MOBILE PROCUREMENT APPS
Two of the leading apps are those belonging to SAP and Coupa . Doug Benson , Sr Director of Product Management at Coupa , and Baber Farooq , SVP for Market Strategy Procurement Solutions at SAP , discussed the transformative impact of mobile procurement apps . Both , however , raised the challenges of implementation and security that these apps can produce .
Mobile procurement apps – transforming procurement management Doug says maintaining compliance with organisational policies can be challenging for a distributed workforce . He says that Coupa ’ s mobile app simplifies this .
He adds : “ The app offers flexible and secure authentication controls , ensuring data access policies are upheld . It synchronises all mobile actions with Coupa ’ s servers , reflecting changes on both mobile and web platforms .
“ Users can manage procurement , approvals , receiving , expenses and virtual cards effortlessly , regardless of their device or location , streamlining their workflow and ensuring consistent policy compliance .”
Baber says he is seeing growth in procurement professionals demanding greater flexibility in their purchasing activities . He highlights a recent TechReport article , which shows that people spend almost 3.8 trillion hours on their mobile apps and the number of mobile app downloads has increased by 86 % since 2016 .
“ With greater exposure to screen time and particularly among the younger
COUPA MOBILE
Key features include :
• Home Page Dashboard : Users can see an overview of their activity
• Approval System : The app sends push notifications for requests needing attention
• Expense Management : Users can create and submit expense reports on the go
• Shopping and Catalogues : The app offers personalised catalogue and Open Buy recommendations
• Receiving : Users can mark PO lines as received and use the camera to attach pictures as proof of receipt
• Virtual Cards : The app allows viewing of active virtual cards for purchase orders or preapproved expenses
• Offline Access : Coupa ’ s mobile app allows users to continue working offline
• Travel Booking : The app includes features for searching , booking and managing reservations for air , hotel and rental cars
116 November 2024