Finding The Right Source-To-Pay Solution For Your Contract Lifecycle Management
Contract Lifecycle Management Process Flow
Purchasing the right source-to-pay (S2P) solution can add significant value to your companies contract lifecycle management (CLM) process flows. Investing in S2P can improve administrative tasks while transforming automated contract management processes. An effective solution should not only make the purchasing process more accurate, efficient and streamlined, but it must also provide new levels of visibility and control over all aspects of the contract lifecycle.
A strong S2P solution should integrate with current software and cloud-based applications used by your organization and increase the productivity of contract-writing, negotiation, and management personnel. The following step-by-step guide will be useful for executives looking to identify S2P solution that is ideally suited to the companies CLM process flows.
1. Identify the problem. Determine what gaps are existing in the current contract lifecycle management process flows and how the S2P solution should improve the process. This could include limiting manual tasks, increasing spend visibility, or providing more accurate forecasting.
2. Take inventory of the existing process. Create checklist of the CLM process flows to be improved and document how your purchasing process is currently being handled.
3. Research potential S2P solutions. Investigate various products and consider the features that will be most beneficial for your organization.
4. Compare solutions for any additional insight. Talk to other like-minded executives and understand their experiences in implementing S2P solutions.
5. Select the best option. Analyze all the data from the previous steps and choose the synthesis that best suits your companies needs.
6. Allocate resources for the solution rollout. Align the program with the executive team and clearly map out the tasks, roles and objectives needed for successful implementation.
7. Create one-stop shop. Put all the resources needed in one place, like public and private repository, to ensure easy access during the rollout period and beyond.
8. Monitor and adjust the program. IT teams will need to continuously monitor the S2P process, adjusting and tweaking the features to make the program work more efficiently and accurately.
9. Ensure compliance. Make sure the S2P solution meets the companies compliance requirements and adhere to agreements with suppliers.
10. Celebrate success. After successful implementation, it is important to recognize and reward the personnel responsible for the successful rollout of the S2P solution.
The right S2P solution should meet all your organizational needs, create transparency and visibility in the purchasing process, and improve administrative operations. Following this step-by-step guide from the C-suite perspective can be invaluable in finding the best S2P solution for your contract lifecycle management process flows.
