How you can leverage Proactis to achieve Continuous Process Improvement (CPI)

The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) recently released its annual report – “Top 10 Priorities for State Procurement 2020” – based on input from state CPO’s. In a series highlighting the priorities in greater detail, we will explore how you can achieve several priorities for your organisation.

Every business, no matter the size, no matter the industry, should aim to achieve Continuous Process Improvement (CPI). Budgets are tight across most businesses, with many having to do more with less (less staff, less money). Employing methods to continuously improve can enable a business to not only simplify processes, but to reduce process waste and optimise workflows.

Consolidating and controlling spend has never been more important, with all departments under increased scrutiny to deliver cost efficiencies.

Continuous improvement is a hot topic at the moment, with Forbes highlighting that constant improvement is a "Best company trait" and that organisations should “embrace continuous improvement to power operations.” The Hackett Group also recently stated that "continuous process improvement is a must for organisations striving to achieve and maintain profitability and competitive advantage."

The main objective of continuous process improvement is to make small, incremental changes that will provide greater value in the long run by determining whether they’re meeting the goals of the company. And process improvements can be made across the entire organisation, including in the area of spend management and procurement.

CPI can provide organisations with increased profits and productivity, improved quality, enhanced vendor satisfaction, reduced costs, more consistent data entry and so much more. With spend management, such improvements can reduce the risk of vendor non-conformance and non-compliance, improve financial control and visibility, provide a broader, better-rationalised vendor base, and free up time to perform more value-add tasks.

Here are 5 ways of you can achieve Continuous Process Improvement (CPI)

1. User adoption
Example: One of the most important considerations to the success of any process or system is the ability to gain organisation-wide adoption. Proactis’ intuitive, easy-to-use design enables a cultural shift that empowers employees to execute routine daily purchases on a self-service basis within established organisational controls. Departmental managers, purchasing professionals, and even vendors, work in the system to request, purchase, invoice, and approve, simply and in a consolidated way.

2. AP Automation
Example: Reducing the time it takes to process an invoice can free up staff to focus on more value-add activities. With Proactis you can now reduce the direct cost of invoice handling by automating the full invoice lifecycle from the time they are received to the time they are authorised for payment. You can eliminate paper handling to create a fast, accurate “low touch” digital invoicing process.

3. Achieve spend visibility
Example: Visibility of spend from transaction to summary analysis is invaluable to support every level of decision-making. Our platform provides insights into all levels of spend to improve decision-making.

4. Ensure policies are easy to follow and adhere to
Example: In order to truly streamline any process, users throughout the organisation must be empowered to perform appropriate steps to ensure compliance. But without built-in controls enforced automatically, it is impractical to expect everyone to understand and comply with all policies and procedures. Proactis’ comprehensive built-in controls make it practical to ensure organisation-wide compliance with all purchases, budgets, and approval policies, for example, ensuring greater compliance within the organisation.

5. Simplify contract management
Example: You need to ensure on-contract spend and use of approved vendors across your organisation, and monitoring contracts is time- and labor-intensive. Proactis enables you to alleviate the whole task of creating new contracts every time you onboard a new vendor. With standard contract templates users will only need to make minor updates, saving loads of time drafting up new contracts in every instance.

CPI is an ongoing iniatitive, especially in the face of change. With Proactis, you're able to be agile and evolve while streamlining and simplifying your procurement processes. Contact us to discuss the areas you'd like to see CPI and how we can help.