The Cloud Procurement Software Business Case for Your CFO

CFOs have a new trusted advisor: the corporate procurement manager is now the cornerstone of expense management. A recent Hackett Group report reveals that 72% of executives believe that transforming the procurement team into an advisory role is a top priority: http://www.thehackettgroup.com/research/2015/pr/keyissuespr15/.

For you and your procurement team to garner new attention from the corporate suite, it’s time to don the robes of a procurement pioneer. To support your organization’s growth and reduce inefficiencies, start your Cloud procurement business case with these 4 key reasons in mind:

1) Cost-Effective Software:
Why might a Cloud solution for requisitioning and purchase ordering be more cost-effective than an On Premise solution? For starters, it’s much easier and quicker to deploy Cloud purchasing software than On Premise; Cloud solutions can take as little as 4 weeks to be up and running. You can see the ROI right away from adopting an automated system and eliminating paper and excel-based systems. As you continue to use your Cloud software, updates are completed automatically without IT having to allocate too much of their resources.

2) Global Connection to Supplier Networks:
Beyond just the affordability of Cloud software, there are undeniable advantages as your organization expands both in employee size and the number of locations. Since the software can be accessed from anywhere through the internet, employees around the globe can easily connect to preferred suppliers to requisition items with contract pricing. Ariett’s Cloud Procurement solution uses cXML punch-out for employees to access online catalogs and automatically generates a requisition when employees complete their item selection. As your company and supplier network expand, Ariett allows you to seamlessly add transactions and increase the number of employee users.

3) Reliability & Access to Data:
Ariett Software on the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform offers additional reasons for why Cloud software is built for the future of your organization. Azure’s global data centers store copies of your purchasing data in multiple locations so that the data remains protected. At any time, the data that procurement managers and CFOs need to make important purchasing decisions will be right there—you can quickly generate reports that provide valuable insight into departmental budgets and purchasing spend by department or vendor.

4) Visibility & Control across Organizational Entities:
A Cloud procurement solution can help departments to engage in decentralized purchasing while still enabling procurement managers and CFOs to maintain control over the purchasing process. When employees requisition office supplies, procurement managers using Ariett’s Cloud procurement solution gain a holistic view of purchasing spend—with access to all approved, pending and rejected purchase requests from different departments.

If your goal for 2015 is to make procurement a more strategic part of your organization, then it’s time to get rolling on your business case for Cloud procurement software! For additional support for your business case, just click here to download our white paper on current procurement trends according to top industry analysts.

By Ariett