TweetFinally the penny has dropped. Automating the purchasing process and controlling spend more closely by using modern technology reduces cost compared to following a manual or paper based process. This could save between 5% and 20% of procurement expenditure according to the EU commission.

That means that the EU could reduce its public procurement spend of €2 trillion and save a massive €100 million. And all this can be achieved in 4 years – apparently.

That’s a huge amount of money. 150 large hospitals could be built with that so it’s worth aiming for before anyone gets excited – and I hate to be the bearer of bad news – it isn’t going to happen. continue reading…

TweetAsk anyone who’s worked in more than one purchasing organization. When it comes to technology, they’re not normally what you would describe as model implementations. Supplier data all over the place, catalogues out of date, Heinz 57 varieties of purchasing system. Purchase to Pay processes are very rarely joined up and if purchase to pay really is the plumbing of your organization, you’d be drowning.

But before you beat yourself up about your role in this chaos, ask yourself the question: Why is it that everything is always a mess? continue reading…

TweetI was excited to read about Alusta last week – the end-to-end framework or platform that Basware have developed for their procure to pay offerings and I was keen to understand a bit more about it when I hooked up with Juha Häkämies VP Market Development, Rowan Lemley, product Marketing Manager and John Webster, VP Global Product Marketing

What is Alusta exactly? Is it the purchase to pay panacea or simply vaporware – a new marketing spin on an old set of products?  Actually a bit of both – but in a good way. continue reading…

TweetReady for the new year, Patrick Harbin has published and amazing 50 ways to reduce costs in accounts payable.  They say about new year’s resolutions that you should ensure they are achievable so for those that think 50 major change management  programs in one year – that’s 1 per week – is a little too much, you might want to consider the first 5 because we think the first 5 are the best 5. continue reading…

TweetWe hear all the time about big companies paying suppliers late, abusing their power to take advantage of the good will of smaller companies by delaying payment for as long as possible in order to enrich themselves at the expense of weaker, more vulnerable companies. Well, it’s not true. Deliberate late payment by large companies in all but a few exceptional cases doesn’t go on. Systematic management of cash flow by withholding payments is a myth. The reality is, surprisingly, much worse! continue reading…

TweetI have sometimes described purchase to pay as sitting at the least glamorous end of the business spectrum. At one end is the sex, drug and rock ‘n’ roll world of PR, marketing and sales – life at the coal face where business really happens – and then at the other end there’s the back office functions like purchasing, finance, internal audit. And if we take a closer look at the back office, sitting quietly right at the wrong end of the glamour spectrum is accounts payable. A colleague once described accounts payable as “the spinsters department”.

Jason Busch doesn’t spare his vitriol in his criticism of AP suggesting that “most companies would likely be better off blowing up their AP function“. To be fair he does suggest a more constructive fate for AP by describing how they might transform into a high value add supply chain finance operation – something I would strongly endorse. But for the time being, I want to defend AP. Why? Because much of the criticism is unfair and especially when it comes from purchasing. continue reading…

TweetI love the Apple Store – they make it so easy to part with your cash and the pleasure is only accentuated when you contrast it to the level of customer service that the banks offer. continue reading…