COUPA
Procurement as the universal connector Because procurement touches every part of an organisation, its ability to provide data-driven insights makes it a vital partner across all departments. Tricia points out that when you bring intelligence to other functions, you change their perspective on value, a process that allows procurement to move from being a department that people“ have to use” to one that people“ want to use.”
• HR: Demonstrating patterns in consultant hiring and suggesting alternative hiring strategies or talent pools.
• Legal: Identifying where strategic legal services are being bought versus technical services to refine buying strategies and reduce billable hours.
• Security and risk: Providing early visibility into supplier vulnerabilities before they become a breach, protecting the brand’ s reputation.
When these connections are effectively delivered, the buying groups, which hold the budget, finally understand the value of procurement. Procurement is no longer a police function but an influential advisor that helps departments reduce their spend overall. This visibility into“ how” the business buys allows procurement to influence the demand side of the equation, not just the supply side.
Compliance as a service The concept of compliance as a service is a cornerstone of this new model. By digitising workflows and leveraging trillions of dollars in transaction data, systems can now identify fraudulent buying behaviour in real time. Whether it is intentional fraud or simple human error, the system flags patterns of concern within the invoicing or purchasing process as they happen.
“ Now as we move that forward and move into this next layer, and we really do supplement everything that we’ ve had historically with the agents and with the orchestration, that compliance as a service is fundamentally powered,” Tricia adds.“ It goes back to risk management.
14 coupa. com