Playbook For Achieving Spend Visibility With Source-To-Pay Solutions
SPEND VISIBILITY SOLUTION
Spend visibility is an essential aspect of organizational management, offering clear means of tracking financial processes such as procurement, negotiations, payment execution and deliveries. Source-to-Pay (S2P) solutions provide comprehensive oversight and control of end-to-end spend processes to the C-Suite, allowing the top-level executives to better understand both their plan?s performance and their organizations efficiency.
From C-suite perspective, achieving an optimal level of spend visibility implores executives to create an integrative plan that properly aligns research, preparation, and execution of procurement transactions utilizing enterprise resource planning (ERP). An effective S2P approach will also ensure automations, consolidations and/or rationalizations of all vendor types and supplier categories, thereby achieving an effective level of financial governance. Below is comprehensive and step-by-step guide on how to use Source-to-Pay solutions to achieve higher level of spend visibility.
Step 1: Access and Utilize Comprehensive Database
It is essential to be able to access and utilize sophisticated database or series of databases that offers detailed information on organizational spend, contracts and operations. These can be used to analyze business performance and to improve financial insights, forecasting and budgeting activity.
Step 2: Leverage Advanced Analytics
The utilization of advanced analytics, such as automate benchmarking, predictive analytics and machine learning, is critical when attempting to achieve higher level of spend visibility. Those solutions employing an available, robust analytics component provide the data necessary to generate process-driven insight and to create cost savings, while simultaneously improving the quality of programs.
Step 3: Automate Routine Processes
Utilizing automation in day-to-day business processes, such as data capture and invoice processing, helps to remove the need for high-volume manual labor, reduce invoice discrepancies, and improve the overall accuracy of transactions. Automated electronic invoicing, in particular, should be sought after, as it allows for an improved level of data integrity and greater economy of time.
Step 4: Develop Detailed Vendor Scorecards
Development of detailed vendor scorecards is essential in determining the relevancy and value of total spend with vendors and suppliers. With those scorecards, it is possible to objectively analyze, compare and prioritize vendors and suppliers, which in turn helps to uncover potential sources of savings and revenue.
Step 5: Integration of Data, Processes and Technologies
Finally, it is important to ensure that all data, processes, and technologies are integrated in way that allows for proactive monitoring and analysis of organization-wide spend. Enabling staff to quickly identify and address discrepancies through rule- and decision-based security protocols should be key element in the integration process.
By properly utilizing the aforementioned strategies utilizing comprehensive databases, leveraging advanced analytics, automating routine processes, developing detailed vendor scorecards, and integrating data, processes, and technologies organizations are sure to achieve higher level of spend visibility. This process will allow C-suite executives to better understand their plan?s performance, their organizations efficiency, and gain the competitive edge in the marketplace.
