Add Value to Procurement Workflow and Make it More Data-Driven
Today, as more business procedures become digital, the significance of using data in business operations becomes very clear. Your finance department understands that using data and digitizing the procurement process efficiently is a great idea. However, very few offer the tools and resources which are essential to make procurement more data-driven.
It has been observed that above 95% of senior executives believe data-driven procurement is a crucial part of reducing expenses while providing long-term value. Yet many executives are still not ready for a leap into data-driven procurement.
With the help of the right tools, you can digitize your entire procurement solution.
Understand Where You Can Gather Data
A company utilizing data-driven procurement manages the data at the core of its business operations. It allows the enterprise to gain complete visibility to help generate proper decisions and drive strategies. The procurement process can supply you with the data associated to purchase history and spending patterns. Even the steps you should take to revise and approve certain purchase requisitions like comparisons of actual and planned spending, and the time it took to create each purchase order. Also you can collect a wealth of information about your vendors.
Thus, in order to make your procurement processes more data-driven, you should gather all the available data via the procurement process. This is where automation becomes very useful.
What is the Relationship between Data and Automation?
Procurement automation makes gathering data easier instead of manually collecting all the same information. An automated procurement solution tracks the information you put into it, placing a large amount of processing data at your disposal. Moreover, you can customize the solutions to fit according to your organization’s individual requirements.
Do you want to track a supplier’s performance more closely? You can pull up information quickly about promised and actual delivery dates, invoiced amounts compared to the ordered amount, plus the number of returns from every supplier. All the data can be easily accessed that you require to examine your spending patterns.
Data for Good Use
Once the data has been received, it is time to assess it all. In order to begin, you must focus on what you are trying to acquire to understand what data should be used and why. It will then become easier for you to leverage that data to foresee any changes, connect patterns together, and plan for the long run.
Procurement software automation makes collecting data, which can take weeks or months for a human team, into an efficient and quick process. By making procurement more data-driven, you can add huge value to your entire process.
