Top TEN reasons why a Procure to Pay Specialist Solution is better than a generic automation software.

When you have a toothache, do you go to a GP or a Dentist? We seek ‘experts’ and ‘domain masters’ in all facets of our life. So when you are looking at spend-management, whatever possessed you to go looking for an ERP?

For the uninitiated – Here are Top TEN reasons why a Procure to Pay Specialist Solution is better than a generic automation software:

1. Domain Expertise:Needless to say, a product company focused specifically for integrated e-Procurement will naturally invest more time and resources into its bread and butter. If such a product company does this for years on end, they are bound to be really good at what they do. A generic solution may get you there, but only an expert will help you in financial control.
2. Easy to Use: They say you have understood a subject well if you can explain it to a 6-year-old. A specialist product might have complex processing happening in the back-end but User-Interface is designed in a way that business users find it easy to understand and use. Specialist products understand the importance of convenience because it plays a key role in ensuring product adoption and policy compliance. Activities like PR/PO Approval by Business users are done intuitively and don’t require hand-holding.
3. Integrated Solutions: Problem focuses evolve, and solutions need to do that too. The day you identify that you need a larger solution than what you already have, would you go out looking for disparate systems to integrate with your current software? Unfortunately, this is what a lot of ERP/In-house product users realize quite late. Some examples are: You already use an e-Procurement system, but now you need an RFP/Sourcing software or an Invoice management software, or a Budget control system to speak to your e-procurement system. Naturally, what you need is an integrated solution that offers modules that naturally speak to each other, end to end.
4. Faster Implementation: Specialty products like Expenzing adopt an agile methodology to implement. Here too, domain expertise comes in handy for quick and effective implementation, ensuring quick returns. Complex systems like SAP and Oracle or other ERPs can take up to many years to implement and often, the time taken to implement exceeds the cost of the product.
5. Mobility: Device independence is the need of the hour. Lately, businesses are trying to catch up to the ease at which information and processes are now available to individual consumers and offer similar ease in daily business transactions. While traditional and bulky systems like ERPs struggle in this area, specialist systems like Expenzing make it a priority. These are the factors that help in effective product adoption and complete policy compliance.
6. Configurability: Just like other better things in life, what may have been a luxury in the past is now a necessity. And yet generic softwares, have still not managed to catch up on this important feature. That may be because of their rigid structure, primarily designed for direct spends, and not more flexible and fluid indirect spends. Important activities like Supplier Management, Budget Control, Delegation of Authority rules, Invoice Management rules should be configurable as per your evolving needs.
7. Easy to Manage: Systems need to be easy to use for everyone. Adding new authorization rules or a new list of items or additional cost centers should not become a long, lengthy process compromising the actual operational process. The appropriate team (usually procurement/admin/purchase team) should be able to be done in a simple, easy-to-follow manner in your e-procurement software. Unline ERPs, they need not reach out to the product/service provider.
8. Do It Yourself Reports – Every stakeholder has a different reporting requirement. The cost of building such reporting inputs is unreal in traditional softwares. Mature organizations that aim to streamline spend for effective cost reduction want better insights into data and reporting flexibility. Modern, updated products like Expenzing understand this need and often provide this feature out-of-box.
9. Cross-Functional Collaboration – A Procure to Pay process has stakeholders across the whole organization. And yet, only some users have access to the systems, leaving the rest of the stakeholders to resort to emails and other communication methods. Such loopholes can never ensure 100% policy compliance. Unfortunately, that is what happens when organizations choose to use generic softwares over integrated P2P solutions designed specifically for different types of users and stakeholders.
10. Scalability and Growth – After investing obnoxious amounts of money and waiting for what sometimes may seem like an eternity, you finally got that do-it-all generic system for your P2P process. But you soon realize that your needs have evolved, your usage has increased, and user expectations are not being met. In such cases, there are only three options one is left with – the most popular is to get stuck with an archaic solution that no longer meets your needs. The second option is to invest more money in another 2-year-long project for an upgrade. The third option is to invent the time machine and go back in time to buy a specialist integrated procure to pay system.

As exciting as it sounds, we certainly hope you won’t have to build a time machine, now that you have gone through all these points.

Watch out this space for more information on modern e-procurement and spend control solutions.