Why The Online Spend Management Platform Is An Absolute Must For Organizations

Abstract: In this age of technology, organizations absolutely need a comprehensive solution like the online spend management platform to ensure that their processes become efficient and their employees productive.

Even in this age of technology and information, many organizations still use outdated methods to manage their spending, missing out on the numerous benefits that technology can bring them. These outdated methods include paper records, legacy solutions, and standalone software, which are not only inefficient but can end up costing the organization more than money. Instead of such ineffective mechanisms, organizations would be better served by using a comprehensive solution to manage the carious tasks associated with spend management. This post discusses the different reasons why an online spend management platform is an absolute must for an organization.

One-stop Solution

Spend management brings together multiple processes – travel and expense management, wireless expense management, procurement, and accounts payables (AP). Standalone solutions that help with the management of these processes individually create chaos and create issues of compatibility – the solutions do not talk to each other, and need further human intervention for seamless processing of expenses. The solution that handles procurement does not handle accounts payable, requiring specialists to convert data from the procurement solution into one that can be understood by the AP solution. On the other hand, the spend platform alone handles all of these processes, eliminating the need for data conversion and human intervention.

Automation

A major part of the spend management process happens automatically and seamlessly, increasing the productivity of the employees involved and improving the efficiency of the different processes. Once a travel booking is made using the solution, it is automatically converted into an expense line item, which can be automatically approved based on different parameters such as the category of travel and the hierarchical level of the employee making the booking. Likewise, in procurement, orders can be automatically triggered based on parameters such as level of stock and availability of the raw material. The resulting bill can be automatically classified into the right category, and matching of invoices with orders can be done without any human intervention. Furthermore, communication among all the stakeholders involved in a process can be automated, which ensures that, while everyone is kept in the loop, no one has to take the time out to send notifications or reminders.

Increased Visibility

Lack of visibility into a process such as spend management leads not only to operational problems but financial ones as well. When visibility is low, it gives employees the chance to commit fraud or indulge in maverick behaviour. When senior management has no way of knowing whether tasks are being performed in line with business policies, fraud cannot be detected. Outdated practices such as paper records and standalone solutions do not tell the whole story and do very little to help overall visibility since it becomes a huge task for those involved to collate all the records and prepare reports. Since it is a one-stop shop for all things related to spend management, users at different levels of hierarchy can enjoy complete visibility into all the processes. And since access can be restricted based on different parameters, there are no issues of unauthorized access.

Policy Enforcement

Whether it is in travel booking and expense management, procurement, or wireless expense management, organizations have detailed policies governing different aspects such as which vendors can be approached, which spend categories are allowed for which hierarchical levels, the payment schedules, and so on. With the outdated methods mentioned above, policy enforcement is next to impossible, and since visibility is low, the chances of identifying policy violators is quite low. As a result, not only do the policies go waste but organizations also suffer from inflated costs and inefficient processes. With the spend platform, however, different policies related to spend management can be implemented effectively, and policy violators can be identified immediately. Indeed, with the platform, organizations can take a proactive approach to enforcement – instead of taking action after the fact, they can ensure that violations do not occur at all. Policies can be coded into the software, which means that, for example, employees cannot make travel bookings beyond what is allowed, and cannot report expenses that are not part of the policy. Procurement orders cannot be raised for restricted materials, and vendors who do not come under the ambit of the policy cannot be sourced from. AP specialists cannot take any shortcuts in matching invoices or making payments. All in all, a comprehensive organization-wide spend policy can be easily designed and implemented using the spend platform.

Collaboration & Customer Service

In the day-today struggle to finish tasks in time and achieve operational efficiency, collaboration and internal customer service take a backseat. As a result, processes become ineffective, and timeliness is impacted. Also, since employees have to work together as a team, when internal customer service is lacking, future business prospects are also affected. One of the reasons different teams within an organization cannot collaborate effectively with one another is because they use different practices and systems. Different teams speak in different terms, and one cannot understand the other. Also, since people are concerned more with their tasks than the other team’s, they have scant regard for the others, and do not care to go beyond the call of duty to make it easier for the others to complete their tasks. It is easier to process an error-free expense report than one prepared haphazardly; however, either since they do not care about their internal customers or the fact that they do not have the time, employees rarely fill in their expense reports duly and on time. The same way, when the orders are made according to policy, it becomes easier for AP specialists to process them; however, the procurement is in a constant rush and does not think much about the AP team.

Instead of relying on employees to collaborate with one another and offer each other customer service, the software automates this job and makes it easier for everyone involved.

Comprehensive Business Intelligence

Gone are the days when organizations had to suffer inefficient processes for lack of effective information processing and decision-making tools. Today, we have powerful analytics engines that help them collect and process data efficiently to glean insights that can help them improve their processes. With the spend platform, this intelligence becomes all-encompassing. Expense management now has access to all the travel data and AP specialists have access to all the procurement data. Since their processes depend on the former, they can now more effectively tailor their tasks in line with the needs of the other teams. Comprehensive reports detailing all the aspects of the spend management process can be automatically generated and shared with the concerned decision-makers in real-time so as to ensure that the organization as a whole becomes intelligent.

The above are some of the reasons why organizations must deploy a solution like the online spend management platform. Since the platform is delivered over the internet, users can enjoy unrestricted access whenever they need. The SaaS method of delivery is also flexible and ensures that organizations can deploy the features they absolutely need and keep their costs down to a minimum. This makes developing the business case for the platform easier – the numerous benefits, both tangible and intangible, far outweigh the costs organizations incur in deploying the solution.