How CFOs can better understand and leverage Procurement’s role in Spend Control
As a CFO, you’re undoubtedly spending much of your time working to reduce costs wherever you possibly can; and trying to do so in ways that strengthen rather than weaken your organisation. You may be working to reduce costs within the Finance function with initiatives like Accounts Payable (AP) automation. And like many CFOs today, you may be focused on the subject of Spend Control, possibly using tools such as eProcurement.
Gaining control and visibility of your Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) process is a big step towards realising the benefits of Spend Control, including better management of budgets and consistent compliance with purchase authorisation policies.
But the biggest benefit comes when you are able to actually reduce the cost of the goods and services your organisation buys by channelling a higher percentage of purchases to preferred suppliers and contracts – i.e. to sources with the lowest prices and best overall value.