A subtitle could also be “What do you know about your cash position from an end to end perspective?”. This session enabled by Medius – which you can view or re-view below – have a two part story.
One, and possibly the most important, is the – still – dilemma companies face when procurement and finance are not working closely together. One might wonder how this can be?
Years and years of compartmentalizing businesses in order to gain efficiency have in EBGs mind placed us here. In order to create measurable and distinctive ways of describing and measuring work tasks. Based on the industrialization impact on businesses of all kinds.
EBG | Network
EBG were created due to the fact businesses act in silos and have talked and written a lot about it.
The other being what technology now and ahead – such as Artificial Intelligence – can do to overcome those gaps and help businesses evolve.
Medius are focusing on this dilemma too from a technology perspective. Them offering a spend management suite, founded in Sweden and now a global source to pay vendor.
Finance and procurement collaboration
It is mind-blowing why procurement and finance still operate in such a large extent in silos. Like stated above – organizational set ups, geographical challenges, function oriented KPIs and scattered data are some reasons.
So what happened to businesses as the pandemic struck? Businesses were forced to collaborate through new channels, online and even from peoples homes. The need for more prompt forecasts and predictions – not the least cash predictions – were imminent. Supply chains were disrupted, both supply shortages and supply and supplier breakdowns.
Medius state only 2 out of 5 procurement departments claim to have a good working relationship with finance.
On Demand session EBG | Play: How AI is changing Procurement in 2021 and beyond
How to increase collaboration across finance and procurement
Many organizations have realized the need to collaborate. Technology play a huge part here enabling facts and insights to be blended and brought together to show a bigger picture which is great. Should you still need reasons to come together?
Who knows the suppliers the most? Procurement do. They can help finance segment suppliers and help create a cash forecast that can have huge impact on company liquidity.
Who knows budget and cash flow facts? Finance do. They can help procurement ensure the right suppliers and supply get funded in the correct manner based on company and supplier needs. They can help debate what payment terms are reasonable based on internal and external customer needs.
On Demand view or re-view
The list goes on but by now EBG suggest you view the On Demand session below with Daniel Saraste, SVP Product strategy and innovation and Martin Casserdahl, Source to pay Advisor at Medius.
How about AI?
The title of the session suggest a focus on Artificial Intelligence and its impact on procurement. A lot is happening within this area and Medius are on to that.
Daniel suggest several areas where AI may contribute in the near time such as;
- Speed and efficiency through Automation
- Prescriptive analytics
- Finding sources for supply
- Reducing fraud
- Autonomous procurement
- Touchless user interfaces and real time translations
- Community spend categorization
What Medius mean by each? Listen to the session recording and find out! The biggest impact AI have today is suggested to be;
- Invoice processing (Higher levels of automation)
- Supplier discovery (for Sourcing)
Summary
If you still need a reason to pick up the phone or book an online meeting with finance or procurement – think CASH POSITION. It doesn’t matter what type reporting tool you have if the numbers are not based on real time insights.
It doesn’t help tomorrow if the decisions you make today are solely based on figures and facts from yesterday.
EBG | Network
The technology is evolving in an astonishing rate – the market can help that development by asking the right questions and wanting the proper actions taken supporting end to end insight.
About Medius
Our modular spend management suite includes market leading solutions for strategic sourcing, contract management, procurement, accounts payable automation and supplier management as well as data insights tools bringing control, compliance and cost savings throughout the entire source-to-pay process.
Founded in 2001, Medius is owned by the global investment firm Marlin Equity Partners. In 2019 Medius acquired Wax Digital to become the power-house in spend management solutions. The group has over 350 employees and offices in Sweden (HQ), the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Poland
Learn more and find relevant resouces also via EBG | Business Directory | Medius
Meet Medius at Source 2 Pay Summit 2021
On May 6th, EBG host the 11th annual Source 2 Pay Summit, 100% online. Also 100% dedicated to bringing You together with peers and experts that just may be able to help you grow as an individual and a company.
Below 150 seconds explaining what EBG do and how and hopefully we will see You in May!