Source-to-Contract

Welcome to the Proactis Source-to-Contract Content Hub, your one-stop resource centre for all things Source-to-Contract
 

What is Source-to-Contract (S2C)?

Source-to-Contract, often referred to as S2C1, is the end-to-end spend control process that supports the Procurement team in the activities they perform to make qualified suppliers and negotiated best-value agreements available to the organisation for use when they need to buy something.2

S2C includes Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and Contract Management3 with the aim of help streamline operations and obtain best value4 through effective supplier adoption, evaluation, and communication.
 

Sourcing

Strategically source suppliers with Sourcing software to get the best value:
  • Obtain best value by improving the effectiveness and transparency of both strategic and tactical sourcing processes.
  • Gain a clear picture of what is being bought and from whom.
  • Standardise the competitive sourcing process.
  • Reduce the amount of labour-intensive manual tasks, and costs.
Strategically source suppliers with Sourcing software to get the best value

Supplier Relationship Management

Improve supplier relationships with a streamlined vendor management process:
  • Improve supplier performance and lower costs.
  • Reduce cost of disruptions caused by supplier non-performance.
  • Reduce cost of administration support in Accounts Payable and Procurement.
  • Share up to date supplier data across your organisation.
Improve supplier relationships with a streamlined vendor management process

Contract Management

Manage and optimise contracts effortlessly and collaboratively:
  • Control and visibility across the entire contract lifecycle.
  • Simple sharing of contract information across your organisation.
  • Effective monitoring and assessment of contract agreements.
  • Real-time insight into your liabilities.
Manage and optimise contracts effortlessly and collaboratively

University of Sussex achieves end-to-end Source-to-Contract efficiency gains as part of digital transformation

“The Proactis Source-to-Contract, and invoice automation solutions that we use demonstrate a great balance of usability and functionality, and have been agile enough to meet our requirements. This is very rare with procurement solutions.”

Read the full story

University of Sussex achieves end-to-end Source-to-Contract efficiency gains as part of digital transformation

Hoyer Group achieves procurement savings through its Source-to-Contract processes with Proactis

“We now have one point of reference for all sourcing project-related information, such as contacts, tender documents, standard library documents, specifications, rating schemes and offer documents. This is important to the Group as it helps guarantee a high level of quality tender and supplier interaction. This, in turn, generally improves pricing, quality and supplier relationships, and also vastly helps with compliance.”

Read the full story

Hoyer Group achieves procurement savings through its Source-to-Contract processes with Proactis

A practical first step to assessing your Source-to-Contract process:

As a Procurement leader in your organisation, have you been thinking your sourcing, supplier management and contract management processes could stand to be improved? Or maybe that they desperately need to be improved?

Do you sense that those processes may be wasting precious resources (time, money, talent etc.) because they are not as effective or efficient as they should be?

If it is time to rethink your Source-to-Contract (S2C) process, our Assessment Tool can help you do that in a structured manner.
Download now
A practical first step to assessing your Source-to-Contract process
Glossary

Spend Control
The aim of all organisations, to control what is being purchased and to optimise spend and supply chains so they can reach their full potential. Spend control helps to save money and create efficiencies while increasing compliance and reducing risk.

Source-to-Pay (S2P)
A complete end-to-end outsourcing solution, usually made up of component parts - Source-to-Contract (S2C) or Procure-to-Pay (P2P).

Spend Visibility
The ability for managers to easily access past in process, and potential (request submitted but not yet approved) spend within their realm of responsibility.

Spend Under Management
The portion of spend that is influenced by the Procurement team and their processes.

Procurement / eProcurement
eProcurement and all of its various component terms such as eSourcing, eAuctions, eInvoices, ePayables, etc. are all terms that simply imply the use of information technology and internet-based communications to support the Spend Control process – including all procurement and financial control aspects of that process.



Supply Chain
In its simplest form, a supply chain is the activities required to deliver goods or services to the consumer. When thinking about a service, services will come together to offer an overall customer service, as opposed to a finished product.

Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the process of managing the flow of goods and services to and from a business, including every step involved in turning raw components into final services/products and getting them to the customer.

Purchasing
The acquisition of goods and services on behalf of a buying entity.

eInvoice
Broadly speaking, an electronic invoice is any invoice sent by a supplier to the buyer in electronic form rather than as a paper invoice.

Sourcing
Sourcing refers to the process of identifying, evaluating and selecting suppliers or vendors to acquire goods, services, or resources needed by an organisation. The primary goal of sourcing is to obtain the best value for money while considering


Supplier Relationship Management
SRM is building and maintaining a strong supplier base by structuring and streamlining the entire supplier lifecycle – from initial identification to adoption, approval, transaction and analysis.

Contract Management
Contract management in procurement is the process of managing agreements with suppliers to achieve the best possible financial and operational performance. The goal is to ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and optimise supplier relationships.

Marketplace
Sometimes referred to as an eMarketplace, a procurement marketplace is a platform that connects staff with approved suppliers and contract when they are purchasing products and services.

Accounts Payable Automation
An efficient and effective Accounts Payable function supports an organisation’s cashflow and helps build healthy supplier relationships. The process of capturing all incoming invoices and efficiently transform them into optimised eInvoices, and enabling efficient invoice matching/approval in their finance system.



1 Source To Contract Global Design Principles (PDF) Government Commercial Function Retrieved 2025-02-06.
2 Source-to-Contract Solutions: An In-Depth Guide SpendMatters Retrieved 2025-02-06.
3 Source to Contract Fractory Published 2023-08-09 Retrieved 2025-02-06.
4 Building resilient supply chains: The role of source-to-contract management in mitigating risk Startups Magazine Retrieved 2025-02-06.