Maximizing Source-To-Pay System Performance For Strategic Sourcing
Strategic Sourcing Strategy
The optimization of source-to-pay (S2P) system is necessary undertaking in order to achieve efficiency and cost savings with regard to strategic sourcing decisions. comprehensive S2P platform can enable more comprehensive and expedited selection of vendors and contractors, while assuring that all expenditures are in accordance with the organizations financial policy. C-suite executives in the finance realm can arm their teams with the pertinent tools and strategies to ensure overall operational success.
The most important success factor when investing in an S2P platform is proper implementation. Establishing core team to oversee the implementation process is paramount to ensure that all necessary customizations and integrations are appropriately executed and maintained. This team should also have administrative capabilities over user management and roles as well as system testing and performance management.
When utilizing S2P system, it is vital to ensure that vendor data is controlled and properly maintained. Starting with the collection and update of vendor information and specifications can help to eliminate the risks associated with wrongly estimated, or inconsiderately sourced, contracts and contracts that do not accurately reflect the organizations financial policy.
It is also important to ensure that the system allows for the fast turnaround of transactions and approval processes so that vendors can be paid in timely manner, justifying the upfront spend and reducing settlement times. Modern S2P platforms offer automated approval that can be set up to provide approval workflow processes, ensuring that the right people are notified to make decisions when selecting vendors and contracts.
When selecting S2P system, it is essential to choose one that can scale to match growing and/or changing business, which may require customizations of the workflow. In addition, system that offers range of user roles and permissions, as well as completion tracking and reporting of key performance indicators are must for any organization.
Lastly, it is imperative that the S2P system can integrate with existing finance platforms, such as processing tools, accounting systems and even the organizations existing contracts to ensure the continuity of the process and accuracy of the data.
Properly implementing an S2P platform is key step to optimization of strategic sourcing decisions. By considering the essential criteria, C-suite executives will be able to guarantee that the optimal system is selected as well as that the related processes and decisions will be successfully incorporated into the organizations daily operations.
