The 4 pillars that determine the success of your Source to Pay implementation

You want to take your procurement and invoice processing to the next level, and after investing a great deal of time and attention you’ve chosen the perfect S2P software. But however well this technology fits your organisation and your situation, it’s still no guarantee that you’ll actually achieve your predefined objectives. After all, the success of your solution depends on how the people in your organisation ultimately work with it. “When it comes to a successful S2P implementation, people, processes, technology and data are inextricably linked,” says Sanne van Eijsden, Director Professional Services at Spendlinq. “It’s not just about the best-fitting technology, but about the right balance and collaboration between all the elements.” In this blog, Sanne explains how these four pillars influence the outcome of your S2P project.

People

“Choose your A-team,” Sanne advises. “It goes without saying that you want to involve the best people in your organisation in your project team. Make sure you also represent every discipline with a stake in the implementation. You don’t want your project to be seen as a party for Procurement, Finance or IT alone. It’s crucial to involve a broad group of business users – such as Facility Management and HR – for example by forming test panels with key users from different departments, locations or countries. This approach creates support across the whole organisation. It’s also important that you can count on the necessary backing and attention from senior management, who ideally keep stressing the importance of the planned change on a regular basis.”

It’s not only people’s involvement that determines the success of an implementation, but also how they embrace the change. “Don’t underestimate the need for change management,” Sanne stresses. “People are often overlooked. Yet they’re crucial to making your implementation project succeed. You can want to implement the most innovative system there is, but if your people don’t back it, it will never be a success! To make change land successfully – whatever the organisation and the situation – you almost always need change management. After all, we’re not just asking people to use a (different) system, but to genuinely work in a different way. When you implement a Purchase to Pay process, for example, people are asked to get formal approval in advance for spend they want to make on behalf of their organisation. Many people aren’t used to this and see it as a restriction of their freedom. By taking the time to explain the ‘why’ and the benefits of budget control up front, you increase acceptance of the new process. In a situation like this, we naturally also advise paying ample attention to the benefits end users will experience themselves.”

“We also see that the focus in implementations is often on the organisation itself,” Sanne continues, “but don’t forget the impact this has on your suppliers. They may be faced with a supplier portal or a new – often digital – way of ordering and/or invoicing. By making it easy for suppliers to connect in a few simple steps, you can quickly increase the number of participating suppliers and, with it, efficiency. Good supplier adoption is therefore indispensable. For example, make supplier registration simple and provide clear instructions and guidance. If 80% of your suppliers can connect through self service, your team can focus on the 20% who may need more support.”

Processes

“Define your project goals clearly,” says Sanne. “As a (project) organisation, limit yourself to a maximum of 3 project objectives that all stakeholders support and are willing to work towards together. It’s also important to translate these objectives into realistic KPIs. Start by carrying out a baseline measurement of your existing system/process, which shows you where the organisation is starting from. New measurements after implementation can show whether the project objectives are actually being met and allow you to adjust course where needed.”

Sanne also stresses the importance of clear governance. “Setting up decision-making and responsibilities around the project properly is essential for good control and direction. Who is appointed as the person ultimately accountable, and makes the final decision when the team isn’t aligned? If there are several sponsors, there’s a risk of disagreements that can’t be bridged. The result is frustration, delays and unnecessary costs. It’s also important that the project team is given the necessary authority by the steering committee. The role of the steering committee is to make decisions at key milestones and to oversee the delivery of the project objectives.”

Technology

“Whichever new system you choose, avoid customisation. It keeps you from overrunning your budget and from rising service & support costs in the future. Most software suppliers build ‘best practices’ from the market into their solutions, which can be used to set up a large part of any organisation’s processes. Our experience shows that implementing standard software will require changes to the process in some places. So the organisation must be willing to make concessions to its own way of working in a few cases – usually small ones. Working with standardised software also brings many benefits. New features are usually released periodically to offer ‘best practices’ to customers. If you choose to have your new software tailored specifically to your organisation and situation, that usually means you can’t automatically move along with standard updates and upgrades in the future.”

According to Sanne, another important point of attention is the integration of the new system with other software solutions. “Think of connections with your own ERP/financial system or supplier applications. Nowadays almost any integration can be realised, but there are still a number of questions you should ask yourself while preparing for the implementation. Is it a standard integration or is it customised? Is it a real-time integration or a daily update? Which technology is used to realise the integration? But more importantly: which data do you want to record where, and how do you ultimately want to report on it, and in which system?”

Data

“The foundation of every implementation is a spend analysis,” says Sanne. “Based on the available data, we analyse the organisation’s spend. This gives us insight into the largest procurement categories, and into influenceable versus non-influenceable spend. We build this information into the rollout strategy. Which categories do we tackle first, so that we get a large share of spend under control right away? Where are the biggest risks for the organisation? How many active suppliers does the organisation have, and in which categories are they active? With how many suppliers have contracts been concluded, and are they still current? We find the answers in the data, which largely steers decision-making and determines the emphasis of the rollout.”

Sanne concludes: “Implementing an S2P solution can be complex, full of pitfalls and difficult choices. Where you don’t have the right knowledge and experience in-house, it’s advisable to bring in outside expertise. A good S2P consultant understands your processes, has in-depth knowledge of the available technologies and knows how to translate your process to the new system and vice versa. Our specialists combine unique domain expertise with knowledge of the best technology in the market, and put your people and organisational objectives first. Because in an S2P transformation, it’s important to look not only at the technology but at the whole organisation. People, processes, technology and data must be deployed in the right way to steer a successful course. As a sparring partner and an expert in the latest technology, we stand beside you to guide you through every phase of your digital transformation.”