Procurement processes can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating—but a good procurement process can increase profit and reduce operational costs. Organizations reap these benefits when there's an effective workflow automation solution in place which can help procurement teams get their tasks done systematically and quickly while being completely insulated from non-compliance and errors.
In this article, we've laid out the crucial aspects of your source-to-pay (S2P) process that can be run more effectively with a Business Process Management (BPM) tool.
Challenge complexity
Procurement is complicated because it requires coordination across all business units—matching the correct supplier with the requirement, negotiating contracts to get the best value, and tracking and evaluating vendor performance. Leveraging BPM software will benefit you by giving all processes a methodological approach and reducing the complexity inherent in them.
Gain control and ensure compliance
Ensuring compliance is key to controlling your procurement process. Setting purchase limits and mandating approvals for larger expenses ensures complete control over every dollar spent by every department. Process automation enables regular checks and balances in place to prevent fraud and ensures company policy requirements are followed while processing every purchase request.
Reduce cycle time
Modeling a process helps you map the process. Once your process is systematically mapped and the necessary steps are properly defined, you can easily identify any discrepancies and remove the bottlenecks found while navigating through the different stages of your procurement process.
Most importantly, automating different parts of processes that were previously handled manually, like short-listing vendors based on price limit, cross-verifying invoices, or sending emails, eventually reduces your cycle time.
Procurement processes generally involve a lot of administrative work, and workflow automation relieves employees of these duties and allows them to concentrate on other value-adding responsibilities. With workflow orchestration—from strategic sourcing to handling purchase requests to paying your vendors—your procurement process is quick, efficient, and digital.
Enhance supplier relationships
Successful supplier management depends on having a clear line of disclosure and transparency with suppliers. With workflow orchestration, it's easier for suppliers and customers to communicate in real time and monitor order statuses. You can communicate with suppliers, negotiate terms, review deliverables, and tackle any supply snap on a single platform—all while keeping everyone informed about every development in the process.
As the entire procedure is transparent to all parties, it saves time, guarantees lower costs, and expedites the resolution of complaints. It even gets rid of the mountain of conversations, happening across emails, chats, and calls, that can lead to costly discrepancies and errors.
Manages risk
It's been proven time and again that a systematic approach toward procurement is the first step toward managing risks. A company can devote time to cataloguing the full range of risks it faces by developing a risk-management framework, deciding which metrics are appropriate for measuring risks, defining "what good looks like" for each metric, and figuring out how to rigorously track and monitor these metrics using workflow orchestration. BPM Platforms like Qntrl provide built-in KPI measuring, making it simple to alert organizations to potential risks.
Centralize and manage requests
Orchestrating your P2P process with workflow automation ensures access to every scrap of data—you can capture, store, and immediately share it with your team from anywhere. Verifying all required documents, like the RFx, PO, and invoice, can happen in a central repository. All this makes the process effortless and error-free. With automated notifications and a single dashboard, it becomes easier to handle processes faster, using fewer resources, and lowering costs.
Complexity, documentation errors, compliance risk, communication chaos, and an anecdote-driven approach—everything that poses a challenge to a smooth procurement process can be defeated with a workflow orchestration tool.
Progress from source-to-pay (S2P) is quick and efficient. Using intuitive workflows, interactive forms, communication within the tool, hassle-free data management, custom reports, and easy integration with other applications on a single platform makes workflow orchestration the perfect choice for the procurement process.
Modern e-procurement solutions like Qntrl can quickly align the flow of your procurement process, give you a tactical edge, and promote an efficient, strategic and data-driven environment for procurement professionals.
Choosing business process management software is the best option for your procurement team. So why not get a demo to learn more about Qntrl and its capabilities?
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