Ever heard “thats finances headache” or “thats all about procurement” even though you know it is interlinked? We hear it all the time, both from end users and professionals such as consultants and system vendors.
Because of that it is even more thrilling when a blog focusing on spend management mentions trends where procurement and finance are linked together.
Here are some of the trends they are seeing:
Here are some of the top procurement and finance intersecting trends we observed and heard from last year:
- Greater collaboration in the area of risk management, especially with finance resources beginning to provide greater support to procurement
- eProcurement and e-invoicing often remaining separate solution areas for investment, but with a significant push and growth rate for the former with new customers and expanded deployments beginning to raise questions for procurement (not just AP) about closing the invoicing and payment loop
- Significant interest in auxiliary areas burgeoning such as dynamic discounting/supply chain finance, rebates/trade credits and vendor/supplier management systems visibility and integration into AP environments
- Invoice automation and shared services initiatives not showing any signs of decline, as larger BPOs focus on F&A deals with procurement and supplier enablement specific partners for P2P enablement and connectivity
As we turn to 2013, what’s changing? Here are a few top-priority intersection areas for both finance and procurement:
- Sorting through the Ariba/SAP situation (especially for SAP shops) should be a priority item. Yet commercially, SAP and Ariba efforts are not yet integrated (there isn’t a single face to the customer – and not one comp/incentive plan for SAP/Ariba reps to position specific solutions)
- Significant new adoption and early buying signals are on the horizon for solutions that “surround” P2P systems including P2P on-boarding, supplier transactional/network connectivity and catalog/content management
- Working more closely with procurement to create a measurable means to identify, implement, track and measure savings impact on a total-cost, P&L basis (note: not spend analysis!)
- Serving the business globally, regardless of procurement structure and organizational hierarchy, is becoming more and more important
- Working with IT and solution partners to develop new analytics, reporting, and compliance mechanisms to support targeted initiatives (e.g., conflict minerals)
To read the full article, click here Intersecting Procurement and Finance: Top Trends for 2013 « Spend Matters Spend Matters.