Future of Sourcing - Medius https://futureofsourcing.com/tags/medius en Procurement’s Increasing CSR Role https://futureofsourcing.com/procurements-increasing-csr-role <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Procurements%20Increasing%20CSR%20Role.png"><a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Procurements%20Increasing%20CSR%20Role.png" title="Procurement can impact corporate social responsibility efforts, support supplier stewardship and increase diversity initiatives all through day-to-day operations." class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2093-rEvpzq82y68"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Procurements%20Increasing%20CSR%20Role.png?itok=F8j7beTk" width="624" height="325" alt="Procurement can impact corporate social responsibility efforts, support supplier stewardship and increase diversity initiatives all through day-to-day operations." title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Procurement&rsquo;s Increasing CSR Role</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/shifting-source-to-pay-operations-to-serve-the-values-based-consumer">Shifting Source-to-Pay Operations to Serve the Values-Based Consumer</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Traditionally thought of as just being responsible for dollars and cents, the function of today&rsquo;s procurement team goes much further than purchasing supplies needed to run an organization&rsquo;s day-to-day operations. Beyond managing the entire supply chain process, their responsibilities have expanded in the wake of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement.</p> <p>There are several reasons for this shift &ndash; from a stronger C-level partnership to increased digitization of AP functions to automate repetitive tasks, to supporting CSR initiatives. But one thing is clear: today&rsquo;s procurement teams can actively shape and transform a business&rsquo;s reputation. They can impact <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/procurements-carbon-transparency-problem" target="_blank">corporate responsibility efforts</a>, support supplier stewardship and increase diversity initiatives all through day-to-day operations. Let&rsquo;s examine each of these areas.</p> <h2>The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility to the Enterprise</h2> <p>The idea of CSR has come a long way. It has transformed from an applauded practice to an expected standard. It&rsquo;s also shown to be a financial benefit to organizations with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/causeintegration/2015/08/26/doing-good-is-good-business-but-can-you-prove-it/?sh=3b2ffad1a52d" target="_blank">documented impact</a> on market value, share price, risk reduction, brand reputation, production and staff retention. And the list goes on.</p> <p>To achieve the organization&rsquo;s CSR goals, the importance of communicating expectations to the procurement team is critical. The procurement team can also raise compliance concerns they might have directly with specific suppliers or to leadership. <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/7-tips-to-shape-the-future-of-supplier-diversity-in-the-enterprise" target="_blank">Working together, leadership, procurement teams and suppliers can all agree to basic CSR standards</a>. Plus, advancements in technology frees up the procurement team to track, understand and monitor the complete environmental impact of their supply chain and ensure compliance.</p> <p>Investing time and resources into CSR efforts is beneficial to an organization. However, to make a real impact, procurement teams need to be empowered to make decisions. Supplier stewardship is an importance component to both short- and long-term success. This is the concept behind the stewardship theory &ndash; that managers, left on their own, will act responsibly to support the greater good instead of self-serving behavior.</p> <p>Done right, a stewardship program clearly supports your larger CSR values, principles and policies to partners, but also empowers your procurement team to hold suppliers to these standards and to make decisions that support and protect your organization&rsquo;s CSR efforts. Given authority to make the right decision and the tools to monitor performance against standards adds another layer of support to your CSR efforts.</p> <p>A major part of this CSR support is ensuring an <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/5-tips-to-write-supply-chain-contracts-for-diverse-suppliers" target="_blank">inclusive and diverse supply chain</a>. Expanding your list of vendors diversifies your supplier base while simultaneously supporting minority-owned and small businesses. It also increases spend and consumption while promoting job creation. Financially, it helps increase competition resulting in better prices and service levels along with increased flexibility, agility and resiliency.</p> <p>In fact, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2020/04/01/supplier-diversity-will-help-businesses-large-and-small-recover-from-pandemic/#2368cb33143c" target="_blank">Forbes</a> suggested that supplier diversity will help businesses large and small recover from the pandemic. If your organization has the support for it, tap into platforms and tools to help identify diverse suppliers and their capabilities. If your organization does not have the budget or support to do so, consider creating a simple tracking spreadsheet or a database to capture diverse suppliers and their capabilities. Ultimately, a diverse supply chain is good for business.</p> <p>Finally, it is important to note that reducing costs will always be an important priority in most companies, and until recently, managing many small suppliers would add costs to the procurement process. Today, however, digital procurement technologies can enable companies to work with small suppliers without significantly increasing indirect procurement costs. As a result, supplier diversity goals and cost savings goals are no longer necessarily incompatible.</p> <h2>A Greener Bottom Line</h2> <p>Procurement teams now have the responsibility to support CSR efforts. They have the tools and resources in place to fully vet a potential supplier and can set standards for doing business. When empowered with the proper authority, procurement can set standards for sourcing that not only supports an enterprises&rsquo; overall CSR efforts, but supports a greener, more sustainable and healthier bottom line.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/corporate-social-responsibility-csr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Corporate social responsibility (CSR)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/medius" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Medius</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-diversity" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supplier Diversity</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Procurement&amp;rsquo;s Increasing CSR Role - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://futureofsourcing.com/procurements-increasing-csr-role"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 13 Dec 2021 18:44:45 +0000 Shannon Kreps 2093 at https://futureofsourcing.com https://futureofsourcing.com/procurements-increasing-csr-role#comments Swimming in a Sea of Invoices: How to Streamline Your AP Process https://futureofsourcing.com/swimming-in-a-sea-of-invoices-how-to-streamline-your-ap-process <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Swimming%20in%20a%20Sea%20of%20Invoices%3A%20How%20to%20Streamline%20Your%20AP%20Process.png"><a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Swimming%20in%20a%20Sea%20of%20Invoices%3A%20How%20to%20Streamline%20Your%20AP%20Process.png" title="Swimming in a Sea of Invoices: How to Streamline Your AP Process" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2035-rEvpzq82y68"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Swimming%20in%20a%20Sea%20of%20Invoices%3A%20How%20to%20Streamline%20Your%20AP%20Process.png?itok=0qKOl7_q" width="624" height="325" alt="Swimming in a Sea of Invoices: How to Streamline Your AP Process" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Swimming in a Sea of Invoices: How to Streamline Your AP Process</h1> <p><em>The sheer volume of invoices that organizations must process can be overwhelming, resulting in errors, additional time and delay in payments. Let&rsquo;s examine some of the challenges that AP functions face and ways automation can help.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/the-pandemic-imperative-collaboration-between-payables-and-procurement">The Pandemic Imperative: Collaboration Between Payables and Procurement</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>A wise person once said, &ldquo;If you do as you&rsquo;ve always done, you&rsquo;ll get what you&rsquo;ve always gotten.&rdquo; That statement applies to many things in life, including accounts payable (AP) invoice processing.</p> <p>For decades, AP was a manual process. Vendors mailed paper invoices to customers and accounting teams would perform their two- or three-way match, comparing an invoice to a receiving document and the purchase order (PO) or other purchase authorization documentation.</p> <p>If the invoice description, quantity and pricing information matched, then the invoice would be manually keyed into a system, flagged for payment and an accounting entry made. That&rsquo;s if you were lucky enough to have the vendor address the invoice directly to AP.</p> <p>Often invoices were addressed to the main office address, received by a front office employee and eventually passed on to accounting. It was a good day if you processed the payment in time to avoid a late fee!</p> <p>Manual processing is so yesterday.</p> <p>The dawn of automation began in the 1980s with the advent of desktop computers. Issuing invoices, corresponding with vendors, matching documentation, updating the books and processing payment began a shift. This evolution continued over the past 40 years to where we are now &ndash; in a place where the entire process (minus a few keystrokes) is digital and seamless from beginning to end.</p> <p>In our ever-connected world, even small companies receive thousands of invoices per month. Handling that quantity of paperwork isn&rsquo;t feasible, and most companies can&rsquo;t afford to staff a department large enough to handle the load. There&rsquo;s also the time factor &ndash; manual processes are more time intensive than automated ones. Additionally, whenever humans are introduced into the equation, the chance for error increases. Multiply the time and error factor by thousands of invoices and problems can start to add up quickly.</p> <p>So, who isn&rsquo;t keeping up with the automation Joneses? While many are, 21% still haven&rsquo;t gone digital. Based on the results from <a href="https://www.medius.com/news/2021/medius-research-finds-poor-supplier-payment-processes-increase-costs-and-create-bad-business-reputations/" target="_blank">research commissioned by Medius</a>, 50% don&rsquo;t see the need or benefit, 45% lack sufficient resources and 15% lack buy-in from senior management.</p> <p>While companies are often reluctant to change their processes, those who do often experience a quick return on investment. Darin Brzakala, senior finance manager at Milwaukee Tool said, &ldquo;By adopting AP automation, we believe we&rsquo;ll see a full return on investment in cost savings, reduction in manual tasks and increased efficiencies in under a year.&rdquo;</p> <p>If implemented correctly, AP automation can benefit companies of all sizes in various ways:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Save time and money</strong> &ndash; Based on the aforementioned research, 44% of surveyed companies spent less time on invoice processing post-automation implementation. Teams are now freed up to focus more on value-added work. Additionally, 40% reported lower operating costs and greater visibility on spend. That contributes directly to the bottom line.</li> <li><strong>Reduce errors</strong> &ndash; Invoice processing and payment are delayed 49% of the time due to errors in master data. Based on a study by Levvel Research, the second greatest reported benefit to AP automation is an improvement in error rate.</li> <li><strong>Digitize documents</strong> &ndash; <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-social-economy" target="_blank">According to McKinsey</a>, employee spend nearly two hours every day, on average, searching and gathering information. That&rsquo;s equivalent to hiring five employees but only four showing up for work. There&rsquo;s no longer a need to dedicate entire cabinets to storing paper documents anymore. By going digital from the start of the process invoices don&rsquo;t need to be signed, scanned, emailed around the office for review and approval.</li> <li><strong>Have internet &ndash; will travel</strong> &ndash; <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-01-23-gartner-predicts-69--of-routine-work-currently-done-b" target="_blank">Gartner predicts</a> that nearly 70% of routine work will be fully automated by 2024. Going digital increases accessibility by moving manual processes from a physical location to the cloud. That will also open the talent pool with Gartner predicting disabled employees in the workplace tripling by 2023.</li> <li><strong>Don&rsquo;t reduce, reskill</strong> &ndash; With automation comes less hand holding. What used to be a more involved process is now simpler and straightforward. Before, a receiving clerk would perform the physical receipt of goods and then run the packing slip up to Accounting for the second step in the receiving process. With automation, hand-held barcode readers are used to scan in receiving documentation and automatically matched to invoices and POs in the system. This in turn enables organizations to rebalance their business by gradually reskilling employees. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/ai-automation-and-the-future-of-work-ten-things-to-solve-for" target="_blank">McKinsey predicts</a> that nearly 9% of the global workforce will be in new occupations due to AI and automation technologies.</li> </ul> <p>After implementing an AP automation system at her company, Catherine Duvaas, Accounting Manager at Visolit said, &ldquo;Previously, we handled supplier invoices directly in SAP. This involved time-consuming manual steps and it was difficult to obtain relevant reports. We now automate the entire process and instead have user-friendly reporting and an overview of the invoice flow and the degree of automation.&rdquo;</p> <p>Improvements post-automation were noted across the board. Of those surveyed in the study who implemented automation, 48% reported smoother purchasing and payment processes and 38% reported better collaboration across Procurement and Finance.</p> <p>Dolly Parton once said, &ldquo;we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.&rdquo; The way we do business is ever-changing and the pace at which it happens continues to accelerate. Take a step back and look at your company&rsquo;s AP process &ndash; are you keeping up with the winds of change?</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/accounts-payable-ap" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Accounts Payable (AP)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/medius" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Medius</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/invoices" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Invoices</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/ap-automation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">AP Automation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Swimming in a Sea of Invoices: How to Streamline Your AP Process - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://futureofsourcing.com/swimming-in-a-sea-of-invoices-how-to-streamline-your-ap-process"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 02 Aug 2021 16:33:14 +0000 Anders Fohlin 2035 at https://futureofsourcing.com https://futureofsourcing.com/swimming-in-a-sea-of-invoices-how-to-streamline-your-ap-process#comments