Imagine this: an enterprise has locations in Chicago, San Francisco, Florida, and Seattle, and is utilizing traditional, paper-based processes for its expense management and procurement.
How exactly would that work?
This process is time-consuming, inefficient, and doesn’t allow for a comprehensive, 360-degree view on spend management. What happens if a purchase order or invoice gets lost on the desk or there’s a slight error? This is why organizations and businesses are moving different activities to the cloud. Cloud-based business spend management provides a one-stop-destination, enabling you to have better visibility into your finances, and thus cut on excessive, unnecessary spending.
A 2018 study on cloud computing found out that approximately 73% of all enterprises have at least one application in the cloud. However, from invoicing to spend analysis, the spend management sector is often stuck using traditional, paper-based, or on-premise processes that cause budgetary mishaps and inefficiencies.
Below are three benefits you enjoy by moving spend management to the cloud:
Improved Productivity and Efficiency
Businesses across the world are all about efficiency and productivity. Efficiency is simply avoiding wasting money, material, energy, space, and other crucial resources in achieving the desired result. By moving to the cloud, businesses and organizations save money, manpower, and other crucial resources that could be deployed elsewhere.
A study from the Tungsten Network found out that organizations waste approximately 6500 man-hours because of traditional, paper-based processes. Unfortunately, despite the waste, most organizations still approach spend management using traditional, paper-based systems, leading to thousands of invoices being written out.
With this paper-based process, invoices and other crucial documents are likely to get lost or misplaced – and even a slight misfiling is disastrously costly. Indeed, research shows that a misfiling rate of 0.5% in a four-drawer cabinet can lead to approximately 1000 misfiled documents.
Using a cloud-based business spend management boosts efficiency and productivity by deploying automation to drive efficiency and eliminate the need for paperwork. This can be achieved by shifting requisition requests to an automated system that submits the requisition requests and notifies appropriate approvers.
According to the Harvard Business Review, 74% of organizations reported that cloud-based platforms have given them an edge due to speed, reliability, and ease. As information and business applications are hosted on the cloud, this makes remote access easier for different stakeholders. If an error occurs, employees can easily access a cloud system and provide actionable solutions in real-time.
Improved Cash Flow Oversight
Cash flow can make or break your enterprise. In most cases, businesses see budgetary discretions due to overestimated funds or unapproved spending. Indeed, the overall lack of visibility on what your business spends on a day-to-day basis can add up to 45% of the total spend. Spend management solutions hosted in the cloud provide greater control of cash flow through the enforcement of budgets, automatic authorization of suppliers, and recommendation for approval processes before significant costs are incurred.
Cloud-based systems extend a detailed view and a comprehensive audit trail, providing stakeholders with visibility of each spend. This creates a regulated and more efficient spend management process. Cloud spend management solutions are crucial for business success, especially when you consider that businesses lose 30% in revenue each year due to errors and inefficiencies.
There are various advantages associated with better cash flow management: you will never run out of cash, you can pay your employees in time, you can purchase all the ingredients needed to fulfill your orders, and you get to have peace of mind. In addition, you can avoid overspending and you generally have better control of your business. Thus, cloud solutions are important in improving your cash flow oversight especially because you have a complete audit trail of each expense you incur.
Security with Cloud-based Business Spend Management
Financial security is important for enterprises, especially with the rapid adoption of technology by individuals, businesses, and markets. One factor that usually comes up in internal conversations about cloud migration is data protection and security. With the growing visibility of cybersecurity issues over the last few years, many businesses assume that once data is in the cloud, it’s easy to fall into the wrong hands. This is not the case.
Indeed, traditional paper-based processes are more likely to face security threats since there is no established visible trail of spend. On average, on-premise users face 61.4 attacks while cloud users only experience 27.5. When you migrate to the cloud, data becomes less susceptible to loss or physical damage.
The cloud provides the opportunity for comprehensive data backups that can be recovered in case of emergencies. The fact that most cyber criminals are sniffing around for open networks and sensitive financial information means it’s high time to rethink the security architecture inside contemporary work settings. The cloud affords multiple ways to protect yourself from privy hackers and to secure your data, information, and mission-critical business applications.
Migrate to Cloud with ProcurePort Spend Management Solution
Spend management is crucial for your business’s success and sustainability. Business success denotes short-term wins but sustainability goes beyond ensuring you remain relevant even in the face of change. So, effective spend management is vital for your success. By using a cloud-based spend management system from ProcurePort, you can see improved business productivity, greater spend visibility, better control of procedures and policies, forecasting, and better security. With changing times and with shifting customer expectations, businesses can adapt by moving away from outdated, paper-based processes and dive into the future with a spend management cloud solution.
