Demystifying Source-To-Pay Solutions
Procurement System
The state of modern-day procurement systems is ever varied, with meandering paths to complete sourcing and payment. Many companies endure arduous manual processes, potentially increasing the organizations costs and minutes spent procuring goods and services. With this in mind, it is incumbent upon finance executives to evaluate the Source-to-Pay Softwaresolutions that are currently available.
A Source-to-Plan solution focuses on automation, streamlining the sourcing and payment of goods and services. The Softwaresegment provides unified and decentralized purchasing, catalog management, and contract and invoice management across different organizational units in one place. This allows for the swift implementation of the most favorable prices for necessary components and materials.
This article aims to demystify the procurement needs of finance executive and provide step-by-step guide on how to use Source-to- Pay solution.
Step One: Understand and Map Out Needs
The first step in evaluating Source-to-Pay solutions is to map out your companies procurement needs, both short and long-term. This step involves evaluating and further understanding your organizations current spending, clearly recognizing and identifying inefficiencies, and anticipating any near-future needs. After mapping out needs, create list of features that resonates with given needs, ensuring to include features such as automated product and pricing comparisons, spend visualizations, and transactional data exchange and reconciliation.
Step Two: Compare and Analyze Options
After needs are thoroughly understood, begin to compare and analyze different Source-to-Pay solutions and assess their fitment for the given needs. When evaluating, examine the value-added features that each solution offers, in comparison to its industry competitors. Further delve into features such as supplier analysis and selection capabilities, contract management workflows, and the ability to understand each process end-to-end.
Step Three: weighing cost-benefit ratio
A third factor to assess when evaluating Source-to-Pay solutions is the cost-benefit ratio. Many solutions are free to download and utilize, while others require monetary cost. Though beneficial, the costs should be heavily weighed. In addition to mandatory payments, further evaluate hidden prices such as technical setup and installation costs, required hardware, and manhours allocated to the procurement system?s use.
Step Four: onboarding teams
Once the cost-benefit ratio is evaluated, it is time to begin onboarding teams. Though an imperative step, onboarding teams often require varying levels of time and effort depending on the size and need of the organization. Necessary steps during this phase include an extensive onboarding of staff to learn the features and expectations of the system?s use, followed by extensive training of operational staff on the integrated custom features and rules.
Step Five: implementation
The last step in the implementation of Source-to-Pay solution is the implementation phase. This phase consists of integrating the new system into the organizations existing technology stack, setting up automated rules and connection, and creating custom accounts and purchasing categories. The implementation phase also involves setting up supplier ledgers and activating automated payments, as well as ensuring Softwaresecurity and timelines.
In conclusion
With the right Source-to-Pay solution, finance executives can streamline the organizations procurement process, improving overall efficiency and effectiveness. This article provided insight into the five steps of Source-to-Pay solutions, from understanding and mapping needs to onboarding teams and final implementation. Utilizing these steps can undoubtedly equip finance executives with the capability to make cost-effective procurement decisions, significantly impacting the companies profitability.
