Get a Single View of Spend by Working with Procurement, Supply Chain, and IT
Sure, you work in finance, and because you’re in charge of spending, you also find yourself in charge of traveler safety. And employee productivity. And brand reputation in Hong Kong. This may not be the financial management path you started out on, but since spending is so diverse and so deeply embedded in every function of your organization, you have to wear a variety of hats just to get handle on what’s going out the door.
Or, as a recent SAP Concur e-Book points out, you don’t have to stay stuck in your silo — you can connect with the departments in which the spend is happening.
Every spending source. Every spending category. All at once.
Whether it’s direct or indirect spending, services, external workforce, or travel and expense, your organization’s spending is spread out over a variety of unique categories and countless suppliers — yet it’s all connected.
And when you connect spending across and within these categories, you can get a single, unified view of it all.
To do so, you have to break down the traditional barriers between finance and procurement, between supply chain and IT, between the teams responsible for different pieces of the spending puzzle. To do that, you need something called Intelligent Spend Management.
What’s so intelligent about it?
The e-Book outlines Intelligent Spend Management in detail, highlighting how it brings your company together as it brings your spend together. And with this clear view of spending, you can direct funds toward top priorities, you can stay ahead of regulatory and tax requirements wherever your business operates, and you simply get a tighter hold on spend.
All while helping IT, procurement, and supply chain meet their objectives, as well.
Three ways to get there
It’s all about collaboration between teams and control of each category, and the e-Book 3 Things 4 Departments Can Do to Get 1 View of Spend gives you a roadmap of what it takes to make it happen. Here’s the bird’s-eye view:
1. Create an engaging user experience: It’s simple: make purchasing experiences simple and desirable for employees. Let them book trips on the apps they love, for example, or give them one place to go to buy everything they need for work — and you’ll capture every bit of the data you need to see and manage the spend.
2. Establish a direct, electronic connection with a network of suppliers: The stronger your relationship with suppliers, the better you can see and control spending. You need to be able to closely collaborate with suppliers and share data within each category in a way that fits each category.
3. Connect to innovative third-party solutions: Every business and industry has its own set of unique needs. Connect to specialty, third-party solutions to help keep you on top of industry-specific regulations, that help you manage tax requirements all over the world, and that can address the nuances of specific spend categories.
It might feel like finance has to hold the reins on everything spend-related, but there are four departments on this team, not one. Work together, and you get one view of spend.
Get more detail. Get more control. Check out the e-Book now.
