How to ensure Successful Procure to Pay implementation

As a Procurement and A/P Digital Transformation leader, it is indeed exciting to lead the journey towards a more cost-effective, and better process. The entire journey of identifying software products, shortlisting vendors, and finalizing the best Procure to Pay product is very gratifying. One is tempted to take a bow and walk away to the next adventure, after a job well done.

But the job isn’t done yet. The shiny new Procure to Pay product still needs to be implemented successfully. Invariably, a lot of organizations struggle in this phase as more stakeholders get involved during implementation.

When do you say your P2P implementation has been successful?

A system which is now ready-to-use is a successful implementation;

OR, only when the organization starts to see significant dollar savings?

I would offer this as a better benchmark of a successful implementation:

A successful implementation is when the system installation is complete, AND users have started using the system. That means, you have successful product installation and successful product adoption. The savings and benefits you were seeking are inevitable once this success is achieved.

Let us explore HOW to achieve that successful state as soon as possible.

These three aspects will help you ensure fast and successful implementation.

1.   Commitment: Top-level sponsorship for the project significantly increases the probability of quick success.

Remember that implementing an eProcurement system will impact almost all departments on how they conduct business with their vendors. The process change that you envision, is like a diet plan that will result in lean and effective organizational spendings. However, not everyone wants to ‘diet’. That makes change management always tricky.

Therefore, it is instrumental beyond measure that top management demonstrates project support to pave the way for project adoption. A positive approach from all stakeholders activates a solution-seeking attitude towards the project. It also speeds up the timelines.

Another visible sign of organization commitment towards the implementation is when a dedicated project management team is assigned for this implementation project, to work with the  product vendor. This project management team will help translate that commitment into project success by offering constructive suggestions, getting the right resources allocated, chasing and receiving the correct approvals for different project decisions, arranging for proper data collection, etc.

Before starting an eProcurement software implementation, this commitment needs to be assured.

Implementation teams that are not fully committed to the project insist on replicating the ‘as-is’ process through the system. That results in the project losing out on the benefits and controls brought in by the new system. That would only defeat the whole initiative.

2. Customization: The Big C that makes or breaks an implementation. 

When looking for a Procure to Pay solution, it is best to go for a highly configurable and adaptable product, where your business requirements can be met pretty much ‘out of the box’.

Go in for a product that offers the benefits of a suite of integrated modules, to avoid unnecessary integration and customization across processes.

For example, Expenzing Procurement Management is naturally integrated to other related systems like Asset Management, wherein an asset which is procured has to get tracked by the asset management system. Even if you go only for one of the modules out of the suite, it reduces chances of additional customization when you add modules later on.

Product companies have solution consultants who are experts with domain knowledge gathered over hundreds of implementations. They not only have a deep understanding of the product but can also suggest ways to modify the current solution to bridge any functionality gap. They can suggest minimal changes to the product thereby making it easy to adopt, while not resulting in the chaos of heavy customisation.

Here are 3 reasons why an ‘out of the box’ product is the way to go:

• Cost: The cost of customization is a variable cost, over and above the cost of the product. Variable costs can run into thousands of dollars, greatly derailing the total cost of the project.
• Upgrades: Customizing a product hampers the chances of timely upgrades since a new version of the product will require the same amount of coding, testing, retrospective testing, and release time as the original effort. So you end up paying the cost of customization for each upgrade.
• Eventual Customer Dissatisfaction: Since it requires almost constant project management in time, someone ends up questioning the need for such an effort every time. This usually results in forfeiting upgrades or looking for a new product all over again, wasting precious time and capital.

The summary: customise if you must, but keep it minimal. As examples go, if one buys a bike and attaches wings to it to make it fly, neither will it remain a great bike nor become a functional plane.

3. Control the project with the right governance

Project governance is the ‘secret sauce’ of a well-executed project; this includes regular reviews, highlighting issues at the right time to the right audience, definition of the escalation matrix, etc.

For product implementation, we must understand that the product is already successfully created. The key activities now are to set up the infrastructure/ subscribe to the cloud, install the product, train and enable usage after uploading correct data. The only coding-related activities are integrations with connecting systems and customization, if any. It is easy to implement it in an agile process.

Being strict about the project governance is easy, AND very critical for such implementations.

Finally, I would sign off with:

When in doubt, trust the experts. Since the product experts have years of implementing the same product across varying scenarios, they guide you to the most feasible and scalable solution. Even though each project is different and each experience is unique in its own way, being mindful of these 3 Cs (Commitment, Customisation, Control) will ensure successful implementation and usage of any other complex system.

Check out 10 Big Questions to ask before buying an Integrated P2P Solution Software