5 Procurement Automation Processes to Embrace Today

Quixy Editorial Team

August 11, 2023

Procurement Automation is the (not so) secret you need to procure today.

No, this isn’t going to take forever. We promise. 

We have all been stuck there because of complicated procurement processes like supplier onboarding and contract reviews. And we know how frustrating and costly invoice processing and manual data entry errors can be! And before you ask, “Is it even possible to minimize spends and maximize efficiency without making an extensive IT investment?”; we got you. 

Procurement is a core activity for many businesses. As we know, businesses use materials and services to develop and deliver their products and services. 

But despite being an essential and integral operational process, procurement processes seem complicated and hamper productivity mostly because most of us need to understand the top processes to transform and innovate to meet today’s needs. 

Procurement Automation is going to empower your business in no time and drive better accounting and more frictionless processing.

A dedicated and mindful digital procurement organization provides many things that benefit the business. But what is it? 

What is Procurement Automation?

Procurement automation helps organizations automate repeatable tasks to boost efficiency and reduce costs. It equips stakeholders across the business with real-time insights and analytics, and when you use a low-code no-code platform to automate, you can achieve the end results 10X faster. That, too, without writing a single line of code.

Did you know by 2024, low-code no-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity?

It’s essentially process automation applied to the various workflows in the procurement department – mostly known as procure-to-pay (or P2P).

Furthermore, it changes the buyer and supplier interactions that take place and deliver to other third parties by serving as a platform for new ways of collaboration. But why do organizations need to embrace the upcoming changes and implement procurement automation today? Let’s look at some benefits briefly. 

Also read: A Complete Guide to Workflow Automation Software

Why Procurement Automation?

1. Boost Productivity: Procurement automation eliminates those forever-taking spreadsheets, faxes, and emails, and the opportunity for data entry errors, lost communications, and missed deadlines is ridden off. Instead, by automating the entire process, you can use electronic forms and cloud storage to securely store all your purchasing data for easy and instant access. Whatever you need–RFIs, RFQs, POs, purchase requisitions, and everything else–it’s all at your fingertips, just a few clicks away. 

2. Transform Interactions & Collaborations: The efficiency and effectiveness of procurement automation tools represent a massive shift in supplier and third-party interactions, performance, and supply chain efficiency. They deliver the ability to see and react to real-time changes from a single data source. Visual, real-time data ensures better and quality collaboration between the buyer and supplier. 

3. Eliminate Bottlenecks in Processes: Don’t you face the need to deal with huge bottlenecks? Simultaneous processes like invoices, goods receipts, and agreements break up the process flow and hinder purchasing efforts, ultimately causing delays and angry customers. Procurement automation eliminates all of that hassle and is specifically to handle this load of procurement-related functions. 
   
4. Get Rid of Repetitive Tasks: Organizational processes contain endless tasks that are boring and repetitive in nature. Procurement process automation eliminates these repetitive tasks by digitizing all of these processes and automating them to create a smooth workflow and save time for the employees.
   
5. Transparency & Visibility: Procurement Process Automation enables what traditional systems fail to provide visibility and transparency. The involvement of many departments and teams in various processes like inventory management, expenses, and external suppliers and vendors leads to a loss of clarity and less visibility on the overall process. The Procurement automation ensures that every process is well-mapped out and eliminates the risk of intransparent workflows and operations.
   
6. Data Accuracy & Timely Reports: Manual processes invite major challenges in terms of data entry, accuracy, and transparency. Report delays are often and also have a risk of misplacement. The procurement process automation completely gets rid of the human intervention since data keeps getting recorded in real-time and ensures accuracy by taking proof on the spot. Reports and analysis become a breeze since everything is accessible via a dashboard with consolidated data.
   
7. Streamlined & Clear Communication: Procurement automation has enabled collaboration and communication like never before. Agile digital process automation enables setting up notifications and reminders and helps teams communicate better within themselves, resolve tasks faster, and record their speed through time-tracking applications.
   
8. Error-free Workflows: By digitizing and automating processes, procurement automation eliminates errors made on a day-to-day basis by any party involved in the process.

Also read: What Processes Every Business Must Automate?

But most importantly, the question still remains, where to begin? Amongst the sea of processes, which wave to hold on to? 

And we understand. It is overwhelming; hence, we have come up with a list of the top 5 procurement processes you must automate today! Let’s go. 

1. Purchase Orders Processing

All of us have to deal with purchase orders on an everyday basis. We believe this is a top priority because it is the perfect example of a routine, everyday process ripe for automation. Procurement automation lets organizations automate and optimize their entire purchase order cycle to deliver better services while saving costs. 

As and when purchase orders are created, procurement automation platforms expedite purchase order acknowledgments, track due dates, status changes, and alert suppliers about any PO changes. 

All purchase order details and buyer/supplier interactions can be tracked directly with each order. Real-time updates ensure efficiency and boost collaboration. 

2. Purchase Requisition 

Instead of getting stuck within the hierarchical system, the big complex structures, and across departments, procurement automation simply saves the hassle. Ideally, purchase requisition should simply go to the direct manager.  But we all how there are additional approval stages.

An approved purchase requisition ends up with the finance department, which uses the information in this document to generate and issue an official purchase order. It ensures a faster way to reduce the ordering cycle. The procurement staff can get more done in a shorter amount of time, reducing overall staffing costs. 

Impact Stories: Chatsworth goes “All-digital” with its Purchase Requisition process

3. Invoice & Payments 

Manual invoice management and payments open doors to what we like to call- procurement of chaos. Not kidding! 

Procurement teams have to deal with misplaced or poorly managed purchase orders, missing goods receipts, submission delays, unrecorded or misrecorded spending, tricky spreadsheets, and insufficient transparency as far as the recording spending is concerned. See? Procuring chaos is what it is. 

Automating invoice management enables buttery smooth processes, with cool stuff like auto-approval of standard low-value invoices and integrations with finance and accounting tools saving your and your team’s time and costs.

Also Read: Procurement Process Automation with Quixy

4. Vendor Management 

We all know how important our vendors are. Building strong vendor relationships requires transparency and clear communication. We don’t want to strain the connections and keep interactions flowing. 

Procurement automation allows teams to streamline vendor selection and pick the best vendors available, and make connections for the long term. Organizations can quickly identify and resolve discrepancies by automating the vendor management process, ensuring enhanced collaborations. 

5. Contract Management 

We know how typical contract management processes are plagued by repetitive manual tasks and cause hick-ups across the organization, resulting in long cycle times, lack of transparency, and at-par outcomes, resulting in unwanted friction between procurement and the business. Looking for contracts or even keeping track of them is a real challenge. 

Procurement automation enables the systematic organization of all contracts in a central repository that can be accessed with a single click. Additionally, it also ensures that all contracts stay consistent and accurate. Thus, creating value by identifying and selecting the best ways to manage contracts. This also deepens supplier relationships. 

Well, we have identified the top 5 procurement processes that you should automate, and before we jump to telling you more, allow us to tell you about a leading platform that’s going to help you achieve this and create value. 

Also read: Everything You Need to Know About No-Code Financial Process Automation – The What, Why & How!

Quixy: The empowering platform for procurement Automation

Quixy is a leading no-code platform that empowers procurement automation with no-code. We work with clients to develop fast, efficient procurement automation solutions powered by no code. Clients achieve outcomes through the orchestration of human + machine talent, coupled with the infusion of insights & efficiency from data. 

We believe in developing and providing improved user experience and customer satisfaction, achieving greater efficiency, productivity, and delivering business value. 

In the past, buyers simply requisition items and wait for them to arrive; now, they can manage the transaction from end to end with intuitive and easy-to-use customer interfaces and reports that too in real-time.

Learn everything about No-Code here, including FAQs, resources, and how different departments and industries can benefit.

Summary

Procurement automation is just the first step in an ongoing journey.

It helps in putting the right solution in place for processes. These game-changers double the impact of even “successful” sourcing departments and enable workplace transformation exponentially. 

Procurement automation streamlines communication and enhances interactions, and enables value-creation by cutting down the most important resource- wasting time and money! 

Beyond this process transparency, Quixy provides visibility into saving costs and spending. That means the company’s procurement leaders can make better decisions aimed at controlling costs. Procurement automation is a  simple and intuitive buying experience that users must embrace enthusiastically. 

This is possible. This is the future. And it starts now.

Begin your journey towards streamlined operations and tailored apps – all with the simplicity of our platform. Get started today to harness the potential of automation.