In a recent webinar ‘Unlocking the hidden savings in your procurement process’ hosted by Advanced Business Solutions (ABS), in association with Science Warehouse and SPS Consultancy, we discussed the importance of the effective use of procurement technology to drive further savings in the procurement process. The webinar brought together experts from across the field of procurement and financial management to discuss some of the key drivers for procurement and what steps organisations can take to deliver more cost reduction and compliance in future:

-    Neville Merritt, Partner Manager, Advanced Business Solutions
-    Ken Cole, Director, SPS Consultancy
-    Stefan Hiscock, Strategic Market Analyst, Advanced Business Solutions
-    Jonathan Betts, Sales & Marketing Director, Science Warehouse

Surviving Austerity

The public sector is facing reduced budgets which are impacting on the local services such as the council, local communities and even local government infrastructures. In the private sector economic uncertainty means the investment outlook is far from growth oriented. Across both sectors cost reduction remains a key imperative.

Some of the key measures outlined to address these challenges include:

• Control – keeping to budgets / monitoring spend
• Automation – automating low value transactions
• Data quality – accuracy of what is bought from whom
• Audit – separation of duties and avoiding financial loss
• Forecasting – the past informs the future (trends / outcomes)
•  Reporting – getting information to the right people

View the ‘Unlocking the hidden savings in your procurement process’ presentation to read about the measures you can implement to start making savings today.

Procurement Toolkit

While many organisations still have inefficient procurement processes in place the full potential for savings are not being realised. Given the tools that have been around for some time, too many organisations are still lacking a smart and streamlined procurement process. The typical challenges include maverick purchasing and lack of standardised pricing structures across the organisation with little or no supplier relationship management processes in place.

There are many tools available today that that can help deliver procurement savings, examples include:

• eSourcing (increase efficiency or sourcing process and drive improved deals)
• eProcurement (shopping style approach to procure-to-pay)
• eCatalogues (for effective contract management)
• eInvoicing (increase accuracy and avoid manual invoicing)
• Spend analytics (purchasing analytics to benchmark against competitors)

Download and watch ‘Unlocking the hidden savings in your procurement processes’ webinar to hear about these and other tools you can deploy to start making savings.

Procure to Pay, Why Bother?

In a recent survey conducted by Science Warehouse in association with eWorld Purchasing & Supply we found the number one driver for procurement was cost reduction. The need for cutting costs without harming the business has become vital and central to this is reducing the barriers to success and achieving continuous savings. Some of the advantages of implementing a procure-to-pay solution include:

• Cash savings
• Faster orders
• Clean process
• Efficiencies
• Cost reduction

Read the free eBook ‘Unlocking the hidden savings in your procurement process’ detailing the top reasons why your organisation could benefit from a complete procure-to-pay solution.

What are your experiences in using procurement technology to unlock savings? What are the barriers to success and how are they best overcome? Please feel free to post your comments in response below.