Simple workflows are usually more effective than procure-to-pay solutions

As the Digital Workflow for the Modern Supply Chain we often support procurement workflows. Here we sometimes encounter the poorer cousins of finance and ERP solutions in the shape of procure-to-pay (aka P2P) solutions. Don’t blame us for that unimaginative, and slightly icky, acronym.

What is odd about procure-to-pay solutions is that they tend to equate procurement to buying papers and pencils. We, however, equate procurement to the full lifecycle of supply chain relationship, which includes the dating that happens before companies become supply chain partners, collaboration that happens throughout and not just when a purchase order (PO) is issued, internal processes for purchase requisitions, on-boarding new suppliers, quality and continuous improvement processes, audits, sharing forecasts, etc.

Our experience indicates that most companies gain very little value, and zero competitive advantage, by adopting procure-to-pay solutions that focus on paper and pencil buying processes. In fact, because of ever changing supply chain relationships, procure-to-pay solutions are severely under used and often replicate what is already in place in ERP solutions. A simple Purchase Requisition workflow on top of existing ERP can often provide 50% or more value of the procure-to-pay solution for many customers. Here is a little secret. In most cases, payment processes are triggered in ERP solutions. So the “pay” part of procure-to-pay is seldom used.

ZFlow provides a continuum of workflows that support the full lifecycle of supply chain partnership, including

  • Supplier Research, Qualification and Selection
  • Request for Information/Proposal
  • Design/Engineering Collaboration
  • New Supplier On-boarding
  • Purchase Requisition
  • Purchase Order Collaboration
  • Forecast Sharing
  • Non-conformance Reporting
  • Failure Reporting and Corrective Action System
  • Supplier PPAP (Production Part Approval Process)
  • Supplier Audit
  • Kaizen Events

Yes, we have a bit more complete view of the supply chain relationship unlike the paper-and-pencil pushing procure-to-pay solutions. That is because Procurement is a lot more than just buying paper and pencils.

Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

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