Why Automation of The Procure-to-Pay Cycle Is Critical?

Published on: 15 February 2016 Last Updated on: 10 September 2024
procure-to-pay

Organizations across the world are facing the brunt of rising commodity prices and increasing procurement costs. Executives are hard-pressed to make a tangible difference to supply chain profits. But cost-cutting is adversely affecting investment decisions and chances of expansion across the board. Read further to know the top Reasons Why the Automation of the Procure-to-Pay Cycle Is Critical.

Technology enables companies to look offshore for cheaper resources and raw materials. Procurement has become a more important process than it had been before and geographical boundaries to availability are diminishing. The procure-to-pay cycle is considered a crucial strategic operation, in which expenses need to be closely monitored.

10 Reasons Why Automation of Procure-to-Pay Cycle Is Critical

procure-to-pay

Organizations need a comprehensive approach by which operations are aligned to lower procurement costs. Every department needs to be made accountable for its costs and effective use of assets. This is only possible through automation, which includes monitoring of requirements and expense optimization. It helps to procure the assets at competitive prices. Automation of your procure-to-pay cycle can bring immense benefits to minimal investments. Here are 10 of them.

1. Save time

Automation means faster cycle times. An Aberdeen Group report found that organizations that have implemented e-procurement initiatives have halved their transaction cycle time. This means faster order processing, instant approvals, and better decision-making. The future belongs to organizations that have automated systems, as speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of procurement solutions provide a competitive edge in the market.

2. Save money

Big savings are now possible with manual procurement fading into the future. Shortened procurement and fulfillment cycles reduce administrative costs and improve staff productivity. Employees can use their time more strategically instead of pen-pushing. Consolidation of orders from different departments results in manifold advantages like decreased cost per transaction, reduced maverick spend, increased negotiation power, and volume discounts.

3. Reduce errors

Automation ensures better accuracy. Multiple receipts, documents, and bills are no longer in the picture as vendors log in their quotes and departments key in their requirements. Endless matching and re-submission of documents are no more the order of the day. Clerical errors are minimized and you can identify the best and worst-performing assets and other variables to plan for the future.

5. Be compliant

Automated procure-to-pay solutions ensured standardized procurement practices, pre-negotiated pricing and real-time data that ensures compliance. Maverick spending comes down to zero as procurement managers look out to established vendors who provide better prices than the rest. Standardized equipment and products are bought only from vendors that ensure compliance across the board.

5. Improve negotiations

Large volumes are open invitations for vendors who can provide discounts and still get better profit margins. When there is the consolidation of requirements from different departments, procurement managers and executives are better placed to negotiate stronger terms that deliver profits.

6. Get vendor visibility

Automated procure-to-pay solutions provide better visibility to the procurement process and ensure single-window clearance. Vendors do not need to meet multiple stakeholders and fill up diverse forms just to quote the price. All they have to do is log in to the cloud-based system and fill up the electronic forms.

7. Be better informed

Procurement policies can easily be accessed and any deviations can be instantly red-flagged. Executives, vendors, and agencies just need to access the procure-to-pay system for clarification about the process and polices to ensure compliance.

8. Communicate completely

Communicate completely

Procurement communication is never blocked as every transaction leaves an audit trail. The information that can be accessed immediately upon authorization and the entire pipeline is better managed.

9. Enhance control

Executives and managers have access to real-time business data that can instantly refer to the financial health of their organizations. With automated procure-to-pay solutions, you can access all spending with the click of a mouse. Minute information that can change purchase decisions for the betterment of the company is available. Detailed control of the process helps limit spending and stick to the budget.

10. Gain the competitive edge

Reduced costs, increased accuracy, better control, and transparency give you a smart, streamlined, resourceful supply chain. The smarter purchasing decisions boil down to better financial health that can give you a competitive edge in the market.

Automation helps you to build a smarter procure-to-pay system. It is imperative that organizations move on from cumbersome manual operations to cloud-based automation systems to streamline their supply chain and procurement processes.

Expensing platforms are easy to use and adaptable automated systems which facilitate procurement, invoicing, and expense management. With Expensing procure-to-pay systems, the procurement process becomes better streamlined, with faster cycle times and better control and visibility.

Image Credit: stampli.com

Read Also: 

Mashum Mollah is the feature writer of Search Engine Magazine and an SEO Analyst at Real Wealth Business. Over the last 3 years, He has successfully developed and implemented online marketing, SEO, and conversion campaigns for 50+ businesses of all sizes. He is the co-founder of Social Media Magazine.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Hiring a Recruiter in the Food and Beverage Industry

A Guide to Hiring a Recruiter in the Food and Beverage Industry

The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic taught us a lot of things. This is despite the negatives that came with it. For instance, it helped us better understand the concept of essential and non-essential services. Speaking of essential services, the food and beverage industry is important and should always be up and running. This is why these companies need a perfect approach to hiring operational and non-operational staff members. One of the best ways to go about this is engaging the services of a capable beverage and food recruitment company. These professional services consist of staff members that are specially trained to source the right candidates for the food and beverage industry. They also help draw up contracts between employees and their clients. For the most part, the contract details are in the best interest of their clients. Considering the importance of these recruiters in the industry, this article will discuss how to find and hire a good one. This is so that you end up with the right staff and have a good working relationship with the recruiting agency. Tips on How to Hire the Right Food and Beverage Recruitment Company- Hiring the right hands to fill various positions in the food industry is non-negotiable. To make sure this is the case, here are some tips to help you: Years of Active Experience: Frankly, these are one of the service providers that thrive on the experience. For this reason, make sure the agency you end up with has a wealth of experience. This will enable you to check their profile and see if they are up to the task. This is very important considering that you cannot afford to take chances when it comes to hiring the right employees. Helping your H.R Team: Engaging the service of a recruitment agency does not mean you should not have a fully functional HR department. This is because this department is very essential in the food and beverage industry. For instance, this department helps to come up with the right reward system to motivate the staff of the company. Also, they ensure that operational and non-operational staff members undergo the needed training when necessary. If you are interested in finding out more about their responsibilities, you can check here. Well, a good recruitment firm should do more than just helping with the recruitment process. They can help the HR department in some other ways. For instance, this might be about suggesting training and resource persons that can handle the training. The Required Area of Core Competence: The truth is that experience is not all it takes to hire the right recruitment agency. You also have to be certain the engaged service provider is good at supplying the kind of staff members you need. This is why you should know their area of core competence before bringing them on board. For instance, if your company is into the production of organic food items, you should make sure the agency has a good history of supplying the right kind of candidates to such companies. The point is that it is not enough to hire a random recruitment agency. Be sure that they understand the responsibilities of the employees that you need and can deliver to expectations. Good with Paperwork:   The job of a recruitment agency is not only to identify and refer the right candidate. They also need to be good at coming up with paperwork in the best interest of their clients. While the contract details should not be geared towards extorting the candidates, it should favor the clients. For instance, there should be a clause that protects the clients from employees abruptly resigning. This is so that the essential service of the company is not affected adversely in any way or brought to a standstill. Good at Identifying Red Flags: Many recruiting experts and human resource personnel have come to understand that all that glitter is not gold. This is because some unworthy candidates are good at making everything look perfect to recruiters that are not quite observant. It is for this reason that you should deal with a recruiting agency that can identify red flags on time. For instance, a highly qualified candidate that has changed jobs very often should be properly drilled. This is to be certain that your company will not experience the same fate with such a candidate. To find out some more red flags your recruiter should be able to notice, you can watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2seM0fahBx4 Conclusion: For us, ending up with the right employees in the food and beverage industry starts with hiring the right recruitment agency. We have shared tips on how you can end up with the right recruiting firm in this article and hope that you make informed decisions from now on. Read Also: How to Choose the Right Commercial Collection Agency

READ MOREDetails

How You Can Invest In Your Small Business

Many small business owners crave growth and dream of running a successful company, but many of those same people struggle to invest in their dreams. It may require all of your time and energy simply to keep the company running, so how can you effectively plan for the future? You don't have to commit to any overhauls right now, and you may find that even small improvements result in immediate and obvious improvements. If you lack confidence in your company or your abilities, here are some ways you can invest in your small business and finally reach your goals. Business Loans Many of the tactics that will help small businesses grow require money to even think about implementing. When you own a small company, chances are you've already invested a lot of your own personal assets into the business and aren't in a position to contribute more. A business loan can help you meet a variety of your goals if you've got a healthy financial history and a stellar business plan. Make sure you do your research, because you might qualify for special programs like minority business loans. New Suppliers If you're looking to improve your products, you might want to start with your suppliers. Everyone wants the lowest price for the highest quantity of the best products, but many small businesses have to pick and choose their priorities. For example, they can choose the lowest price and get more products, but the quality might suffer. Or they want the best products for the lowest price and can't afford to buy in higher quantities. Your supply chain has an impact on every area of your business, so branching out and establishing relationships with new suppliers can make a big impact. New Employees The idea can make some business owners nervous, but having extra help can change the way you perform daily operations. Maybe you're looking for a specialist who can help you with marketing. Maybe you need help interacting with customers or packing orders. Maybe you just don't want to do all the boring, pesky little tasks that are essential to the company's survival. You can hire a new employee, but you can also outsource or hire someone to work a few hours here and there instead of every day. Marketing consultants and customer relations services are very popular, for example. Specialized Training If you want to get ahead of your competition and keep an eye on industry trends, you should consider investing in specialized training and furthering your education. There are numerous ways you can do this. You can take a course, attend a training session in person, read books, and attend industry events like conferences and conventions. This will require taking some time away from your company, but you're likely to receive enough valuable experiences to make up for the time away. In addition to learning new skills, you can network with others in your niche and brainstorm with people who intimately understand your industry. After a few days away, you can come back home inspired and ready to try something new. Diversified Products And Services It's easy for businesses to become stagnant if they only offer the same products and services year after year. Consistency is great, but adding something new and exciting is how you're going to keep your loyal customers interested and draw in potential new customers. You don't have to come up with an entirely new product line, either. Sometimes one or two new products is enough to drum up some excitement. You can also get creative and utilize products you already have. Creating the same product in new colors, flavors, scents, or sizes is a great way to start experimenting without opening yourself up to extreme risks. Running a small business is a lot of work, so it can feel impossible to implement new tactics and pursue new goals. Just remember that there are strategies you can take advantage of to invest in your company and see real growth on your own timeline. Try to know as much about the market as possible, where to invest and opportunities it can provide. If required, also take help from professionals like the Singapore venture capital. Read Also: Master’s In Business Analytics: Is It Worth The Effort? Your Business Needs Marketing To Survive – Here’s Why Content Marketing Campaign Strategy For Small Business

READ MOREDetails
Tone of Voice

Establishing Your Online Tone of Voice

It’s an important aspect of brand recognition but it’s surprising how often it gets neglected. We all respond to the tone of voice as it comes across in other people’s written and spoken content, yet most of us are not consciously aware of how we use it ourselves. How can we do better? How can you use this aspect of communication to make sure that your customers perceive your business in the way you want them to? What’s right for you? The first thing you will need to decide is what kind of voice fits your business best. To do this, you’ll need to think about the nature of the products or services you offer. If you’re selling legal services, for instance, you’ll want to sound educated and authoritative, so your language should be quite formal. However, you should ensure it isn’t too complex for the average person to follow. If you’re a plumber, you might prefer to sound friendly and approachable, using less formal language to make people feel at ease with letting you into their homes. Who are you speaking to? When establishing your tone of voice, you’ll also need to consider your target customer demographics. The rapid pace of language change today means that older and younger people use a lot of different words and sentence constructions and can genuinely struggle to understand each other. In most circumstances, you’ll be more respected if you use similar language to the people you’re trying to reach. A professional service like iguestblog can adapt with ease to these variations and observing how it’s done will help you to get it right when writing for yourself. Forging the right connections One of the great things about developing a distinctive tone of voice online is that it will help you to speak as a person, not just an anonymous agent of a blank-faced institution. You can even have a team voice, whereby you let your customers know that more than one of you is involved in activities like blogging or posting on social media, but you are recognized as sharing key character traits (even if, in reality, you’re very different). This helps to get across the idea that there’s a shared vision behind the business and it will help to build customer loyalty. Consistency Once you’ve established a voice for your business, it’s important to make sure that it remains consistent. If you’re making company videos, work on establishing a tone similar to the one in your written work and present any speakers in a way that complements that. The same should apply when you talk to the media and, if possible, when you answer the phone. Making people feel that they already know you, or at least know where they stand with you, builds trust and makes for much smoother customer relations. Getting your tone of voice right requires diligence and careful observation, but once you’ve established it, you’ll find that you can slip in and out of it as required, as if it were a uniform. Like a uniform, it will give your business a distinctive character that your customers will respect. Read Also: How to Ensure You Have the Perfect English to Enhance Your Blog What Type Of Inflatables Should You Opt For At Your Business Event

READ MOREDetails