Spending fewer hours on frequent processes helps companies to achieve savings, agility, governance and collaboration. But not all companies view it that way. Albert Einstein was right to say that “Lack of time is the excuse of those who waste time for lack of methods”. Although he revealed that certain concepts are relative, the German theorist recognized the importance of structures to provide order for everyday life.

The challenge faced by procurement experts nowadays is similar to that of physicists at the beginning of the century: getting companies in motion while handling the chaos and uncertainty of the business world in a creative way.

Technology to increase productivity at work

To establish order in a corporate universe that uses time as currency, it’s worth investing in technologies to support time management within companies. In fact, it’s now common to see wholesalers placing orders, specifying deliveries and managing returns from computers (or even cell phones) directly.

Optimizing procurement with a few clicks was previously unthinkable, given the high complexity of involved procedures. However, the process decentralization trend has been observed in several companies that focused their activities in this direction, and thus achieved all above-mentioned benefits: savings, agility, governance, collaboration and time (the latter can be now spent in tactical actions).

Companies seek business agility

The Business Tecnographics® Global Software survey from Forrester analyzed, among other subjects, SaaS (software as a service) automation issues in companies from Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the United States, France, India, New Zealand and United Kingdom. They concluded that 70% of companies want more business agility by the use of electronic platforms. Another 67% of organizations want this technology to help their professionals focus their potential on more strategic tasks.

In addition to more guarantees for contracting and contracted parties, automation technology tools provide companies with a competitive edge. Previously, the control of several purchase and delivery times made the planning of deadlines more difficult; now you can even define service level agreements (SLAs) with lead time goals, savings and other indicators. And in spite of being an obligation of any company to its internal requesters, few companies actually control their SLAs.

By basing their solutions on the pillars of savings, agility, governance and collaboration, procurement platforms help companies to decrease costs through processes control, which drives compliance. Additionally, such platforms improve collaboration too, as communication with suppliers and automation workflows in the electronic environment are easier, transforming transactions between companies in a simple, smart and sustainable way.

 

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