Strategic Procurement Management

A Procurement Services provider enhances a company’s current procurement capabilities by offering strategic sourcing and procurement expertise and acting as an extension to the internal Procurement team. Subject matter experts (procurement SMEs) can help target specific areas of spend to optimize savings, and establish best practices across spend categories, including complex areas like Marketing and IT, and provide accessibility to actionable strategies that help achieve sustainability in savings opportunities.

An obvious goal of any Procurement team is to uncover and realize cost-savings opportunities, and establish a secure supply chain. A robust procurement software solution helps achieve that, and the other key elements of Procurement, including: Catalog Management that makes it simple for users to keep purchases on-contract; an automated P2P requisition process and workflows; Purchase Order automation that’s fast, seamless, and efficient; E-invoicing that replaces manual paper-based processes; digitized P2P payments to optimize cash flow; integrated Contract Management to manage purchasing against catalogs and supplier performance; and embedded Receipt & Dispute Management.

Outside of a Procurement organization, which probably includes internally across most companies, people generally don’t know the difference between purchasing and procurement, or use the terms interchangeably. Procurement, also described above, is an organizational function that sources, identifies, and selects appropriate suppliers from which to acquire necessary goods or services through an auction process, RFPs, or direct purchase. The role often includes Supplier Relationship and Performance Management, Spend Analytics, and working with Accounts Payable to ensure three-way matching of Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Receipt Reports. Purchasing, on the other hand, can be considered a subset of Procurement that includes the actual tasks of “purchasing” the direct and indirect goods and services a company uses to operate and / or create products, as well as receiving and payments.

Many Procurement organizations turn to Corcentric to help them implement a “green purchasing” strategy, establish greener best practices, and build a culture of sustainability. Corcentric’s Procurement experts can make any organization more capable of addressing environmental concerns across their supply chains, to not only make a tangible eco-impact on the world, but the bottom line as well. Corcentric has helped many leading companies adopt green supply chain management and choose more eco-friendly products, source recycled and/or recyclable packaging materials, and adopt energy- and waste-saving processes. These more sustainable practices don’t necessarily cost more; employed strategically and holistically, a green supply chain delivers both hard and soft dollar value.

One of the key competitive advantages a company has is the vendors and suppliers it engages with. Accurate vendor identification is step one in evaluating your company’s supplier options — which ones have the capabilities and qualities you’re looking for and will likely be a good fit for your company’s needs in the short- and long-term. Corcentric works with customers to identify the core reason for the required vendor relationship, establish the main drivers that will inform the decision process, and implement a structured research and selection process to ensure all key vendor criteria are satisfied. The process starts with supplier information collection to identify the supplier base, review and understand company technical needs and specs, such as volume and delivery frequency, packaging and shipping requirements, and other factors. After an RFP process, a final list of suppliers is created based on factors including capabilities, pricing, qualifications, operations, and financial and legal review, before conduction vendor registration.

As a leading provider of strategic sourcing, procurement services, source-to-pay technology, order-to-cash solutions, and managed services, Corcentric helps companies of all sizes, in all industries achieve digital transformation, operational improvement, reduced costs, and improved supplier relationships quickly, while simultaneously increasing internal stakeholder buy-in and organizational influence. We offer a team of subject matter experts and procurement advisors with real-world experience who will develop a plan that can actually be executed on in a very short timeframe, in a cost-effective manner.

From Source-to-Contract and Procure-to-Pay, to Order-to-Cash and Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment, to Accounts Payable Automation, Strategic Advisory Services, Managed Services, Payments, Fleet Solutions, and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO), Corcentric offers vast depth and breadth of experience in helping companies across industries strengthen three critical operations – Procurement, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable. Our goal is to optimize how they purchase, pay, and get paid so they can run smoother, spend smarter, and increase cash flow to compete more effectively.