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