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Premikati sourcing

May 25

Navigating the Supplier Landscape

By Procurement No Comments

Unleashing the Power of SAP Ariba Solutions for Optimized Procurement and Risk Management

 

Supplier management has become a critical aspect of business operations for procurement and supply chain executives in interdependent businesses and complex supply chains.

In fact, according to a report by Ponemon Institute, 53% of organizations have experienced at least one data breach caused by a third party in the past two years. This statistic alone underscores the urgent need for robust supplier lifecycle and risk management.

Fortunately, innovative solutions are available to help professionals navigate this challenging landscape. For instance, SAP Ariba’s Supplier Lifecycle and Performance solution offers various benefits that help streamline supplier management and optimize procurement processes.

Enhancing Supplier Relationships

A strategic procurement process starts with strong supplier relationships. SAP Ariba solutions provide a unified and comprehensive view of supplier information, which helps businesses work effectively with suppliers and withstand disruptions. This increased visibility can drive spend to preferred suppliers, allowing businesses to manage suppliers based on specific parameters and integrate this information with other SAP Ariba solutions.

Maximizing Savings

SAP Ariba’s solutions can also help eliminate savings leakage. With enhanced visibility and control, businesses can ensure employees buy the right products at the right price, allowing negotiated savings to reach the bottom line.

Simplifying Risk Management

Understanding supplier risk is essential in today’s complex business landscape. 2021 data breaches increased by 17% from the previous year, and it’s predicted that supply chain attacks would quadruple in 2021 over the number of 2020 attacks. SAP Ariba’s Supplier Risk solution simplifies supplier risk management by providing actionable insight into high-risk suppliers and focused risk alerts.

Gaining Deeper Insight

With SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, businesses can act fast with insight into the location of at-risk suppliers, the problems they may face, and the orders and shipments impacted by risk. This solution also allows for intelligent control assessments based on suppliers’ inherent risk, enabling businesses to identify suppliers of greatest concern.

Driving Compliance with Embedded Risk Management

Embedding risk management in the procurement process can significantly improve compliance. SAP Ariba Supplier Risk helps reduce the assessment cycle time from months to weeks, improving compliance through third-party risk assessments for each supplier engagement.

Delivering Business, Environmental, and Social Impact

Businesses today are increasingly held accountable for their operations’ social and environmental impact. With SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, companies can find the causes of risk to enable compliance controls that make a difference and provide responsible plans for supplier selection, onboarding, and contracting.

Proactively Mitigating Risks

SAP Ariba Supplier Risk enables businesses to generate and execute issue management and action plans to mitigate risks proactively. This solution also connects to the source-to-pay process to improve compliance.

Receiving Personalized Risk Alerts

The SAP Ariba Supplier Risk solution automatically tracks more than 200 risk incidents, helping businesses proactively monitor financial, operational, environmental, social, regulatory, and legal risks.

In an era where 65% of businesses find it hard to manage cybersecurity risks associated with third parties and 74% believe that third-party vendor selection overlooks potential key risks, SAP Ariba Supplier Risk removes the challenge from supplier risk management. It empowers businesses to work with suppliers that can keep business moving with less risk, monitoring aspects of supplier lifecycle management that may not have been considered before.

The Future of Supplier Management

As businesses continue to evolve, so does the complexity of their supplier networks. An estimated 60% of organizations work with over 1,000 third parties, which is growing as business systems become more complex. Additionally, 71% of businesses expect to become more reliant on third parties in the next two years.

Given these trends, it’s clear that effective supplier lifecycle and risk management are more critical than ever. Advanced solutions like SAP Ariba’s Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and Supplier Risk solutions can help businesses navigate this increasingly complex landscape, enabling them to make better buying decisions, maximize savings, scale compliance, simplify risk management, and more.

With robust supplier management solutions, businesses can turn procurement and supplier management from a challenging task into a strategic advantage. By harnessing the power of SAP Ariba solutions, businesses can mitigate risks and unlock opportunities for growth and innovation. It’s time to reshape the procurement landscape and transform how we manage supplier relationships.

 

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May 16

Unleashing the Power of AP Automation: A Strategic Move Towards Efficiency and Profitability

By Procurement No Comments

In an era where digital transformation drives sustainable business growth, one area that remains ripe for disruption is Accounts Payable (AP). AP automation is no longer just an option – it’s a business necessity that yields considerable strategic advantages, particularly for mid-market companies. This post aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the myriad benefits of AP automation to executives committed to fostering operational excellence, reducing costs, and enhancing cash flow management.

 

The AP Challenge: A Time and Resource Intensive Process

AP processes often contain manual data entry, paper invoices, and lengthy approval cycles. These processes are time-consuming and prone to human error, resulting in late payments, missed discounts, and increased operational costs. The lack of real-time visibility into AP data often leads to suboptimal decision-making, hampering growth and profitability.

The AP Automation Advantage: Transforming the AP Landscape

AP automation technology disrupts this status quo, offering a more innovative, efficient, and cost-effective way to manage AP processes.

Let’s delve into the specific benefits:

  • Time Savings: AP automation drastically reduces the time to process an invoice, leading to faster approvals and payments. This increased efficiency frees up valuable staff time that can be better utilized for strategic tasks, such as analyzing spending data or improving supplier relationships.
  • Reduced Operational Costs: Automating AP processes reduces the need for manual intervention, thereby minimizing the scope for human errors and the costs associated with rectifying them. Moreover, it can also decrease storage and postage costs associated with paper invoices. Calculate your potential savings here using SAP’s Buying and Invoicing Value Calculator.
  • Enhanced Cash Flow Management: With real-time visibility into outstanding invoices and payment dates, AP automation allows companies to optimize their cash flow. Companies can take advantage of early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties, thereby improving their bottom line.
  • Decreased Rogue Spend: AP automation controls maverick spending by enforcing corporate policies and approval workflows. It also improves spend visibility, enabling companies to identify and mitigate rogue expenditures more effectively.
  • Improved Supplier Relationships: Timely payments and transparent communication foster healthier supplier relationships. This enhances supply chain efficiency and opens up opportunities for negotiation and collaboration.

The Powerhouse Duo: SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing and Premikati

While the benefits of AP automation are clear, the choice of software and its implementation process is crucial.

SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing is a robust solution offering comprehensive AP automation capabilities. It streamlines end-to-end procure-to-pay processes, enhances visibility into company-wide spending, and drives compliance and control across the invoice management process.

Yet, the success of any AP automation initiative is about more than just the software. It’s about how effectively the software is implemented and integrated with your existing systems and processes. This is where Premikati offers rapid implementation and deployment services that ensure a smooth and efficient transition to automated AP processes.

Premikati’s expertise in SAP Ariba implementation reduces the time-to-value, allowing companies to experience the benefits of AP automation sooner rather than later. Their robust training and support ensure that your team is equipped to leverage the software’s full potential.

AP automation is a transformative strategy that can significantly improve your business’s operational efficiency, financial health, and competitive edge. With SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing and Premikati’s deployment services, your business is well-positioned to navigate the AP automation journey successfully.

Connect with us today to talk to our team.

Feb 16

Five Ways to Ensure your Sourcing Strategy Never Disrupts the Supply Chain

By Blog No Comments

Because sourcing is at the heart of any procurement strategy, it is critical to the success of your supply chain.

Poor sourcing strategies have a negative impact on the supply chain such as  downtime, low inventory, and a lack of supply chain transparency.

Here are five things you can do to protect your supply chain from disruptions:

1. Assemble the Right Team

It goes without saying that your supply chain requires people to function. More importantly, it requires the right people.

Consider the following when assembling your sourcing team; such as the ability to quickly learn, analyze large amounts of data, build long-term relationships, communicate, and negotiate.

2. Provide the Right Tools

In today’s supply chain climate, your productivity depends on the tools you make available to your team and the tools and solutions they have at hand can make all the difference.

With emerging technologies across the globe, the supply chain has never had the potential to be more efficient. 

A great example of a sourcing solution is SAP Ariba’s Sourcing tool.

3. Have a Solid Sourcing Strategy

Your sourcing strategy is used to find the most effective, efficient, and reasonably priced solution to your supply chain needs.

So, how do you identify the right product or supplier?

Here are some tips:

  • Understand the market trends. 
  • Always pick quality and time over price. 
  • Build relationships with several vendors in the market. 
  • Have clear expectations or targets. 

4. Have Multiple Vendors for Each Product Supplied

Building long-term relationships with your vendors or suppliers is extremely beneficial to the supply chain. However, if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the importance of having backup plans.

Supply chains are more flexible, visible, and resilient than ever before. Despite this, there is still an element of uncertainty surrounding supply chains.

To be better protected, it is critical to work with more than one supplier. A great place to start is the Ariba network where over you can connect with over 40 million suppliers and growing!

5. Constantly Review Suppliers

A supplier review provides insight into the supplier’s performance.

Constantly reviewing a supplier ensures that potential disruptors are identified as soon as possible; giving you the opportunity to prevent them from causing harm to the supply chain.

To get the most out of your supplier’s performance, make a list of performance indicators. Quality, service, delivery rate, damages, compliance, innovative ideas, and cost are some examples.

Summary

Disruptions in the supply chain are undesirable. It’s not just that they cost the company time and resources, though those are significant. The unfavorability stems from the impact on the company’s customers.

What are some common disruptions in your supply chain?

One of your primary responsibilities as a supply chain or sourcing manager is to prevent disruptions. Particularly artificial disruptions. One of the most effective approaches is to develop an effective sourcing strategy.

For your procurement solutions and services, click here at www.premikati.com

Feb 16
Supply Chain Management SAP Ariba Premikati

Tips for Successful Supply Chain Management

By Procurement No Comments

Sourcing and supply chain management go hand in hand.

Successful supply chain management is the backbone behind most successful businesses. If we had any doubt, the last three years made it clear.

Here are four pointers to help you ensure the success of your supply chain and how you can manage your relationships for success:

1. Leverage New Technologies

Today’s supply chain industry is brimming with new technologies and it has never been easier to get the most out of your supply chain using tools such as:

I. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to aid in inventory forecasting.

II. Procurement applications such as SAP Ariba SLP.  This aids in quality control, supplier scorecards, supplier management and cost savings during procurement.

III. Digital supply chain twins, which improve transparency and decision-making in the supply chain.

2. Constant Evaluation of Sourcing Strategies and Suppliers

The focal point of any supply chain management is sourcing. If done incorrectly, it could spell the end of many supply chains.

Take, for example, this Gartner study.

74% of companies that constantly reviewed and developed their sourcing strategies increased their productivity and savings significantly.

It really is a no-brainer.

To get the most out of your sourcing, figure out which strategies work best for your supply chain and focus on them. You should concentrate on the suppliers’ credibility, capacity, and shared goals.

3. Employee Development

Employees, like other aspects of the business, make significant contributions to supply chain management. In a nutshell, they are the foundation of any organization.

It only makes sense to invest in their advancement. Especially if you want your supply chain management to succeed.

When it comes to training their employees, most businesses are afraid. They are concerned that they will leave and join their competitors. It’s understandable.

But wouldn’t it be more dangerous not to train them? And then watch them wreak havoc on the supply chain and overall business objectives?

Employee competencies are improved through training and development.

4. Enjoy the Competition

Competition is the backbone of any thriving industry. To see success in your supply chain, you must learn to enjoy the competition. 

 Why? The simple answer is competition breeds innovation. And innovation is the secret weapon of any successful business. 

 With competition, you can isolate a competitive edge, allowing you to better cater to your customer’s needs.  

 It also has benefits like improved customer service and constant business development.  

 

What are the key issues you encounter in your supply chain organization?

 

For procurement and supply chain management consultations from the global leaders in Ariba solutions please visit us at www.premikati.com.

Oct 12
Private Equity

Private Equity Firms Gain Quick Wins With Optimized Sourcing

By Private Equity No Comments

Sourcing at the private equity level offers maximized savings via leveraged buying power, the ability to standardize processes and best practices, increase spend visibility and analysis capacities, and improve valuation and EBITDA figures. 

Why source everything separately across each individual portfolio company when private equity-level sourcing can increase rate of return, maximize savings, efficientize SOPs, and lead to insightful spend analysis across all organizations? Prior procurement platforms kept power at the portco level, but PE firms have a notable leg up in their sourcing efforts when they can utilize their full, leveraged buying power, resulting in quick, sizable savings. 

Current State of Sourcing Across Portcos

In many PE scenarios, all sourcing is executed at the portfolio company level—there is no PE-level control whatsoever. This caution-to-the-wind approach results in a lot of lost savings and opportunities. Of these PE-firms that do not utilize a more inclusive strategy, there is often mounting pressure to generate good returns, and procurement can be seen as a quick win for savings with sizable long-term potential as well. While some portcos may seek to retain autonomy in procurement, insightful spend analysis figures and a well-planned roadmap can often combine to make a compelling argument for PE-led sourcing. 

Problems With Keeping Sourcing at the Portfolio Company Level

When sourcing is only happening at the portfolio company level, there is a tremendous hit to savings potential as well as a higher likelihood of siloed data practices which open the company to a wide range of risks and other detriments. When portcos retain full autonomy in sourcing, this usually results in:

  • Lack of aggregated spend across portcos
  • Lack of standardization of sourcing processes and best practices
  • Overpayment due to minimized savings and potential discounts. 

In terms of savings lost, this can equate to 9-16% per event. This lack of visibility and reduction in savings is often enough for many PE firms to consider moving sourcing to the PE level, because it can result in fast and impactful ROI. 

Benefits Of Sourcing at The Private Equity Level

How do things change when sourcing moves from the portco level to the private equity level? The magic word of the day is “leveraged buying power.” Sourcing at the PE level offers a major boost attaining the best possible prices from vendors. Partner-led execution of sourcing events ensure maximized savings that hinge upon best practices. 

Through the combination of spend analysis and sourcing at the PE level, private equity firms can immediately increase visibility, reduce compliance risks, boost leveraged buying power to negotiate the best deals, and standardize sourcing processes across the board—all of which add up to notable savings. 

How The Private Marketplace Model Enhances PE-Level Sourcing

To nix the siloed approach to procurement across portcos, PE firms can adopt a private marketplace model as part of a greater e-procurement strategy. With Premikati Marketplace, PEs can take advantage of PE-negotiated contracts and catalogs while utilizing the Private Equity Marketplace underpinned by SAP Ariba. No matter the current state of e-procurement technology within organizations at the start, Premikati Marketplace is a quick-to-deploy, lightweight solution with lighting-fast time to ROI. Plus, it can easily integrate into pre-existing procurement processes for fast adoption—with change management services provided to each portco to ease the transformation. 

This PE-level option offers the ability to quickly turn on or off portcos as they are acquired or sold, retain centralized control with  portco-level authority, and numerous ways to maximize savings across all participating organizations. Using this sourcing approach comes with the additional benefit of deep spend analysis at the PE-level which has been known to boost valuation and EBITDA figures even after only a short duration of use.  

 

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Jun 18
outsourcing

All You Need to Know About Impact Sourcing

By Procurement No Comments

There isn’t any question that inclusive corporate practices and business shared values have been highlighted in recent years as customers increase their search for companies who induce rich social impact throughout their supply chain and workflows. In fact, contemporary organizations risk falling behind the curve if they don’t adopt impact sourcing in their processes.

For several years, companies looked at deploying “social good” policies as a type of afterthought or even icing on the cake. The main focus was profit. Now, things are changing. Many millennials, and gen Z’ers, actively search for businesses who have long-term strategies around social impact.

Today, embracing and embedding social impact into business processes is no longer an option – it is mandatory. Even prospective employees only want to work for companies that have infused social good practices into their overarching policies.

Not to mention, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, consumers have countless options right at their fingertips. In the end, they will choose to patronize a business with values that align with theirs. Now, let’s talk a bit more about impact sourcing.

What is impact sourcing?

Many industries are in the position to improve their business practices. Impact sourcing simply means employing individuals who come from a disadvantaged background, and providing them with opportunities they might not have otherwise received. 

There are billions of people who just can’t access professional business opportunities because they also don’t have access to higher education. For instance, Africa may have the largest workforce on this planet, but they certainly don’t have enough jobs for their populations. Impact sourcing offers employment to people who live in locations with persistently high rates of unemployment. 

Further, these are people who may live in rural areas, or even slums, and don’t have access to secondary education. So then, as these types of people receive better career opportunities – and higher wages – they can actually go to college and be better able to help their family members who are in need.

Impact sourcing is gaining traction

Led by organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), impact sourcing is also proving advantageous for companies who adopt this particular business practice. According to BSR, “Impact sourcing is not philanthropy; it is a business practice that seeks to maximize societal and business outcomes.” There are also some practical applications you can implement within your company. 

  • Focus on the people 

A successful impact sourcing program should not be about the numbers, or even the algorithm, it should be about the people. These are not automated robots, but every employee has unique gifts and talents they can bring to your organization. And, through their tenure with your business, they can spread the benefits throughout their communities. Not to mention, you are accessing a talent pool inundated with motivated individuals. Moreover, you don’t have to change your organization’s values simply because you are hiring in another country or working with a supplier in a disadvantaged area.

  • Business improves through long-term relationships

It always helps to remember that, when it comes to business, the bottom line is still critical. You certainly want to be known as a company who prioritizes social impact. Yet, that shouldn’t be the end all and be all. Your business should still ensure your customers get the quality they’re accustomed to along with the right price and the right customer experience.

Invariably, happy employees are much more productive and they are much more loyal to a company. As a result, they have the potential to become more skilled at their roles which leads to getting a larger amount of work done in less time. The best way to improve happiness and motivation is to offer an opportunity to someone who – under normal circumstances – would not have received such an offer.

Turn your company into a force for good

There is still limited understanding about the various populations – throughout the world – who need more help. In this regard, it takes time and research to determine where your impact sourcing program can make the most impact.

Participate in conversations with people from disadvantaged communities to gain a better understanding of their experiences and challenges. Partner with organizations such as the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC). Currently, the GISC is challenging its member companies to start hiring at least 100,000 workers before the end of 2020. The GISC also offers toolkits for download which include case studies and best practices. Now, you can design your impact sourcing strategy. 

Next, host job fairs in disadvantaged areas. If your company can’t be there physically, then partner with local organizations. Other ways to help include offering guest lectures, online training, and mentorships. Change people’s lives with training and education.

Remember that disadvantaged communities aren’t only found in developing countries. There are disadvantaged individuals in developed countries, as well. 

Final thought

There is no greater feeling than knowing your company can help disadvantaged individuals out of poverty all around the globe. Impact sourcing can provide some stability in war-torn regions when opportunities for career, education, and training increase. When a person feels secure, they also gain a feeling of peace. Just take a look at the change in formerly war-torn regions of southeastern Europe where many citizens now work remotely for companies all over the world. As the global skills gap continues to grow, it’s time to consider the talent outside of the traditional pools.

 

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