While companies often turn to spend analytics solutions to reduce purchasing spend, they quickly learn that the success of analytics initiatives ultimately depend upon the underlying consistency and quality of supplier and product data across all relevant systems within the enterprise. A recent study by the Hackett Group entitled “2011 Key Issues Study for Procurement” reinforces the importance and interrelationship of Analytics and Master Data Management (MDM), with these two applications emerging as the two most important priorities in 2011.