How a company manages raw material and services it requires to operate

A company's procurement process

A procurement process is a set of actions that a company determines and implements to get goods or services to help them achieve its goals and objectives. A successful procurement process entails all business units having a thorough grasp of requirements, choosing the best supplier to meet those requirements, negotiating contracts that deliver the most value at the lowest cost, and monitoring supplier performance regularly.

Components of an effective Procure-to-Pay system

There are a few key parts in a procurement process that make a Procure-to-Pay system.

• Vendor contract Templates
• Vendor database
• Sourcing Products database
• E-signature system for contract signing
• Payment system and Books to record payments
• Analytics to analyze sourcing spend and patterns 

Procure-to-pay challenges

There are challenges, especially in large organization, introduced due to complexity or confusion in the procurement process because it comprises numerous discrete processes that occur in various regions of the organization and involve multiple personnel:

• System differences - lack of standardization
• Policy non-compliance - oversight in complying with these negotiated contracts
• Invisibility - lack of access to information across the procurement process

Why having a good Procure-to-pay system is important

Vendors of a company are an important community. They are suppliers of raw materials, information, services, or just contracted talent. The list of vendors also extends to subscription services, time-based labor, or scope-based custom goods/services. Any business needs from a vendor timely delivery, cooperation, and most importantly, support especially when something unplanned or unprecedented pops up. 

A business expects its vendors to keep the vendor’s end of the contractual obligation.  The least the business can also do is to keep the customer side of the bargain as well: that is, to pay the vendors for the goods or services in timely manner.

Relevant Zoho Apps in Procure-to-pay process:

• Zoho CRM - is a customer relationship management (CRM) software that combines sales, marketing, and customer service into a single platform. It can be used as a vendor database as well a database for sourcing materials.
• Zoho Books - is an end-to-end accounting system for businesses of all sizes that handles money across the firm.  It can be easily set up to make payments to the vendors.
• Zoho Sign - enables you to sign business papers from within other Zoho and third-party apps.

How we help?

Sliver Business Services helps startups and scaleups in developing business systems. We typically serve small and medium-sized businesses, groups, and non-profit organizations implement a comprehensive, integrated business suite in alignment with their long-term IT Strategy and enable processes that execute with minimum friction.

At Sliver, we use Zoho applications to achieve the fastest implementation time for a Procure-to-Pay system, which is 50% faster than the industry average. Our full-service consulting and professional services help map out a company's particular implementation requirements, whether it's a small business, an enterprise, or something in between.  We integrate sales, marketing, and product and service departments on one platform improving drastically the customer experience. 

For more information visit us at https://www.sliverusa.com/systems-for-startups.  You can also email us at info@sliverusa.com or call us at +1 331.888.2627.