Having the right procurement tools can make a significant difference to your efficiency and bottom line

In the past your organisation’s procurement process may have been a lot simpler than today consisting of simple purchase transactions to acquire the materials and tools to help you manufacture, distribute or sell products. In today’s modern world though things have changed with a lot more emphasis being placed on strategic partnerships and ensuring accurate procurement decisions are made to support your overall business operations and long term success. In short, having the right procurement strategy can make a significant difference to your efficiency and bottom line. 

Digital tools are becoming essential for effective procurement

In 2019 a global survey by the University of Mannheim to 460 procurement and operational leaders found that 84% believe using digital tools is essential to achieving performance and efficiency gains. 

Procurement leaders want digital tools to help them do their jobs more effectively. Key findings from the survey also report that:

• 28% of participants rated their digital maturity better than that of their competitors.
• The adoption of mature digital solutions is moderate with 65% of respondents leveraging cloud solutions.
• Primary objectives for digitisation projects are often clear: automating processes, improving data quality, achieving cost savings and improving compliance.

Not just procurement but all your business operations can be improved

The better your individual business operations are connected the better all your departments will perform – including procurement. SME’s the world over are now turning to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solutions and SAP Business ONE in particular. 

The world’s leading ERP solution is perfect for SME’s wanting to improve coordination in their whole operations as well as having powerful features that improve your procurement practices.

Let’s look at just 3 major benefits to your procurement Process

Create a channel flow of improved data that will help your team make better procurement decisions

Having a clear view of accurate and important data helps improve all procurement decisions. Knowing further in advance of what to buy when can really help to drive efficiencies in inventory management, budgeting, sales and distribution.

With SAP Business One information about your procurement, inventory, distribution and sales along with all your business data is easily accessible in a centralized location. 

Visibility of this data means better planning, fewer hold-ups and more confident decision making. 

Being able to automate repetitive tasks will also drive further efficiencies by saving time and reducing the number of errors.

With SAP Business One we can add approved predefined rules to workflows to speed up procurement processes leaving more time for your team to better manage budgets.

More efficient and automated purchase orders 

Purchase orders (POs) are a central component of procurement and the management of POs can be a time consuming and repetitive task for your team. Using SAP Business One you can quickly and simply create and send purchase orders directly to vendors as well as being able to generate back to back POs directly from sales orders.

When creating POs in SAP Business One, you can:

• Add multiple currencies.

• Include multiple item categories: services, materials and products.

• Use internal purchase requests for new or existing items.

• Apply predefined price lists and discounts automatically.

• Create blanket orders.

• Easily enter shipping and billing details.

• Manage purchasing across multiple branches of a business.

If you are dealing with international vendors and clients SAP Business One can determine the correct taxes to be applied. To help keep an eye on costs the “landed costs” function can calculate all expenditure related to import and export orders including freight, insurance and handling fees.

All your PO data is collected and easily accessible and automated invoicing can help drive further efficiencies.

Better understand your suppliers and your spending patterns

Finding the right supplier is the first important step in the procurement process and building good relationships with your supplier network is essential to get better purchasing value.

SAP Business One helps capture and review information about vendors. A “wizard” function will generate a purchase quotation request for vendors where you can then compare suppliers and prices using multiple criteria which means you negotiate better for increased value. 

SAP Business One’s Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Module helps match supply and demand with purchase to recommend POs to help optimise inventory

Graphical and text reporting on all your purchasing history with vendors is essential to help you audit, analyse and manage relationships. On-Time in Full (OTIF) reporting function gives you easily accessible information and real-time data to help keep track of purchases and what is owed.

We can help you find efficiencies and cost savings in your procurement process with an obligation free business review. Contact us today to speak with one of our experts.