Eddie McGeachie from Seaforth Analytics and Accelerated Insight joins me on The Procuretech Podcast today to discuss how data and supply chain analytics have shaped his career over the years.We dive into how his company now helps boutique procurement consultancies and direct clients to understand the data from disparate systems and formats, and how understanding data .I've long been a proponent of getting your data ducks in a row, so this was one long, golden nugget of an interview for me. So much so that I just let Eddie keep dropping bombs of value, and even after a fair bit of editing I was still about 10 minutes over our usual episode length!Warning: If you're not a native English speaker, you might have to listen slowly to understand Eddie's Glaswegian accent - it's a tough dialect! - but you will get TONS to ponder after listening to this.Agile Analytics: How Seaforth Analytics' solutions deliver cost modelling and savings across diverse sectors1:45Eddie explains how his long and successful career eventually led him to the Supply Chain Analytics space.5:32Good fortune allowed Eddie to be in a job where he was given the freedom to work 25% of his time on passion projects. Learn what he decided to work on.7:08Getting the basics in place first. I offer up 3 fundamentals of what every procurement department should get in order and then ask Eddie for his take. His answer was not what I expected: surprising but very insightful.9:10Eddie explains the importance of procurement and supply chain having a presence at the top table, both to increase influence and to be seen as a value driver rather than an overhead.11:29Why being able to understand the same language that all stakeholders speak and being able to "get" where each department or affected party is coming from is vital14:00Eddie explains the value of finding the pivotal person in any organisation at the beginning. The person who understands at source what data and queries can be pulled from the existing systems in place. Usually, he mentions, they don't sit in procurement.17:03I ask who are Seaforth's client base typically and what different type of products and services are on offer.17:58Is the analysis performed a one-off exercise, or can they integrate with existing ERP systems?19:10How the Accelerated Insight tool brought together 150 disparate files on one procurement transformation project, and why having the data on its own is not enough. You need to understand what the data is actually telling you.20:58We discuss the bane of free text POs and how to make the best of a bad situation with imperfect data. Eddie provides an example of how this led to spotting a valuable irregularity, or can also be used to spot patterns of potential fraudulent transactions.26:30I ask whether there are specific categories which are better suited to their tools and analytics.28:20How price anomalies can be easily exposed from the analytics they can run, without the need to manually check invoices at first.29:35We discuss whether these findings can apply to direct or indirect materials alike.31:34Why Eddie believes that data science techniques and fundamentals should possibly be part of the CIPS qualification or at least general procurement onboarding training in large corporates.How can you get in touch with Eddie?Accelerated Insights websiteSeaforth Analytics websiteEddie's LinkedIn...