Acquiring Managed Services For Optimised Procure To Pay Solutions
Procure To Pay Solution Providers
Organisations today have come to realise the advantages associated with outsourcing certain core aspects of their day-to-day operations. This has facilitated them to increase profitability and reduce costs while ensuring that their methodology conforms to the industry benchmarks. Managed services have helped enterprises in the procurement to payment (PTP) process through streamlined implementations of the solutions.
Managed services offer host of benefits that can help business to be more agile and efficient. Entrusting the management of certain services to service provider frees up internal resources that can be used to better address the companies goals. It also eliminates the need for setting up and maintaining IT infrastructure, reducing the cost of maintaining spare parts and an adequately trained staff.
Financial executives looking for managed services for optimised procure to pay solutions should follow the below steps:
1. Establish Goals: business need to clearly identify their goals for the procure-to-pay process before signing on managed services provider. Knowing what is expected from the managed services will save time and enable the executive to narrow down the list of service providers that can meet their needs.
2. Research Vendors: Executives should research the available vendors to identify the ones that have the industry expertise, experience and the technical know-how to offer managed services. This helps in understanding the pros and cons of different vendors, allowing executives to make the best selection.
3. Check Support Services: Executives should enquire about the level of customersupport services that the managed services provider has in place. Cost savings could be lost if the solution provider is not available to troubleshoot and provide guidance when needed.
4. Consider Automation: Automating the procure-to-pay process saves executives time and money as well as eliminates human-error. Thus, executives should carefully consider the automation capabilities of the managed services provider to determine if the provider can help eliminating manual data entry and assist in the process.
5. Negotiate the Price: Managed services providers require fee for providing such services. Since negotiation is an expected part of the process, executives should use their research and understanding of the services providers in order to get the best price.
6. Ensure Data Security and Compliance: Managing procure-to-pay processes for an enterprise is huge responsibility that comes with confidentiality and trust issues attached. Executives should ensure that the managed services provider put in place strong security mechanisms to protect the data. The provider should also provide reassurance that it is compliant with all applicable regulations.
7. Monitor Services: Even after the agreement has been signed and the services have begun to be delivered, executives should monitor the performance of the managed services provider. This helps to maintain standard and also to identify any issues that could crop up.
Outsourcing managed services can no doubt bring several benefits to finance organisation. Executives need to weigh the merits and demerits, depending on the specific needs, to ascertain if the managed services provider that they are opting for is indeed the right one for them. Opting for an experienced and trustworthy managed services provider for their procure-to-pay process can help business to reduce the administrative costs and get more out of the process.
