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[ServiceNow eBook Excerpt] Four Benefits of Automating your Source-to-Pay Operations

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[ServiceNow eBook Excerpt] Four Benefits of Automating your Source-to-Pay Operations

In today's fast-paced business environment, enterprises are constantly striving to get the most out of their operations programs – all while maintaining (tracking, vetting, sourcing...) strong supplier relationships.

Source-to-pay (S2P) operations are at the core of this endeavor. Yet, traditional approaches often fall short, plagued by manual processes and fragmented systems that create inefficiencies and silos. Meaning your teams are facing mounting pressure to increase collaboration and efficiency while managing complex compliance and supplier dynamics.

Fortunately, automated S2P solutions offer a transformative path forward, allowing

organizations to break free from outdated, labor-intensive practices.

Keep reading to learn how ServiceNow’s automated Source-to-Pay can facilitate collaborative,

end-to-end procurement operations and meet the needs of users across the enterprise with better functionality, improved internal requisitions and workflows, and streamlined supplier relationships.

Improved Collaboration Across the Enterprise

Many enterprises today depend on multiple instances of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other transactional systems to manage S2P processes. Each system is separate and equipped to handle a very narrow set of capabilities, such as invoice and payment processing. When teams need to collaborate, manual integrations or workarounds are typically required so systems are able to communicate.

Adopting an end-to-end S2P solution to automate S2P processes helps support better cross-departmental collaboration—bringing together previously siloed internal and external stakeholders and their technologies.

By unifying teams and tools into a single work experience, S2P stakeholders can:

  • Experience real-time savings

  • Control costs

  • Enable teams to audit their own information

  • Provide required and voluntary data on performance

  • Support better digital experiences for all

 
More Efficient Usability

Many organizations have implemented ERP systems with procurement functionality built in or have introduced source-to-pay point solutions, but too often both options are overly complex— and slow. Usability isn’t optimal, which is a real problem because S2P activities today are being managed by stakeholders beyond specialized procurement teams. Collaboration itself can be difficult, extending solutions across complicated system landscapes or incorporating new personas and cross-departmental processes remains challenging for many companies.

However, if organizations work to understand the needs of stakeholders and adopt digital, end-to-end S2P solutions to automate and drive efficiency, then usability can be greatly improved for teams across the enterprise. The result is better innovation that creates transformative value for stakeholders.

 
Improved Internal Requisitions and Workflows
Many procurement departments are hampered by manual tasks. And because different
departments aren’t connected on the same systems, there’s no single source of truth for data.
This often leads to more opportunities for errors and delays.

A key benefit of automating S2P processes and adopting digital S2P solutions is improved
workflow task management. Eliminating repetitive manual tasks helps teams involved with
procurement deliver faster time to value—while making fulfillment more efficient. This gives you
the chance to focus on more strategic activities such as optimizing spend, improving
environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, or forming a higher quality,
more responsible and resilient supplier base.
 

Managing supplier relationships
Adopting an automated, end-to-end S2P solution can improve challenging supplier
relationships, simplifying how issues and risks are handled and streamlining complex S2P
activities. Automation includes dynamic workflows that adapt based on factors such as type of
product, volume, price, and governance rules, to ensure a diverse range of supplier activities is
captured and monitored.

By creating a record of challenges, and the activities needed to resolve them, identifying
recurring issues with suppliers and ensuring quality outcomes becomes easier. Ultimately,
better supplier relationships are built and sustained.
 

Download the Full Four Benefits of Automating Your Source-to-Pay Operations
Read the full eBook and learn how it can help you streamline procurement processes, enhance
efficiency, reduce costs, and improve supplier relationships, all while supporting your
organization’s sustainability and compliance goals

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