Achieving Optimal Efficiencies In Source-To-Pay Procurement Platforms
Best Procurement Platform
Organizations of all sizes are facing mounting pressures of competition, rising costs, increasing customer expectations and dwindling resources. Necessity has spawned resurgent trend in procurement optimization and Source-to-Pay technology which strive to navigate these choppy waters with unified platform, streamlined procedures and systematic cost derogation. In seeking continuous improvement to their bottom-line performance, it is of paramount importance that organizations proceed along their procurement journey with an informed and confident outlook.
By harnessing and integrating the suite of capabilities of an optimal Source-to-Pay solution, organizations can robustly reduce the number of disparate steps, intricate manual processes and time-draining paper trails associated with traditional procurement strategies. From the C-Suite perspective, understanding and leveraging the features of Source-to-Pay platform, tailored to the needs of their distinct operations, can accelerate the procurement process and ultimately minimize the associated costs and risks.
Therefore, the steps below unpack how C-Suite Executives and their teams can approach the journey of transitioning to Source-to-Pay platform.
Step One: Identifying the Right Solution
The best way to identify the right Source-to-Pay solution for business is to first consider the organizations specific needs within their procurement function and ultimate process goals. Ask key stakeholders within the organization to articulate the objectives of the Source-to-Pay platform, such as cost savings, simplicity and automation of the purchasing process. Once comprehensive list of core needs and performance metrics have been ascertained, it ishould be essentially possible to distill what criteria is needed, allowing an organization to filter systems and narrow their search accordingly.
Step Two: Shortlisting Vendors
As the relevant criteria have been identified, the search for the right Source-to-Pay Solution can then begin. Utilizing combination of online research, peer references, personal experience, vendor visits and industry reports to surface potential suppliers that are well-aligned with an organizations requirements. At this point, rather than entering into full appraisal of their offerings, the focus should be on narrowing down to manageable number of suppliers for actual evaluation.
Step Three: Strategic Validation
Now the search has been narrowed to few likely contenders, the next step demands more detailed evaluation and strategic validation of the capabilities of each solution. This can be achieved through series of ?Request for Proposal? (RFP) processes. It is in this process that C-Suite Executive can be satisfied that each System meets the organizations bespoke needs and requirements, before proceeding to cost evaluations further down the line.
Step Four: Economic Appraisal
Once the C-Suite Executive has established that each system meets the specifications outlined and requires the most beneficial feature set. The next stage is to evaluate the costs associated with each solution and ascertain the degree to which it will augment current costing systems and provide realistic roadmap for delivering future economic benefits.
Step Five: Onboarding
The penultimate stage of the journey is to engage in thorough onboarding process, requiring an assessment of the diverse technical and operational needs of the organization and its team members. This evaluation provides vital insight into the system?s scalability and flexibility, as well as the nature of the system upgrade or training process that will be necessary to smooth over the integration process.
Step Six: Go-live
With the organizations operational and technical infrastructure prepped, configured and ready to go the time has now come to flip the switch and launch the Source-to-Pay Solution. It is important that the right teams have the appropriate support and training to confidently handle the system?s administration and maximize the user-experience, while allowing maximum potential of the solution to be realized.
It is within these stages and combined efforts of C-Suite Executives that organizations can build and leverage an efficient, cost-effective and reliable procurement framework. By leveraging unified Source-to-Pay platform, organizations can unlock their potential for economic and process optimization, positioning them against the rigors of competition and the evolving complexities of their environment.
