The digitization of purchasing seems more than ever to be positioned as a powerful lever for economic and competitive performance.
But how to explain this phenomenon? And how has digital enabled purchasing teams to gain in performance, agility and security in the processing of their daily operations? Here is a presentation of the major benefits associated with the implementation of such an approach.
Increase your productivity
Manual purchasing management, as it is still practiced in many companies, requires significant time to process low value-added tasks that could be automated. The digitization of the purchasing function frees teams from time-consuming and repetitive tasks. In concrete terms, managing the purchasing cycle with a digital solution makes it possible to double the productivity of its team and thus increase the scope of purchases that can be addressed by the purchasing department.
Strengthen the autonomy of teams
One of the great strengths of purchasing digitization is to help purchasing managers and business leaders integrate purchasing into business processes to gain operational efficiency. The traceability of operations offered by a Purchasing IS makes it possible to ensure that the purchasing policy is respected. It is then possible to delegate to your teams while maintaining control.
Streamline your purchasing cycle
Selecting suppliers, having contracts signed, processing invoices, managing stocks… It’s hard to know who takes care of what? Is the processing time for purchase transactions fast? If the answer is no, the digitization of the purchasing process streamlines the exchange of documents and information between buyers, operational staff or accounting and suppliers.
Reduce supplier risk
The company is responsible for the people it works with and this also includes your suppliers. Getting information from legal document platforms takes time, as does collecting all supplier information. Digitizing your purchasing process allows you to have a 360° view of supplier information and to be directly connected to legal information databases. In addition, the documents are automatically integrated into the supplier repository. The company and the suppliers can also save documents, information, evaluation notes, etc.
Enforce contracts
What is the point of negotiating favorable rates or allocating budgets per supplier if the company’s employees, buyers or operational staff, do not use them? From the order manager to the executive assistant via the accountant, few are those who know the clauses of the contracts that bind the customer to a supplier. By digitizing the procurement process, it is possible to provide access to all the useful data that will help employees respect contracts and markets. Ended the commitment without order which frames the relation with the supplier, the IS purchase becomes the guarantor of the respect of the contractual conditions.
Create a purchasing strategy
Once the management of recurring tasks is automated, the teams have free time to carry out tasks with high added value. The digitization of purchasing also means being able to create and manage a purchasing strategy. A complete S2P purchasing software allows you to set up purchasing action plans and monitor them according to the company’s strategic and financial objectives. The company is then able to create detailed reporting statements. This analysis tool is an essential decision-making aid for managers.
Comply with regulations
The adoption of laws and regulations impacts the purchasing and finance functions by giving them a decisive role in their application in the company. The Sapin 2 and Duty of Vigilance laws impose binding anti-corruption measures. The digitization of Purchasing makes it possible to better monitor suppliers and subcontractors to ensure more certain of their compliance.
Having become mandatory in the public sector with the implementation by the state of the Chorus portal, the application of the electronic supplier invoice will be progressive between private companies with a deadline set at January 1, 2025. Here again, the digitization of the process of supply, from the expression of the need to the processing of the invoice and its reconciliation, responds to a major challenge of this reform which concerns the recovery and processing of invoicing data. The question is therefore not whether you are going to dematerialize your invoices, but rather with what software you are going to do it.
These few elements pragmatically illustrate how the digitization of the purchasing process is a key element in supporting the company in long-term growth.
By Laurent Guillot, CEO at Oxalys