Still manually processing orders? How quaint.

For Procurement Service Providers (PSPs), efficiency is everything. Being able to capture a client requirement, deliver competitive pricing and processing orders quickly, efficiently and without error can be the difference between profitable growth and a whole bunch of problems.

And yet, an estimated 80% of PSPs persist in manually transacting with Clients and Suppliers. They insist on face to face meetings with Clients to manage even the smallest of requirements, they send hand typed emails out to suppliers, use online searches to find new vendors and build and share spreadsheets.

Evaluating supplier bids and negotiating deals is often done by phone and processing orders requirements re-keying of data from one system to another. Reporting is often an after thought and requires hours of cutting and pasting from one spreadsheet to another.

Does this sound familiar?

At Claritum, our cloud spend management platform streamlines millions of transactions for thousands of Clients. So we know a thing or two about streamlining processes.

We specialize in automating the sourcing, procurement and invoicing of complex, frequently ordered products and services such as marketing services, print, packaging, uniforms & apparel, gifts & premiums and other product categories.

Along the way we’ve helped many PSPs transition from low margin manual operations to highly efficient and profitable businesses. So efficiencies are our thing.

But complex orders, are, well difficult.

Where demand is unpredictable you need cloud based spend management tools to capture Client requirements. That does not preclude your team assisting clients, but it does enable efficient collaboration to get to an accurate set of requirements.

Of course, sales people and account managers don't want to lose the personal touch with customers and clients will always want to speak to someone about their business. But they also need to be able to self-service for smaller, simpler orders or get assistance for larger, more complex purchasing needs. A buying desk gives the best of both worlds.

The expertise of the originator of the requisition may range from novice to expert, so your spend management platform needs to be flexible enough to enable self-service specifying by experts whilst also being capable of guiding novice buyers to achieve accurate specifications.

By their very nature, requirements can vary from simple products to complex, multi-phases projects. So your platform needs to minimize free-text descriptions or uploaded documents and maximize the use of on screen specification questionnaires that ensure completeness and accuracy of what-ever your Client requires.

Your spend management platform needs to be easy to access and easy to use. It needs to be simple enough to guide a novice but powerful enough to enable expert specifiers to define their needs quicker and easier than using traditional email and phone.

By capturing the specification early, a whole bunch of efficiencies become easier. No need to rekey the requirement or profile your suppliers, a cloud spend management platform automates this process to ensure the right suppliers and invited to bid for the right requirement.

Even quoting to customers and capturing orders becomes easier when you automate processes. Your cloud based spend management platform frees up your team to focus on delivering value to your Clients, not simply manual typing emails and re-keying data.

And once your Client approves the transaction, your cloud spend management platform can route the order directly to the winning supplier, with all the appropriate checks and balances taken care of.

But what about billing?

With a joined up process and an automated workflow, your spend management platform will take care of every transaction to line item detail. So you’ll always be in control of your costs and eliminate manual matching and reconciling supplier invoices to POs. No need for your accounts clerk to burn the mid night oil – re-deploy them to higher value roles.

So how about reporting?

Cloud spend management takes the hassle out of reporting. No more rekeying from one system to another. Platforms track every transaction in line item detail, locally, nationally or even globally. So you’ll be able to report on supplier performance, spend, KPIs and a host of other metrics, all in real time.

So, if you’re still manually processing complex orders, think again. There is an easier way.

What's your view?