Procure-to-Pay, Purchase-to-Pay, P2P, eProcurement — whatever name you want to give it — is a series of coordinated and integrated activities designed to fulfill the requirement of getting the right goods or services, in an efficient manner at the right price, at right time. You got this, right?
I recently completed a thorough study of myths by examining one of the most scientifically significant examples available — Scooby-Doo and the gang: Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. You may laugh, but studying the adventures of Mystery, Inc. sheds a great deal of light on all kinds of myths, cloud procure-to-pay (P2P) included .
It is amazing what procurement professionals can accomplish with nothing more than spreadsheets, email and a phone. We can source, manage suppliers, track spend and report savings. In fact, we are so resourceful and so good at cobbling together solutions that we often stay with that approach longer than we should – especially considering how much is at stake for the company and its customers. The challenge for procurement is knowing when the time is right to make the switch to a procure-to-pay (P2P) platform .
You’ve heard the phrase “back to basics” countless times. And it’s an incredibly misleading message: That basics somehow equates with “regressing.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Honing your basic skills and knowledge is about improving, moving forward, excelling. Ask any top musician, athlete or craftsperson — basics make you better.
Procurement often uses the terms governance and compliance to describe the “law and order” part of our responsibilities. Governance establishes the rules for enterprise purchasing and spend management, while compliance measures how well distributed buyers adhere to those rules. In a perfect world, proper governance would lead to consistent compliance. In the real world, there is often only a loose connection between the two.
The definition of spend management seems to be fairly obvious ⎼ it’s the management of enterprise spend, right? On the contrary, the practice of spend management involves more than just the simple tracking and monitoring of how much money is going out of an organization. Much more.
According to the IACCM (International Association of Contract & Commercial Management), two-thirds of participants at their conference a few years ago admitted that their companies lack a clear, consistent workflow for contracting. Some had no formal definition, while others had wide variations between countries or operating units. Since contracts are the most fundamental part of doing business, not having your workflow in high gear means your organization is going to sputter and stall.
Depending on where you sit in a company, budgets are either essential guardrails for organizational efficiency, an inescapable fact of life, a necessary evil, or just evil. Overhead cost control, compliance, data quality — they are on every organization’s budget management agenda, yet few have the processes and solutions in place to achieve them. Here are four best practices to get closer to that goal.
Attend any procurement conference, read any procurement blog, download any procurement whitepaper these days and what are you likely to see and hear? AI! Blockchain! Machine learning! Chatbots! Emerging technology is undoubtedly exciting, and it is no wonder that it captures our attention and imagination. But does it have any actionable value for the majority of procurement organizations today?
Last month we concentrated a lot on looking at the ways (and why’s) procurement teams can and should be more supplier oriented. Not surprisingly, that supplier-centrism also applies to your strategic sourcing processes. That requires a holistic focus to integrate analytics, contracts and supplier information, and the technology to make it work.
What’s it all about? Procure-to-Pay, Purchase-to-Pay, P2P, eProcurement — whatever name you want to give it — is a series of coordinated and integrated activities designed to fulfill the requirement of getting the right goods or services, in an efficient manner at the right price, at right time. You got this, right?
The Determine P2P Starter Kit, Part Two: Taking the mystery out of cloud procure-to-pay. I recently completed a thorough study of myths by examining one of the most scientifically significant examples available — Scooby-Doo and the gang: Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. .
Introducing the Determine P2P Starter Kit, Part One: The P2P 101 Guide It is amazing what procurement professionals can accomplish with nothing more than spreadsheets, email and a phone. We can source, manage suppliers, track spend and report savings. In fact, we are so resourceful and so good at cobbling together solutions that we often […]
You’ve heard the phrase “back to basics” countless times. And it’s an incredibly misleading message: That basics somehow equates with “regressing.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Honing your basic skills and knowledge is about improving, moving forward, excelling. Ask any top musician, athlete or craftsperson — basics make you better.
