In recent times there has been an increased awareness and focus on implementing and using cloud-based procure-to-pay technology within businesses. Top-level executives are always researching new ways to reduce costs and improve organization standards.
The old method of pen and paper P2P (procure-to-pay) opens the door for a magnitude of issues such as inefficiencies, poor spend management, company visibility, spend visibility, inability to provide contract compliance. On the other side of things, automation increases an organization’s understanding of their spend, increases compliance contracts, allows you to negotiate more efficiently for better pricing, and reduces spend inefficiencies. All of which makes P2P software a blessing for e-Procurement.
What Exactly is Procure-to-Pay Software?
The procurement management industry, as a whole, has evolved from a service that cuts costs into an essential source of value. Procurement professionals can now leverage technology to enhance productivity, efficiency, and most importantly, profitability. There is still room to gain a competitive edge over your competition by using P2P software. A 2018 CBIS report found that only 56% of surveyed companies were using a centralized cloud-based procure-to-pay technology.
Manual processes are a thing of the past when it comes to e-Procurement. Typically issues surrounding a manual process used to include:
- Wasted time spent hunting exceptions, tracking send and dealing with approval teams
- Material and environmental costs for paper
- Missed opportunity for discounts due to early payment
- Late payment fees
- Damaged supplier relationship due to slow payment and processing issues
- Operational efficiencies that reduce productivity
The traditional method wasn’t working for a large portion of companies, which is why P2P software solutions were invented and developed to help combat these common issues. Cloud-based P2P technology uses artificial intelligence to ensure a streamlined process from end-to-end; this includes:
- Vendor Management
- Purchase Requisition Workflows, and creates a purchase requisition (PR) for approval to meet specific needs.
- Purchase order (PO) workflows – formal, detailed PO’s that your clients will love
- Accepting physical goods and entering the order into inventory, tracking and account systems
- Invoice Management
- Accounts payable workflows
- Create Request for Proposal – RFP easily
- Quick create using a Questions repository
- Create Pages, Sections, Sub-Sections
- Support for various question types (File upload, Free text, Y/N, Multi-select, Radio choice, Pricing, Pricing levels, Custom Fields & many more)
- Ability to release addendums
- Automatic supplier notification
- Secure login for suppliers
Make Better Decisions
Procure-to-pay software allows you to automate and eradicate unnecessary costs that occur when you manually carry out the procurement process. P2p also enhances visibility, compliance, and sourcing volume while minimizing risk at each stage of the procurement business cycle. Automation of such a process helps buyers and suppliers alike obtain real-time information and make data-driven decisions. It improves your overall processing efficiency by completely removing paper from the equation.
Easy Access to Company Records and Data
Once you implement P2P software, your entire catalog of data on suppliers is stored digitally, in a centralized data deposit (dashboard). This ensures that your whole team has easy access to information for sourcing. Buyers can also access the online catalogs from old and new suppliers; they can review, approve PO’s, and check the status of shipments.
This means your business spends no time looking for documents; instead, you can search your software to locate the information in seconds. Cloud-based software has permission controls, access, and encryption feature to dictate who can approve and see what within your business operations. A P2P process also sends reminders when requisition/ purchase orders are pending and require attention.
Smart Reporting and Analysis
One of the most robust automation capabilities P2P software carries out is the amount of insight provided for supplier performance, spend examination, supplier compliance against deal terms, contract status, and more. Real-time reporting allows your team to use business intelligence-based decisions to analyze and reduce spend strategically.
Take Control of your Business Processes
Picking a system that makes sense for your business is no easy feat. You must understand your company’s unique needs, and precisely what you want in a software system. Make the most of cloud-based procure-to-pay technology to improve your procure to pay process, gain a competitive advantage, and boost profitability.