A data science and open source software approach to analytics for strategic sourcing

•Demonstrates how data science and open source software can be exploited to meet growing demand of data-driven decisions across organizational processes.•Application of the presented data science approach proved simpler and faster; reducing required sourcing assessment time from 30 to 90 days to less than an hour.•Demonstrates the efficacy of a theory driven data science method in a practical setting and then makes the tool available to other users via open source software.