Despite so many paradigm shifts in technology, procurement processes have largely been left behind. Old creaky legacy systems are starting to show their age. Most companies are painfully aware that legacy systems and manual tools are not the best options to handle the complex procure-to-pay cycle.
A recent CPO survey shows that nearly half the respondents are steering their teams towards cloud procurement solutions.
While organizations initially regarded all-in-one procurement systems as a virtue, they soon understood that the promises of unmatched convenience and improved efficiency were far from reality. The inflexible nature of these packaged procurement software solutions demanded a lot of workarounds to keep everything running smoothly.
Eventually, organizations realized that their procurement teams were wasting too much time and effort by jumping between interfaces to manage processes. As a result, everything from agility, visibility, and overall efficiency of the procurement process was tossed out the window.
So, rather than depending on complex legacy systems that demand a long implementation cycle and large upfront investment, procurement leaders around the world are flocking towards cloud-based procurement solutions. The limitations of a complex process can be resolved by a cloud procurement system that addresses challenges one at a time.
The Advantages of Using Cloud-based Procurement Software
Using cloud procurement software, organizations can eliminate inefficiencies and streamline the procurement process end-to-end. SaaS procurement solutions allow procurement businesses to automate, simplify, install, and integrate procure-to-pay processes rapidly at a lower cost.
Here are a few advantages of moving your procurement software to the cloud:
1. Cost-Effective
The topmost benefit of moving to a cloud procurement platform is the cost-effectiveness it offers. Organizations need neither huge upfront investments nor hefty maintenance fees to use a SaaS procurement solution.
Online procurement solutions like Kissflow Procurement offer pay-as-you-use subscription plans that allow organizations of all sizes to streamline their procurement process while keeping operational expenses to a minimum. As there is no IT investment involved, organizations have the freedom to disengage from the services any time they want.
2. End-to-End Integration
Packaged procurement software is often a disconnected piece of code that stands apart from other existing procure-to-pay tools. Today, nearly all SaaS platforms offer seamless integration capabilities through API integration.
This end-to-end integration capability offered by cloud based procurement software eliminate data redundancy, manual intervention, and offer a single version of the truth without any friction.
3. Easy Collaboration
Unlike on-premise software, a procurement system enable a seamless flow of information throughout the organization, irrespective of role or department or location.
Cloud procurement software speeds up the decision-making process and reduces the overall turnaround time of the procure-to-pay cycle through quick data retrieval and seamless collaboration.
4. Ease-of-Use
The user-friendliness of automated procurement software like Kissflow is one of its greatest advantages. Cloud procurement tools offer companies the ability to meet evolving market demands rapidly without needing an expensive upgrade.
Its flexible nature offers a faster time-to-market by reducing the time taken to implement and tailor the product around their processes while ensuring cost and time savings. Depending on their requirements, businesses can either scale their subscription plan up or down.
5. Greater Visibility
Cloud procurement solutions like Kissflow usually come with an intuitive dashboard that provides a bird’s-eye view of the procure-to-pay process. Using the dashboard and progress bar, users can track the status of any purchase at a glance.
Real-time, 360-degree visibility helps organizations spot process gaps and fix them on the go to enhance process efficiency. With Kissflow’s inbuilt reporting module, businesses can unlock invaluable nuggets of insights at the click of a button. These easy-to-interpret visual reports come in handy during the decision making process, strategic planning process, and more.
