User adoption is core to realizing procurement value. Here’s how to achieve it.
When was the last time you measured employee adoption of procurement systems and technology?
The usability of your purchase requisition, catalog management and overall procurement system can make or break procurement success. Employees will do what they need to be productive and efficient, even if that means circumventing your procurement process and technology.
While often overlooked, employee adoption is a key performance indicator for procurement. Limited employee adoption limits procurement value in five key areas:
- Less spend under management and visibility
- Increased maverick buying and rouge spending
- Higher landed costs for goods and services
- Increased risk due to purchases with non-authorized vendors
- Less efficiency, resulting from paper-based and/or manual processes
When it comes to purchasing, a consumer-like buying experience that fits how your employees work and live is key to allowing them to quickly and seamlessly get the goods and services they need while setting your procurement function up for success. But in order to find, maintain and control spending and savings, enterprise procurement leaders need a deep, feature-rich solution. Oftentimes, these qualities don’t go hand in hand.
So how can your organization get the best of both worlds? By modernizing your approach to procurement. There are several ways to do this, and they all start by improving access, automation and usability. Many enterprises are boosting employee adoption by augmenting existing platforms – like SAP and SAP SRM, IBM Maximo, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics or NetSuite – with digital purchasing tools and marketplaces that make them more powerful, accessible and user-friendly. The results: procurement teams maintain control, employees buy in and everyone wins.
Want to learn more about what to look for when extending your existing ERP and financial system investment? Check out this procurement checklist from Vroozi and Spend Matters.
