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Racing Towards 2025: It's not too late to realise your digital procurement objectives.

Sep 2, 2024

4 min read

Introduction

As the final quarter of the GCC’s typical financial year approaches, procurement departments find themselves at a critical juncture. The pressure to deliver cost savings, drive efficiency, and ensure seamless operations is more pronounced than ever, whether you are racing to achieve this year’s targets, or to set your organization up for success next year. In this context, digital sourcing technology becomes not just an asset, but an operational necessity, offering both quick tangible benefits and efficiencies that extend well beyond the immediate term. If you are looking to make an impact on your economics quickly, with minimal cost & risk, read on…

 

 

The Financial Argument: Maximizing Year-End Budgets

One of the most compelling reasons to invest in sourcing technology at this stage of the financial year is the opportunity to utilize any remaining 2024 budget. Often, departments find themselves with unallocated funds that must be spent before the year ends. Rather than allowing these resources to go unspent or be reallocated, investing in sourcing technology can yield immediate returns. The benefits are substantial: cost reductions through optimized supplier selection, enhanced negotiation capabilities, and streamlined procurement processes that drive efficiency across the board. If you move quickly there is still time to do this in 2024 and unlock hidden value before the years end, if you make the right choices.

 

Moreover, deploying sourcing technology now can set the stage for achieving key performance targets in the next fiscal year. By making these investments in Q4, procurement teams can hit the ground running in 2025, equipped with the tools needed to drive savings and enhance operational efficiency from day one.

 

However, even if the budget has already been exhausted, the case for sourcing technology remains strong. The end of the year is an opportune time to plan and secure funding for the next fiscal cycle. By clearly demonstrating the potential savings, efficiencies, and risk mitigations that sourcing technology can deliver, procurement leaders can make a compelling case for securing budget allocation in 2025. The alignment of this technology with broader corporate goals—such as cost leadership, innovation, and agility—can further strengthen the argument for investment.



The Technological Advantage: Automation, Modularity, and Integration

The new generation of Sourcing technology is more advanced and user-friendly than ever before. The key benefits—automation, modularity, ease of use, quick deployment, and seamless integration with existing systems—make these solutions highly attractive, particularly in a business environment where efficiency and speed are paramount.

 

Automation is at the heart of sourcing technology’s value proposition. By automating routine and labour-intensive tasks such as supplier discovery, bid management, and negotiation, procurement teams can redirect their efforts towards more strategic activities. Automation not only drives efficiency but also reduces the risk of human error, ensuring more accurate and consistent outcomes. For instance, automated negotiation tools can quickly optimise cost-saving opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

 

Modularity adds another layer of flexibility. Modern sourcing platforms are designed to be modular, allowing organizations to implement only the components they need. This approach reduces the upfront investment and enables companies to scale their technology stack as their needs evolve. For example, a company might start with an e-sourcing module and later expand it into a full purchase to pay (P2P) suite, depending on their strategic priorities.

 

Ease of use is a critical factor in the adoption of any new technology. The new generation of sourcing solutions are designed with intuitive interfaces that require minimal training, significantly reducing the time required for deployment. This ease of use ensures that procurement teams can quickly adapt to the new tools and start realizing benefits almost immediately—a key consideration during the final quarter, when time is of the essence.

 

Quick deployment is another significant advantage of modern sourcing technology. Unlike legacy systems that could take months to implement, today’s solutions can be up and running within a few weeks. This rapid deployment means that organizations can start reaping the benefits, such as reduced procurement cycle times, enhanced supplier collaboration and cost savings before the year ends. Moreover, the ability to quickly deploy new capabilities enables procurement teams to respond more swiftly to market changes and emerging opportunities.

 

Integration with existing ERP and P2P systems is helpful, though not always necessary, for ensuring a seamless procurement process. Sourcing technology that integrates smoothly with current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P) systems helps to eliminate data silos, enhance visibility across the procurement lifecycle, and facilitate more informed decision-making. This integrated approach can also lead to a more efficient, connected, and transparent procurement function, where every piece of data is accessible and actionable.

 

 

Preparing for the Future

If budget constraints prevent immediate investment, the final quarter should be used to plan for the next year and ensure the budget is set aside or you run the risk of missing out on another year of benefits and efficiencies. Engaging with key stakeholders involved in the investment decision to outline the benefits of sourcing technology, quantifying the tangible and intangible value potential, and identifying potential integration needs are all steps that can be taken now to ensure a smooth implementation in the coming year.

 

Furthermore, by planning ahead, procurement leaders can align their technology investments with broader organizational goals, such as digital transformation initiatives or sustainability targets. This forward-thinking approach not only ensures that procurement remains a strategic partner within the organization but also positions the department to deliver significant value in the long term. For instance, by integrating sustainability metrics into the sourcing process, companies can make progress toward their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals while simultaneously achieving cost savings.

 

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Conclusion

In the final quarter of the financial year, sourcing technology offers a compelling proposition for procurement leaders. Whether by leveraging remaining budgets or planning for future investments, the benefits of automation, modularity, ease of use, quick deployment, and seamless integration with ERP and P2P systems are too significant to overlook. As organizations navigate the complexities of the current economic landscape, strategic investment in sourcing technology could be the key to unlocking new efficiencies, driving cost savings, and gaining a competitive edge in an increasingly challenging market.

 

If you are interested in learning more or looking to deploy procurement technology, let’s talk.

 

At TechConnect:ME we have decades of experience in helping companies’ step-change their procurement processes. Contact us today for a no-obligation chat on how we can help you, or to arrange a demo of our digital procurement tools designed to improve business outcomes, solve problems and unlock hidden value fast.

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