DIGITAL PROCUREMENT
“ One of the biggest challenges is building awareness for it across the organisation ”
MICHAEL SCHANKER VP OF STRATEGIC MARKETING , COUPA SOFTWARE
are centred around the idea of unifying spend in one place and all the information intelligence that you can harness from that .”
How can a BSM platform breakdown silos in procurement ? “ So very often we see that technology can be a catalyst for change , but ultimately there ' s change management that has to happen in the organisation ,” says Schanker . “ A simple example is 10 years ago , maybe even five , procurement functions such as purchase orders , invoicing , and accounts payable were conducted as different processes , by different groups of people , with different software technology supporting them . Today the idea of those functions being separate instead of together would have people scratching their heads because they ' ve seen the benefits .”
As the benefits continue to grow , Schanker adds , “ better cash forecasting has certainly become a lot more prominent of a process over the last year when cash really became king for a while . Understanding that a better cash forecast comes from what invoices might be coming in and what large purchase orders might be working through approvals ; the idea that you can ' t work in silos in procurement or accounts payable or treasury , that if you have a system that
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