I could think of at least the following five key issues and challenges that in turn lead to tremendous opportunities to save money, time, and bolster the bottom line of companies of all size.
Issue #1 is excessive spending for direct and indirect goods and service
—i.e., more than a company should for it needs. The opportunity here is to reduce the company’s spending by minimizing maverick purchasing practices, reducing transaction costs, and leveraging the aggregated (collective) purchasing power of the enterprise to negotiate more favorable pricing, service, and contractual terms and conditions.
Issue #2 is a lack of visibility and accountability. Many companies are not exactly sure what they are currently spending their money on. The pertinent historical and snapshot data is lacking and is likely inaccessible. Questions like, “How much are we spending? With what suppliers? On what categories? Who is spending it? How long does the approval take? Are we within the budget? What suppliers are (or are not) fulfilling orders on time? Should we rationalize our supplier base? Are there spikes or trends in our spending patterns that require action?” and so on require constantly changing answers.
The opportunity here is for all managers and executives to monitor spending (via personalized interactive analytics and alert messages) by category, location, cost center, department, project, you name it. These metrics should be known/viewed as transactions are happening, instead of only after they are booked to the general ledger (GL).
One way to solve this conundrum could be via procurement data marts that provide prepackaged spend analysis over a few dozens metrics and dimensions for fast answers to the above questions. These answers should be based on fresh (real-time, or close to real-time) data rather than on “rearview mirror.” This hindsight speed-of-thought spend analysis should measure and optimize savings via packaged buyer analytics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and proactive control and supplier collaboration.
Issue #3 is that most companies have a legacy of too many vendors that supply disparate operations and manual approval processes that make it impossible to exercise reasonable control. The opportunity here is to have an overarching system that enforces controls, drives requisitioning and purchasing clerks to preferred suppliers and items, and makes an approval workflow a snap. Essentially, the idea is to make it patently easy for everyone to do the right thing consistently time and again.
Issue #4 is that many existing procurement and payment processes are labor-intensive and fraught with errors and rework. As a result, too many people are spending too much time on clerical tasks. The opportunity here is to lift that burden and focus the company’s human resources (i.e., requisitioners, managers, and purchasing professionals) on more strategic activities.
Finally, Issue #5 is fragmented enterprise systems (and islands of information), which are difficult to navigate and almost always require duplicate data entry. Astute integration technologies should solve this problem without costly IT input, even if the enterprise is integrating diverse solutions (i.e., procurement and sourcing with different front-office and back-office solutions). There is often a need to integrate procurement to accounts payable (A/P), GL, and inventory management systems, whereas both procurement and sourcing systems often have to be linked to supplier catalogs, Web sites, and sales order management systems.
Issue #1 is excessive spending for direct and indirect goods and service
—i.e., more than a company should for it needs. The opportunity here is to reduce the company’s spending by minimizing maverick purchasing practices, reducing transaction costs, and leveraging the aggregated (collective) purchasing power of the enterprise to negotiate more favorable pricing, service, and contractual terms and conditions.
Issue #2 is a lack of visibility and accountability. Many companies are not exactly sure what they are currently spending their money on. The pertinent historical and snapshot data is lacking and is likely inaccessible. Questions like, “How much are we spending? With what suppliers? On what categories? Who is spending it? How long does the approval take? Are we within the budget? What suppliers are (or are not) fulfilling orders on time? Should we rationalize our supplier base? Are there spikes or trends in our spending patterns that require action?” and so on require constantly changing answers.
The opportunity here is for all managers and executives to monitor spending (via personalized interactive analytics and alert messages) by category, location, cost center, department, project, you name it. These metrics should be known/viewed as transactions are happening, instead of only after they are booked to the general ledger (GL).
One way to solve this conundrum could be via procurement data marts that provide prepackaged spend analysis over a few dozens metrics and dimensions for fast answers to the above questions. These answers should be based on fresh (real-time, or close to real-time) data rather than on “rearview mirror.” This hindsight speed-of-thought spend analysis should measure and optimize savings via packaged buyer analytics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and proactive control and supplier collaboration.
Issue #3 is that most companies have a legacy of too many vendors that supply disparate operations and manual approval processes that make it impossible to exercise reasonable control. The opportunity here is to have an overarching system that enforces controls, drives requisitioning and purchasing clerks to preferred suppliers and items, and makes an approval workflow a snap. Essentially, the idea is to make it patently easy for everyone to do the right thing consistently time and again.
Issue #4 is that many existing procurement and payment processes are labor-intensive and fraught with errors and rework. As a result, too many people are spending too much time on clerical tasks. The opportunity here is to lift that burden and focus the company’s human resources (i.e., requisitioners, managers, and purchasing professionals) on more strategic activities.
Finally, Issue #5 is fragmented enterprise systems (and islands of information), which are difficult to navigate and almost always require duplicate data entry. Astute integration technologies should solve this problem without costly IT input, even if the enterprise is integrating diverse solutions (i.e., procurement and sourcing with different front-office and back-office solutions). There is often a need to integrate procurement to accounts payable (A/P), GL, and inventory management systems, whereas both procurement and sourcing systems often have to be linked to supplier catalogs, Web sites, and sales order management systems.
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