Despite the fact that many organisations are now familiar with the time savings and other benefits of digitising procurement invoices, the processes are often still set up sub-optimally. A great deal of efficiency can be achieved with AP Automation, however, the invoice is the final piece of the entire procurement process. A disruption in this process leads to invoice failure and sub-optimisation of invoice processing, but can also disrupt business operations and compliance. Some examples include:

• How do you ensure ordering from contracted suppliers? Agreements are often in place with these suppliers regarding e-invoicing, assortment, pricing and other terms.
• How do you measure the performance of your suppliers? Invoices are usually incorrect or require a lot of work to follow up.
• How do you test for billing compliance with the terms of purchase from contracts and purchase orders?
• Is there insight into the current contract utilisation of your contracts? Is it manually tracked in spreadsheets, or are you not in control at all?
• Are you in control of unforeseen expenses, and do you have insight into all commitments made within your organisation? For what type of costs are purchase orders already being created?

For optimisation of the invoice processing process, the entire procurement process is therefore relevant. With a Business Spend Management (BSM) platform, all of these issues are taken into account and more value is created than with a point solution alone.

An unstoppable trend is that organisations are increasingly adopting a cloud policy to outsource the management and maintenance of their traditional on premise software. Another significant advantage of a cloud application is its openness. With the latest technological advances, it has become easy to link cloud applications with other cloud or on premise software. Whereas projects in the past were complex and each ERP system had its own features and limitations, today we can work with an integration that can translate every incoming and outgoing message into the right format. This can be done in real-time via so-called APIs or phased with plain text files. In this way, it becomes possible to operate one or more ERP systems from a single invoice processing platform.  

With easy linkage, we are also seeing a shift in focus among organisations away from the policy of working from a single system. The ERP system and any add-ins no longer distinguish themselves with real-time and centralised data without the complexity of integrations. The shortcomings in workflow management, matching tolerances and data interchangeability with third-party integrations within an ERP system often lead to suboptimal processes. As the so-called add-ons now also satisfy easy interchangeability and real-time data, more and more people are looking at specialised systems that lie outside the ERP system. Another consideration is cost. An average ERP user licence, for example, is as much as 10 - 15 times more expensive. 

Organisations are choosing less and less customer-specific customisation and want to be helped with a standard process. The costs, required knowledge and risks of customisation no longer outweigh a standardised and optimal process based on market best-practices. Read our blog, “Standardisation is the future,” for more information.

With AP Automation, organisations can achieve a high degree of efficiency by digitising the invoice processing process. This provides a handle on the invoice flow, costs are quickly clear and approval can be done by the right people at any time regardless of location. In doing so, there are opportunities to grow into a total procurement process within one Business Spend Management platform, putting organisations even more in control of their operations.