Manual Communications are Slow and Limit Transparency
A department needs to issue tablets to their entire team. With an approved initiative, they submit a request to procurement. Procurement creates a purchase order, saves it as a PDF document, and emails a purchase order (PO) to the supplier.
Unfortunately the model requested is on backorder. The supplier responds to the Procurement department to inquire if there’s a specific date the order is needed by or if a different model would suffice. Procurement forwards the request to the requesting organization and after several delays, it’s communicated that the team needs the tablets sooner than the supplier can fulfill the order, but another model may work. Procurement forwards the response back to the supplier.
The supplier offers to fill the original order late at a discounted rate or provide alternative models. The request for clarification goes back to Procurement and the requesting organization–again. Days pass before an answer is provided. Finally, because the initial “required by” date has already passed, Procurement, in coordination with the requesting organization, accepts the discounted offer with the delayed delivery.
The back and forth phone calls and emails have consumed a couple weeks of time. The requestor is irritated their deadline was missed. Procurement is frustrated as the go-between, and the supplier could have delivered better service with accelerated issue resolution.
These types of manual communication processes have strained the business relationship. The supplier wishes it was easier to service the customer. And, procurement continues to get stuck in the middle of manual communication and ineffective process.
There is a Better Way
The challenges of supplier communication and coordination issues can be mitigated with a digital procurement and purchasing capability. Automating the request, ordering, coordination, and issue management activities with purchasing allows Procurement teams to work together with their customers and suppliers to get things done in a simple, streamlined way.
Digital procurement solutions allow organizations to overcome the collaboration and coordination challenges that arise from paper and email based processes and communication. Electronic requisition and purchase order creation ensures requirements are clearly articulated from the end-user to Procurement and finally the supplier.
Integrated communications within software allow requests for information to be digitally processed and assigned to the correct organization. Procurement workflow and approval allows Procurement to manage suppliers with ease and gain end-to-end visibility of the coordination and collaboration with all organizations in the purchase workflow.
Stave ProcurementPath, the premier Procurement and Vendor Management app for ServiceNow, helps organizations solve these and other supplier and vendor management challenges by automating the procurement lifecycle and digitalizing the procurement capability for customers, suppliers/vendors, and the Procurement team!
ProcurementPath can provide the automated Supplier and Vendor communication and coordination tool for your requestors, suppliers, and the Procurement team. Benefits of ProcurementPath and the automating supplier collaboration include:
- Reducing paper and emails
- Shortening approval cycles
- Accelerating payments
- Improving supplier and buyer relationships
- Increasing spend control
- Reducing processing errors
- Integrating procurement and accounting / accounts payable processes
- End-to-end visibility intro the procurement process and spend management
Learn More about ProcurementPath to Automate your Procurement Processes
ProcurementPath is full featured digital procurement application for ServiceNow – the leading platform, where work gets done. ProcurementPath brings all your procurement activities together in a single system. Additional platform features include:
- Sourcing
- Contract Management
- Purchasing and Purchase Requests
- Goods & Services Acceptance and Invoice Approvals
- Category and Spend Management
- Integrates with Legacy Systems and Tools
No more communication delays. No more missed emails. No more hassle. To learn more about ProcurementPath on ServiceNow, contact us today to learn more!
