What is procurement software?

Procurement software is an automated solution to remove the manual processing of purchasing goods and maintain inventory control.  

This allows you to digitally generate purchase orders, instantly match invoices and email bills and receipts.

The right procurement software can benefit your entire business so it is worth learning what it can do for you - any organization big or small.

One obvious benefit and not two so obvious

Let's be honest, you probably already know of the benefits of automating manual jobs that take way too much time out of your day, but you might not know about the up-to-date technology, latest developments and their specific benefits.  

1. Reduced cost

This one is simple and will be the first benefit that most people think about, it will even have an overarching effect on all benefits to come.

let’s mention the not so thought about: paper waste and storage, spending less money on supplies seems minimal but it soon builds up over time.

Moving away from paper will also allow you to minimize storage and space, no longer will you need extra office space filled with filing cabinets sitting gathering dust.  

Also not forgetting the recycling or confidential office waste collections you can eliminate.

The benefit the managers hate to mention, headcount reduction.  

No one likes to talk about it, but it is an inevitable in today’s business, if you don’t do it the competition will.  

Reducing headcount means reducing wage and pensions benefits, less heads mean less need for office space, supplies and less people using up all the tea bags.

2. Data

In this digital world data is currency, but more importantly for procurement department data = savings.

This allows you to combine spending data from all departments from pencils, computer screens and any other business expense.

Being able to show which department use the most resources allows you to investigate why that may be, and if it is needed, allowing you to allocate proper use of resources to required departments.

Data gives you control of spend, allows you to manage inventory across the business.

The transparency of the data allows management to track spend through the business and make any changes as needed.

3. Buying power

Modern technology brings new opportunities: automated procurement solutions connected to purchasing portals such as Amazon Business or Lyreco.  

The data collected will allow to cross check prices across suppliers, find the cheapest or best quality option, and build a preferred suppliers list.

Procurement software (as a full P2P package) can be rolled out company wide, with a ‘punch-out’ capability, which makes it easy for staff to use preferred suppliers by integrating the supplier’s procurement framework at the PO request stage.

Relationships with these suppliers can be maintained through a ‘virtuous circle’ – you promise the supplier an amount of purchases, they provide a discount, the procurement software makes it easy for staff to buy from the suppliers, ad infinitum.

A most important function In Compleat’s software is a fully digital P2P process (no OCR needed) with fully integrated purchasing portals (such as amazon business) which allows for ‘digital procurement’ which includes the analysis of spend to locate the best deals from the best suppliers reducing cost before you even press the ‘buy now’ button.

You may already have automation

There are many benefits to Procurement automation, and these are just a couple.

The main goal for any business is to be profitable - saving money from unnecessary spending allows corporate to spend on building the company.

Automation is a no brainer, and it is definitely something you have discussed through video calls and maybe even implemented some version of automation within the business.

However, all automation is not equal, and it is always worth keeping up with the latest potential benefits from improving technology, especially when you have amazing opportunities to save so much time and money.  

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