Newport Beach, CA - August 8, 2013 - The hospitality industry spends billions of dollars each year in purchasing everything from bed linens and cleaning supplies to food and capital goods. Procurement is part of daily life for most hotels and resorts. In a new comprehensive study released by PayStream Advisors Inc., Electronic Procurement: Creating Buyer/Supplier Collaboration Through Procure-to-Pay Solutions, procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions for enterprise companies are on the rise. CFOs, along with Purchasing and IT management, are exploring the gaps in their existing procurement systems, and turning to eProcurement or comprehensive P2P solutions to improve business processes.
A P2P system is a fully integrated and automated end-to-end business process, which starts with suppliers, continues with ordering and receiving, and ends with payment. The report reveals that 25 percent of organizations have fully integrated their AP and Procurement departments into an integrated P2P platform.
The utilization of one combined platform for both AP and procurement brings added intelligence throughout the entire business process, resulting in more on-contract purchases, increased invoice automation, accurate transaction processing, and increased savings through the ability to take advantage of early pay supplier discounts and the elimination of manual, time consuming processing. Further, the report explored how having centralized and integrated AP and procurement functions can drive business success by improved working capital/cash flow management, spend transparency, enabling strategic sourcing, lower AP and transaction cost management, supplier master file management opportunities and enhanced contract management capabilities.
Highlights of the survey state that ensuring supplier contract compliance is the number one pain point in the procurement process for companies. This need correlates directly to why better visibility and transparency across procurement was ranked the top reason organizations implemented a procurement automation solution.
Purchasing and accounting are two areas where automating manual processes will directly affect a company’s bottom line and ROI. Streamlining processes and lowering costs are also key influencers in the decision to implement a P2P system. Already, almost half (44%) of businesses are making electronic payments while 56% of supplier payments are still made via paper checks. For suppliers, there is a growing trend as nearly one-quarter (23%) of organizations currently receive more than half of their invoices electronically from suppliers, showing that supplier integration is moving in the right direction.
In summary, enterprise businesses are shifting priorities in the way they are procuring goods and services in order to increase efficiencies and maximize profits. To read more about eProcurement, procure-to-pay cloud-based technology and leading solution providers for the hospitality industry, click here to download a complimentary copy of the report.