3 steps to move Procure-To-Pay to the cloud computing

The main objective of a Procure-To-Pay software system is to automate processes by introducing efficiency controls. For example, to enforce buying controls, the Procure-To-Pay software may cross-reference purchasing budgets. This will ensure the budget’s compliance with pre-defined buying limits.

A requisition that is within pre-defined limits will get programmatically routed for approval. Once it gets approved, a purchase order is immediately sent to the correct supplier by email. A well designed Procure-To-Pay system is capable of extracting invoice and payment data from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Several enterprises are moving their procurement and sourcing tools to cloud. Cloud solutions provide them with a steady growth as organizations seek scalability, agility and innovation in these tools. A Gartner report states that over the past year, cloud solutions have accounted for almost all new domain implementations in both the public and private sectors. Also, procurement and sourcing domain application providers prefer multitenant SaaS environment. It is said that, by the end of 2020, most of the procurement and sourcing domain application vendors will only offer cloud solutions.

Before moving their procurement and sourcing tools to the cloud, an organization should begin the planning process by conducting an "as is" analysis of their current state workflows and existing systems, followed by a "to be" analysis of their desired future-state processes and technologies. This analysis will provide the organization with early inputs for developing and executing an overall strategy for the procurement and sourcing functions. Along with this, it will also demonstrate touchpoints in other business areas.

The three ways in which you can move your Procure-To-Pay system to cloud:

1.   Develop a Strategy

The emergence of cloud-delivered specialized procurement and sourcing solutions is enabling organizations to access new capabilities more rapidly. You must take advantage of this, and create a well-defined postmodern ERP strategy for introducing procurement and sourcing solutions to the organization. You must also incorporate pace layering into this strategy.

2.   Make Implementation Plan

The increase in complexity of adding specialist solutions to the system landscape amplifies the need to balance integration and agile support of specific procurement and sourcing capabilities. Thus, you must focus on creating a detailed implementation plan which would also include measures for an increased cadence of releases. You must remember to avoid factors that may create unnecessary complex integration scenarios

3.   Define Work Stream

Procurement and sourcing organizations that turn to new specialist solutions may create conflicts between procurement and sourcing, finance, legal and IT. To avoid this, you must define your work streams by understanding your sourcing, contracting, ordering and invoicing processes, as well as requirements for different types of spend.

Let us discuss some of the business benefits of moving to cloud solutions:

• An improved procurement, sourcing and business stakeholder capabilities and end-user experience.
• Faster deployment and adoption of new innovative technologies through more frequent release schedules.
• Shorter implementation times for new systems than traditional on-premise or hosted software.
• Reliable scalability and stability for systems.
• Solutions budgeted as an operating expense, which eliminates the need for large capital investments upfront.

Thus, adopting the cloud approach can be an attractive option for organizations challenged by upfront investment costs, as well as for companies in small-and-medium size segments that want to adopt best-in-class practices but do not have the budget or resources for on-premise applications.