Tips for being a resilient organization
The economic landscape in 2023 is markedly different than what we’ve seen over the last decade. Companies and their leaders are facing a new set of challenges and macroeconomic forces, from rising inflation and increased cost of capital to tightening credit markets. These factors are contributing to a greater focus on overall P&L, underscoring the importance of profitability.
Executives are responding by implementing cost reduction strategies that support long-term financial health. These can come in many shapes and sizes and could look like SG&A cuts, headcount reductions, contract renegotiations, or supply chain optimization.
However, one truth remains clear: Companies that have invested in digital finance solutions are better positioned to weather current challenges and be resilient. This is especially true with source-to-pay. Those that have invested in leading technologies, like Coupa, are in the driver’s seat.
Characteristics of digitally resilient companies
When digital source-to-pay solutions are in place, they can be leveraged across the end-to-end value chain to enable the business through cost reduction efforts. Here are three domains that make digitally mature companies more resilient.
Full spend visibility.
When addressing profitability, spend is often the easier lever to pull than revenue. However, in order to improve spend, it needs to be measured and managed. Companies leveraging Coupa can view all of their spend in one place. This end-to-end visibility helps improve control for unapproved spend, drive more spend to contracts, and shine a light on opportunities to rationalize suppliers or improve payment terms.
High-volume of process automation.
While source-to-pay involves many complex and diverse activities, there are areas that contain a high amount of automation potential. Coupa is able to automate many of those transactional steps—things like portions of vendor onboarding, order placement, invoice approval, and payment. This allows companies to do more with less and focus team members on higher value activities such as category management, supplier negotiation, and continuous improvement.
Effective supplier risk management.
As credit markets tighten and the cost of capital increases, so does supplier risk. Companies that don’t have effective visibility into their suppliers run the risk of not having direct material when they need it most. Coupa supports risk management for both prospective and active suppliers, allowing organizations to proactively monitor and mitigate risks before they become a problem.
It’s time to thrive
Digital maturity in source-to-pay isn’t just a nice to have—it’s a must-have to thrive in today’s environment. Being successful requires having a strong strategy and roadmap from the start, a platform like Coupa that can support your objectives, and a partner to guide you through the process.
Ready to improve your resiliency by embracing digital finance solutions? Need more guidance on how to start? Let us know. We’re ready to help determine a game plan that works for your team and goals.