked about how many contracts we have let to companies in particular areas, from as large as the whole country, down to individual towns.
The issue of course is that although all of this data needs to be correct, as strategic decisions are based on it, it is easy for it to be wrong. Just as if I enter the size of my bike’s wheels incorrectly into the computer I may end up foolishly entering bike races or alternatively buying a new bike in a desperate attempt to go faster (although the latter is quite likely in any case).
A single point of capture is crucial to ensure that contract and spend data is accurate and not under-reported (where spend is going through different and unreported channels). At the ODA we use our ERP system as this point of capture as payments can only be made through this channel, giving us a complete view of our spend. That is not to say just because we have complete data it is guaranteed to be accurate. We still need to check that we are not double-counting information or including data in error.
Fortunately we have a small army of observers to keep an eye on us.
☛ John Fernau is deputy head of procurement at the Olympic Delivery Authority
