Automation of manual processes in medium-sized businesses: 4 tips for your procurement department

The digitization of procurement is a major challenge for mid-cap industrials, as day-to-day business quickly becomes stressful. Strategic sourcing and supplier management are indispensable in procurement today, but difficult to implement. It is important that procurement professionals use the possibilities of digitization to perform their tasks better and more efficiently. There is great potential for optimization, especially in operational procurement, which can be realized through automation.

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Here are four recommendations to consider as you move toward digital procurement:

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1. Perform an analysis to identify potentials and weaknesses

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An analysis shows potentials and digital opportunities in procurement. The potential analysis using the Tacto Digital Health Check (DHC) measures the digital maturity of procurement departments in industrial medium-sized industrial companies based on 6 dimensions (systems & data, transparency, processes, leadership & employees, regulatory & risk management, documentation & knowledge transfer) and provides a holistic picture of the procurement organization. On average, there is potential for increasing efficiency in the areas of well-maintained master data, higher transparency, and the right selection of tools for industrial medium-sized companies.

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2. Integration of suppliers in the digitization processes

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Partnership relationships with suppliers are more important than ever due to raw material shortages and bottlenecks. In order to simplify operational processes and automatically evaluate documents, it is worthwhile to use a digital supply data management program (SRM tool), which should be discussed with suppliers in advance.

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3. Do not neglect employees

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Introducing a more digital procurement process is important, but it is advisable to bring all employees along on this journey. To this end, training should be offered and employees should be invited to voice their opinions and suggestions.

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4. Keep it simple: reduce complexity

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Buyers need to check whether measures introduced are helping to make work more efficient and which tools and programs are best suited to their department. In doing so, it is important to identify problems in the workflows, evaluate the existing IT infrastructure and consider the readiness of employees for a new tool.

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If you would like to learn more about the digitization potential in procurement and specific tips on how to design digital procurement, download our whitepaper on the topic of automating manual processes in medium-sized industrial companies now.

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