Building a business case for e-procurement

How an e-procurement solution can win over the hearts and minds of a business

Businesses today are on a constant mission to improve cost effectiveness, process efficiency and the experience for their customers both internally and externally.

Increasingly, organisations are turning to automated and digitised technologies to introduce savings and streamline processes holistically throughout their business to give them room and opportunity to grow. But, digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight and is more of an ongoing process. As part of this evolution, finance and procurement transformation can represent real opportunity if the business case for change is there and is expressed effectively.

Opportunities in an automated procurement

Purchase to Pay (P2P), the procedure of requisitioning, purchasing, receiving, paying for and accounting for goods and services, is often seen as one of the functions that is challenging to manage. This is changing as intelligent, end-to-end P2P solutions begin to enable businesses to introduce automation, connectivity and digital workflows to tackle specific issues within the process such as manual admin, reduced productivity and increased risk of human error.

The introduction of digital technologies to the procurement and finance function can significantly reduce the time and cost associated with related processes.

Procurement optimisation should be a key and strategic pillar in the digital transformation of any business and a crucial way of linking the physical and digital information being managed by a modern procurement department. Technology is a key enabler and, when designed to meet specific processes in a hybrid paper/digital environment, it can speed up delivery of genuine operational savings, transforming procurement to a profit centre.

Why a water tight business case for P2P is crucial?

Despite the maturity of e-procurement solutions today and real-world impact these solutions can have on the bottom line of a business, the case for digitised, automated procurement and its opportunities still isn’t being put to business leaders in a convincing way. So how can it be positioned as a strategic and profit-generating pillar within an organisation’s digital transformation journey? Most importantly, how can the business case for investing in such a solution win over hearts and minds?

Building a robust and compelling business case is a foundation and the first step in the road to procurement transformation. It helps define and articulate the objectives of a P2P program, and demonstrates how unifying these processes under a single intelligent platform introduces significant efficiency gains, improved cost and spend management alongside a reduction in risk.

Download the e-procurement Business Case – Going back to basics guide to find out how you can win over the hearts and minds with a water tight business case.