Right Hand Manager: SpendMetrix beta program.

Right Hand Manager Software, a developer of next-generation analytical applications, has announced the beta program for its SpendMetrix performance and control tool for manufacturers' direct material purchasing.

With work already underway at the company's first beta sites, early interest in SpendMetrix' fine-grained financial analysis of direct materials purchasing is high. "The SpendMetrix proposition is straightforward," reflects Right Hand Manager Software CEO and Founder Sam Kinney. "If you know more about your spending, you spend less. For many manufacturers, direct materials are the largest contributor to total cost, but analytical challenges have limited executives' ability to scrutinize them effectively."

The quick uptake by financial and operating executives isn't surprising, notes Kinney, who led the development of the SpendMetrix tool and analytical techniques. "This is the tool I wish I'd had earlier in my career as a budget director and financial analyst. We've designed SpendMetrix to provide much needed tactical intelligence to executives and purchasing practitioners alike. For even the most complex portfolios, it explains how price, volume, product turnover and foreign currency are affecting overall purchasing performance."

Participants in the Beta program will receive an early look at the SpendMetrix system, as well as a detailed audit of their spending patterns by Right Hand Manager Software staff. In addition to those participants already identified, Right Hand Manager Software anticipates selecting two to three additional sites in companies well-positioned to put the product through its paces.

SpendMetrix is aimed at purchasers with high-mix direct material portfolios-those with hundreds or thousands of distinct items bought each month. For those portfolios, SpendMetrix demonstrates how changes in spending levels can be traced to underlying root-cause effects-price changes, volume changes, foreign exchange shifts, and product turnover. From this high-level synthesis, users access easy-to-use powerful diagnostics or drill-down features to find which buyers, suppliers, commodities, locations and items led to favorable and unfavorable changes in performance. For the first time, operating, finance, and purchasing executives will be able to access both the headlines and the details behind direct material purchasing performance each month, with tactical insight unavailable from current accounting systems.

While the SpendMetrix beta program will be offered as a hosted solution for simplicity, the general availability software will by licensed for customers to install, integrate, and operate behind their corporate firewalls.