by | Jan 21, 2022

Automating nearly every part of the procurement process with cloud-based procurement solutions can accrue significant benefits to your business. This helps you automate and manage cumbersome processes such as supplier management, purchase requisitions, purchase orders and sourcing and invoicing seamlessly, thanks to cloud services. Unlike on premise solutions, cloud-based procurement software offers a high degree of flexibility, customization, comprehensive overview and many more benefits. Provide your business with the competitive edge it needs with cloud procurement enabled by Cloud Services Vancouver.Manual management of procurement is generally done through complex legacy systems. This results in increased scope of complications and human errors that ultimately lead to significant waste of time and resources. Cloud-based procurement solutions allow you to save time and resources and redirect these towards value-enhancing strategies and solutions for your business. Some of these benefits include cloud storage for easy and secure storage of all procurement data with real-time access. The vast scope of errors in critical tasks such as purchase orders, delivery schedules, and approved budgets that accompany manual handling is also eradicated. Cloud-based procurement software also allows your procurement team and decision makers to have 360° visibility and accessibility to spend data so you can make better informed, data-driven decisions. For effective cloud services management, please reach out to Managed IT Services Vancouver.

1. Digitization of Manual Procurement

Manual procurement function in any business typically results in reams of paperwork, phone calls, unreliable human-to-human interaction, errors and confusion. The time-consuming and tedious nature of the repeatable tasks of procurement result in a significant increase in resource usage and time consumption that ultimately hinder business growth. Storage of physical documents also proved challenging as parsing through important data such as thousands of contracts, receipts, invoices and more was a daunting task. This also significantly increased an organization’s security risks as physical documents are prone to tampering, theft, environmental damage and more. All of this ultimately contributed to a significant slow-down in the decision making process that stunted business growth. The comprehensive digital platform provided by cloud-based procurement software removes all of these difficulties by generating complete transparency, visibility and seamless connection into the procurement process. This results in significant savings in both time and labor costs and helps to minimize friction. Irrespective of their geographical location, you can be seamlessly connected to clients and suppliers with a seamless exchange of information that results in smooth delivery of tasks and services.

2. Better Accessibility and Collaboration

Cloud-based solutions offer better accessibility and collaboration capabilities and allow for seamless networking between service providers and different departments in your business. Cloud-based procurement software makes it easy to provide information to approved individuals irrespective of where or when they try to access the information. All you really need is a web browser to log into the procurement software and an internet connection. This helps effectively eliminate silos that have been built up over years and encourages people to collaborate whether they are your employees or third-party service providers. With real-time access to all procurement information made available to all team members, everyone stays on the same page as they are accessing the same data version and reducing chances of miscommunication and errors. You can also significantly cut down on process delays as tasks such as expenses can be authorized even when the approver is out of the office. The approvals are automatically forwarded to the related department along with necessary reminders and emails.

3. Better Visibility

Even small to medium size businesses are responsible for carrying out hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions every day. This makes it enormously difficult for businesses to effectively track and manage direct and indirect spending without implementing very close scrutiny. With cloud-based software, this difficulty is effectively mitigated with comprehensive monitoring and dynamic dashboards that empower your team with 360° visibilities, enabling speedier and more effective strategic decision-making. Additionally, audit trails can help organizations easily spot discrepancies in the process. The dashboard also makes it easier to apply analytics that allows users to improve, classify, and analyse spend data by supplier and category. Improved item-level visibility across the organisation increases transparency manifold that can also unlock opportunities for the discovery of effective and timely cost-cutting opportunities and maintaining better supplier relationships. With the whole purchasing cycle under close purview, businesses can take advantage of quicker approval processes, clarity on purchases and decision making, and effective reminders and alerts on spending. Businesses also stand to benefit from improved visibility into POs, invoicing, and spend, all of which ultimately enables better strategy investments and spending.

4. Unlock the benefits of e-invoicing

There are many benefits to e-invoicing. For instance, it makes it much easier for the account payable department to match goods and services delivered with goods receivable note (GRN) and purchase order (PO). The three-way matching process makes payment processing seamless so vendors always receive payments on time. E-invoicing can also be used to automate invoice validations that guarantee accuracy of calculations before sending them to team leaders for approval. The process can also be leveraged to cross-reference invoices with other procurement documents such as contracts and purchase orders to review whether the final invoice reflects the pricing agreed on in the initial agreement or to check if the item descriptions match those on the PO and the receipt of the goods. IT Consulting Vancouver provides a wide range of Cloud Services For Small Business.

About the Author

Andrew Dalman

Andrew Dalman, President of ActiveCo has a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, with an outstanding leadership capacity. Andrew has led the execution of multiple projects in ActiveCo with a great track record of success. Andrew believes understanding the business operations of customers is key to successfully incorporating the right technology for the business. When Andrew is not busy leading ActiveCo, he enjoys rock climbing and spending time with his family.

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