DM Jan-Feb 2024

Dm APPLICATION FOCUS: PROCUREMENT
Buyer beware?
Michelle Kermath, Head of Consultancy & Technical - ECM at Crown Records
Management, breaks down the top five reasons to digitise the procurement process
Procurement plays a vital role in
keeping a business functioning. The
buying team is not only responsible
for acquiring the products and services
an organisation needs to operate, but
also for ensuring that spending is
properly monitored.
Currently, more than a third of
organisations still rely on paper-based
procurement that involves large amounts
of manual processing
(www.reutersevents.com/supplychain/tech
nology/half-supply-chains-still-highlyreliant-manual-data-analysis).
Copies of
quotes and invoices must be shared with
several team members, while suppliers
need to be kept in the loop with phone
calls and emails.
This manual approach eats into your
team's time and introduces room for
errors to creep in. Many of these
issues can be curtailed - and often
completely removed - by instead
moving to a digital system.
Not only is a digital process faster
than manual procurement, with
research showing that digital
procurement can slash the time
spent on the procurement
process by as much as 80%,
the advantages it provides
can also offer greater
insights into spending
and improve relations
with suppliers.
To explore this in
more detail, we
will look at five of
the biggest
reasons for
digitising
your
procurement
processes.
1. Dispense with the paperwork
Manual procurement involves a lot of
paperwork and form-filling. It's been
estimated that buyers spend as much as
31% of their time on manual processes,
representing a huge amount of time that
purchasers could spend on more
productive tasks.
Moving the process to a digital
platform can reduce these timeconsuming
tasks to a handful of clicks.
With efficient automation in place, it
may not even require that. Documents
can be dispatched to suppliers
automatically, and approvals sent back to
the relevant parties without the need for
making phone calls or sending emails.
2. Accelerate approvals
According to the Chartered Institute of
Procurement and Supply (CIPS), more
than 90% of organisations eyeing
digitalisation are primarily motivated by
"decreased operational costs and
increased efficiency". A move away from
manually created contracts, RFPs, and
other documents and toward an online
platform can allow documents to be
shared automatically throughout the
approvals chain, cutting down on time
spent waiting for sign-off.
On top of this, an automated system
can share information across the
organisation without the need for
employees to enter information
manually. Several elements of the
process can be handled automatically,
allowing orders to quickly be placed
and confirmed.
Rapid approval doesn't just make life
easier and more convenient for the
employees making purchases, it can also
help to boost the organisation's overall
agility and responsiveness.
30
@DMMagAndAwards
January/February 2024
www.document-manager.com