The Negotiation Cockpit helps you prepare specifically for meetings and negotiations with your Suppliers – objectively, data-driven and clearly structured. Key figures, market comparisons, Evaluations and your negotiation notes are all on one page.
How to find the Negotiation Cockpit
In the side navigation, open Suppliers and select a Supplier.
In the Supplier profile, click the Negotiation tab.
Page layout
Top right – "Negotiation preparation" button: Starts the AI negotiation preparation (see AI negotiation preparation).
Main area – from top to bottom:
KPI Summary – the most important purchasing key figures of the last 12 months
Supplier development – Evaluations and delivery performance
Developments and benchmarks – volume, prices, competitors, industry benchmark and cost factors
High runner articles – the three Articles with the highest volume
Right sidebar – "Negotiation preparation": Your negotiation notes and AI guides for this Supplier (see Negotiation notes).
Requirements and permissions
To see the Negotiation Cockpit, you need read access to Suppliers and Analytics.
Users with edit rights on the Supplier can configure charts (e.g. select competitors, benchmark or cost factors) and start the AI negotiation preparation. Everyone else sees the cockpit with the notice View-only access.
Supplier structures: analyze linked Suppliers together
If the Supplier is part of a Supplier structure (e.g. duplicates from several ERP systems or subsidiaries of a group), you can view the combined volume of all linked Suppliers in the Negotiation Cockpit. How to link Suppliers is described under Supplier structures in the Supplier master data section.
On the parent Supplier: Use Included Suppliers to choose which linked Suppliers are taken into account. Key figures, charts and notes follow this selection. At least one Supplier must remain selected.
Key figures: The KPI tiles show the combined values of the selected Suppliers ("Grouped across X Suppliers").
Charts: Volume development shows the total volume of all selected Suppliers by Category; price development is combined on a volume-weighted basis. Industry benchmark and cost factors show one line per Supplier.
Settings from the parent Supplier: Industry benchmark, cost factors, competitors, Supplier summary and notes are inherited from the parent Supplier and are not merged across the members.
On a child Supplier: A notice indicates that the data refers only to this one Supplier. For the overall values of the structure, switch to the parent Supplier.
KPI Summary
At the very top, you see the Supplier's most important purchasing key figures. This lets you recognize the current situation and possible changes at a glance. Each tile shows the value for the Current 12 months and, below it for comparison, the value for the Previous 12 months:
Total volume share – incl. ABC classification (e.g. "A supplier")
Transaction volume
Price development
Active articles
Active categories
Incoterms
Delivery reliability
Quantity reliability
Payment terms
The Incoterms and Payment terms tiles take you directly to the details in Analytics.
Supplier development
Here you see the Supplier's evaluation results and delivery performance right next to the commercial data – without leaving the cockpit.
Delivery performance: The chart shows how delivery reliability develops.
Evaluations: For each evaluation category, the latest concluded Evaluation is shown as a tile – with name, date, Total score and the scores of the individual sections (Breakdown). Via Evaluation details – Open, you get to the full result; via the section title, to all of the Supplier's Evaluations.
Requirement for the evaluation tiles: The Evaluation module is enabled and the Supplier has been evaluated.
Developments and benchmarks
Here you put your Supplier's prices into context – over time, compared with competitors and with the market. The section contains five charts.
Using the charts
Time period: Select the time period via the period selector at the top right of the chart (e.g. calendar year or rolling year).
Open in Analytics: Use the arrow icon to open the chart in Analytics.
3-dot menu: Open the chart in full screen, copy it to the clipboard or export it as a .png file – each optionally with data values.
Volume development
Shows how your purchasing volume with the Supplier changes over time, broken down by Category. This helps you identify e.g. volume potential for price negotiations, consolidation opportunities or changes in individual demand groups.
Price development
Shows the Supplier's price development over time. Analyze whether price increases are justified or prices are developing steadily.
Competitors per category
Compares the Supplier's price development with that of its competitors.
Select a Category: In the first drop-down menu, select a Category or All categories. The Category with the largest volume is preselected.
Select Suppliers: In the Suppliers drop-down menu, define who you compare with (up to 10 Suppliers). Tacto Intelligence suggests the 5 most suitable competitors and preselects them. Use the search to add or remove Suppliers; Reset to default restores the suggestions. Your selection is saved.
Show and hide names: Use the eye icon to show or hide the competitors' real names. By default they are hidden and replaced by generic names (Supplier A, B, …) – in the chart, in the hover cards and in exports. This lets you share charts without revealing competitor names.
Good to know: Suppliers with transaction data in the selected Category are available for selection; with All categories, all Suppliers. Your Category structure does not need to be fully maintained for this.
Industry benchmark
Compares the Supplier's price development with statistical industry data (producer price indices, e.g. from DESTATIS).
Tacto automatically selects the most suitable benchmark – marked with Recommended by Tacto Intelligence.
Using the index search, you can select a different benchmark and filter by country, category or custom data sources.
The chart is shown for Suppliers from Germany. Further countries can be enabled for your organization on request.
Goal: Objectively assess whether price developments are in line with the market or excessive.
Cost factors
Compares the Supplier's price development with its cost drivers:
Materials: e.g. metals, plastics, chemicals
Energy: e.g. electricity, gas, oil
Labor costs: country-specific labor cost and wage developments
Tacto assigns suitable cost factors using AI – marked with Recommended by Tacto Intelligence. Below the chart, a table shows the change per cost factor for the last 6 months, the last 12 months and since the start year.
Add new: add further cost factors via the index search
Remove: take a cost factor out of the comparison
Custom indices: Uploaded custom indices are not assigned automatically. Select them via Add new with the Custom data sources filter (see Cost models & indices).
Example of a negotiation argument:
"Your price is currently above market level. While our internal indices for specialty plastics show a decrease of 4 %, general steel prices have also fallen by 6 %."
High runner articles
At the very bottom, you see the three Articles with the highest purchasing volume with the Supplier. Each tile shows the key figures for the last 12 months – including share of total volume, average price, average lead time, last RFQ, alternative Suppliers and price history. This lets you set clear priorities for your negotiation.