For sure, enterprises as a whole and procurement teams in particular can log significant financial and operational improvements through implementing basic strategic sourcing processes, such as spend analysis, sourcing/ eSourcing, contract management, and supplier management. Even manual process implementation can result in tangible, immediate benefits to the enterprise, like greater realized savings, greater contract compliance, and greater spend under management. But the law of diminished returns dictates that, over time, financial and operational improvements will plateau, and further process enhancements need to be made in order to reap greater rewards.
When Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) and procurement organizations acknowledge their struggles and the need to transform in order to deliver greater value to the enterprise, they tend to take one of two approaches – a strategic “upstream” approach or a tactical “downstream” approach.
- When starting “upstream,” procurement organizations typically lack robust supply management solutions and or expertise. Instead, they leverage the strategic sourcing process by sourcing high-value contracts, driving significant cost savings, and reinvesting those savings into transformation projects that ultimately allow them to hire skilled, talented staff and adopt process automation tools to complete the project.
- Conversely, teams that start “downstream” begin within the procure-to-pay (P2P) process. They adopt systems from the get-go to gain visibility into spend and existing processes, develop policies and procedures around spend and payments, and drive smarter enterprise buying decisions. After doing their homework, procurement teams understand what resources they have and decide what they can more competitively and strategically source.
Starting the procurement transformation process upstream with strategic sourcing and sailing downstream into P2P waters can allow CPOs and procurement teams to deliver greater value to the organization than with strategic sourcing alone. To illustrate this, Ardent Partners has teamed up with Zycus to offer a free webinar, Sailing Downstream: Why Source-to-Settle Defines Procurement Transformation in 2015, on Thursday, February 19 at 2 p.m. US Eastern Time.
Ardent’s own Chief Research Officer, Andrew Bartolini, will detail both upstream and downstream ways that CPOs and procurement teams can drive enterprise source-t0-settle transformation in 2015. He will also illustrate how enterprises can use strategic sourcing sub-processes, like spend analysis and contract management, to drive this transformation downstream into P2P waters, where eProcurement and AP automation complete the source-to-settle cycle. If you register for the webinar, you’ll also get a complimentary copy of Ardent’s Sailing Downstream – Procurement Transformation report. Register now at the links below:
Topic: Sailing Downstream: Why Source-to-Settle Defines Procurement Transformation in 2015
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2015
Time: 2:00 p.m. EST
Duration: 60 minutes, including live Q&A
Speaker:
Andrew Bartolini
Chief Research Officer & Managing Partner
Ardent Partners
Webinar attendees will receive detailed recommendations on how CPOs and procurement teams can drive source-to-settle transformation. These include thinking holistically about procurement transformation (upstream and downstream – strategic sourcing and P2P), as well as using the transformation process as an opportunity to collaborate with other stakeholders. Be sure to register for this webinar and receive all three of our recommendations for how procurement departments of all maturity classes can transform throughout the source-to-settle process and elevate the enterprise to the next level of performance. Register here.
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Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Chief Procurement Officer, Contract Lifecycle Management, CPO, eProcurement, People, Process, Solution Providers, Source-to-Settle, Sourcing, Spend Analysis, Technology, Transformation
