Ed. Note: As part of our ongoing coverage, we’re introducing deeper dives into platform functionality to help business leaders assess value, optimize operations, and make strategic decisions with confidence.
ServiceNow’s platform simplifies supply chain management through centralized automation, streamlined processes, and enhanced visibility into operations. It also strengthens stakeholder collaboration, making supply chain functions more efficient and interconnected.
The platform simplifies tasks like invoice processing, sourcing, purchase orders, and inventory management. The impact of simplifying elements across the entire supply chain is increased efficiency and reduced overall complexity.
Digging into simplifying supply chain management, here are five areas where ServiceNow packs a punch:
Supplier Communication and Engagement
An issue with enterprise transactional systems is there’s often a lack of engagement functions or supplier self-service options built into the platforms. The result is suppliers end up having to create channels of communication to handle everything from data management to updates in banking, insurance, quality assurance, risk surveys, compliance, and regulatory requirements gathering. Even on- and offboarding suppliers is typically a multi-step manual process.
ServiceNow provides a single place for sourcing, procurement, accounts payable, and legal in the supplier lifecycle engagement. This means companies and suppliers can fully integrate multiple transactional systems and coordinate communication across email, tools such as Slack and Teams, and direct vendor integrations. This level of interconnection simplifies notification and updates on incidents and, maybe more importantly, just the business at hand.
The result is improved operational efficiency, reduced response times, and better supplier relationships along with reduced risk of non-compliance events.
Automated Accounts Payable
Despite digital advancements, paper invoices remain a common challenge in accounts payable (AP). Issues include collecting matching information, managing invoice changes, approval of non-compliant invoices as well as problems with duplicate payments and attempts at payment request fraud. Digitizing the AP process helps, but the challenge of an organization paying from a single system while pulling invoices from multiple sources creates problems when matching invoices to payments through records like PQs and receipts.
ServiceNow provides a system that consolidates invoice gathering, matching information, and processing AP items across multiple transactional systems. This results in improved processing of matching data for higher match rates, reduced chance of duplicate and fraudulent payments, and improved operational efficiency by eliminating manual work and implementing workflows for AP invoice case resolution.
The core solution is an omnichannel intake with advanced document handling that speeds up invoice processing, provides an automated task reminder, and tracks receipts to improve first-time match rates and integrated rules-based exception handling and workflows.
Purchasing Coordination
Multiple procurement solutions are a source of unnecessary complexity, poor user experience, and outsized opportunity for non-compliance. Procurement specialists often spend excessive time manually handling purchase requests. Limited access to transactional systems and a fragmented environment hinder a complete, 360-degree view of the process. There’s a requirement for manual tasks, tracking of requests, and a lack of automation and self-service creating time management inefficiencies.
ServiceNow provides a single-user experience within the employee portal and shopping hub with a guided buying experience through playbooks and NOW Assist with access to multiple systems and automated acquisition of catalog and non-catalog items. Automating approvals, budgetary controls and visibility on transaction status improves procurement controls in a 360-degree view workspace for procurement teams.
The result is a modern unified user experience with improved controls and spending under management through simplifying requests, handling complex approvals, enabling flexible budgetary controls, and providing exception-based workflows to procurement specialists.
Procurement Case Management and Resolution
Transactional procurement systems optimize high-volume, repeat transactions. However, when issues arise, users, vendors, and third parties often face delays due to limited communication and support. The result is a hands-on process conducted through communication channels like email outside of the standard documentation around business decisions. The impact is less time spent on sourcing, negotiations, contract management, and data analysis.
The ServiceNow solution provides procurement specialists with workspace visibility for everything happening in procurement such as requests for assistance from business users and suppliers related to intake, product delivery, quality, changes, location updates, alternatives, off-catalog items, complex approvals, accounting changes, and organizational changes.
The entire process is enhanced and automated with workflows, self-service, knowledge base, Now Assis,t and omnichannel communication and notifications. All of this results in operational efficiency, reduced costs, and an automated process that allows procurement specialists to focus on higher-value activities.
Strategic Sourcing
Strategic sourcing is a procurement approach that goes beyond making price the primary decision driver and takes into account factors like data, analytics, and supply marketing insights in conjunction with organizational goals. The idea is to put a procurement process into place that reduces costs and optimizes value.
The seven-step process for strategic sourcing was laid out in a Workflow by ServiceNow post:
Taking supply chain process improvements from implementing strategic sourcing to improving everything from supplier communication and purchasing to accounts payable and procurement management, ServiceNow optimizes supply chain management.
ServiceNow’s impact goes beyond cost savings and improved sourcing. By enhancing supplier relationships, improving demand forecasting, and increasing operational efficiency, businesses gain a more resilient, flexible, and productive supply chain.