Susan Walsh

Susan Walsh's picture
About: 

With nearly a decade of experience fixing your dirty data, Susan Walsh is The Classification Guru.
She brings clarity and accuracy to data and procurement; helps teams work more effectively and efficiently; and cuts through the jargon to address the issues of dirty data and its consequences in an entertaining and engaging way.

Susan is a specialist in data classification, supplier normalisation, taxonomy customisation, and data cleansing and can help your business find cost savings through spend and time management - supporting better, more informed business decisions.
Susan has developed a methodology to accurately and efficiently classify, cleanse and check data for errors which will help prevent costly mistakes and could save days, if not weeks of laborious cleansing and classifying.

Susan is passionate about helping you find the value in cleaning your ‘dirty data’ and raises awareness of the consequences of ignoring issues through her blogs, vlogs, webinars and speaking engagements.

From this author

Keeping your supplier information data up to date and accurate is essential to making informed business decisions.
May 09, 2022    0

Supplier normalization can also be referred to as standardization. Normalization is giving your existing suppliers a common name or grouping so that you can see how much you are truly spending with them or selling to them. 

Sounds silly though, right? 

Surely companies must know how much they are spending, selling or using with their suppliers already? You might think that, but there are a number of reasons that you might find multiple versions of the same supplier...

Classifying spend data can often seem like a huge and overwhelming task, but you shouldn't push it down on the priority list.
Mar 18, 2022    0

Classifying spend data can often seem like a huge and overwhelming task, especially if you’re starting from scratch and, more often than not, it’s a task that gets pushed further and further down the priority list.

You may even already be thinking about it, or can’t justify the time or resources, or it might be something that you think is just a complete waste of time. But I’m here to tell you why you need to make it your top data priority in 2022!

Why...

They Did What?! Data Horror Stories Revealed
Oct 25, 2021    0

We all like a good horror story, especially a data one. It’s like when you pass an accident on the road, you can’t help but slow down to have look, and then you’re thankful it wasn’t you.

Data horror stories are just like that. It gives us comfort to know that we are not the only ones suffering and that there might be people in even worse situations out there. We’re not just going to slow down here though; we’re also going to stop and see what went...

What Can Your Procurement Data Tell You?
Sep 28, 2021    0

You might not realize it yet, but your procurement data can tell you a lot. It’s not just numbers either, it can tell you a story about what is going on within your organization -- and even further afield.

So, what can your procurement data actually tell you? Well, you might have already thought of some of the more obvious things, like what you’re spending your money on and where you can find cost savings. But it’s so much more than that. Your procurement data can...

What is a Taxonomy, and Should I be Using One?
Aug 04, 2021    0

It surprised me when I first came into the procurement world that not everybody knew what a taxonomy was, I even had someone confuse it with taxidermy! I thought it was used in all procurement departments all over the world, but I was wrong. In fact, it is often overlooked, which can be frustrating as it’s an incredibly useful tool for data organization.

So, what is a taxonomy?

Data taxonomy is the classification of data into categories and sub-...

What is Tail Spend?
Jun 10, 2021    0

Just like in spend data classification, the definition of tail spend is subjective. Some organisations classify tail spend at the bottom 20% of spend, while others might set a financial level such as £100,000 or £1 million.

According to CIPS, tail spend “can often be referred to as rogue spend or maverick spend, is usually small value purchases that are conducted by the organisations outside of a contract and often outside of the awareness of the procurement team....

Keeping your data clean means greater visibility across your business in several areas, allowing better decisions, as well as time and cost savings and increased profits.
Mar 30, 2021    0

Can you imagine standing in the middle of a snow blizzard without a COAT on? No… me either. It doesn’t sound like a particularly fun way to spend an evening and let’s face it, no one wants to be exposed to the elements. But guess what? Your data is the same. Think about all the consequences for your health if you were to be stuck out in freezing, stormy weather without a layer of protection on: snotty nose, shivering or, even worse, hypothermia and frostbite.

Your...

data protection
Feb 18, 2021    0

So, you’ve just shelled out big money to have it classified and your data will almost certainly be correct when you receive it, but it will only stay accurate for a short period of time.

Updates and changes mean that before you know it, your once neat and tidy data sets will contain unclassified data, data that’s been incorrectly classified, typos, and cut and paste errors, to name but a few. That is why, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it is crucial to maintain your...

Finance departments use GL codes to track spend.
Nov 25, 2020    0

Finance departments use GL codes to track spend. We’re looking at items like office supplies, marketing or maybe a specific project within the business. However, what finance are looking for and what procurement are looking for can be two quite different things.

The Trouble With GL Codes

Firstly, if you're only using your general ledger codes, I can almost guarantee they are wrong! In my experience working with GL codes, I would say 90% of them are unreliable. You...

Data accuracy is an investment, not a cost.
Oct 23, 2020    0

We all think we know what dirty data is, but it can mean very different things to different people. At it’s most basic level, dirty data is anything that’s incorrect.

Within procurement, it could be misspelt vendors, incorrect invoice descriptions, missing product codes, a lack of standard units of measure (e.g., ltr, l, litres), currency issues, duplicate invoices or incorrect/partially classified data.

Dirty data can affect the whole organization. We each have an...

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