Best in Class organizations solicit input from the staff that manages the related processes on what works and what is broken before they begin.

This does not mean that technology is useless—quite the contrary. Provided the formerly analog processes are aligned with a new digital paradigm through a comprehensive process redesign effort, digital technology, applied according to the new process design, should result in significant improvement and value added to the business.

However, the such redesign should be done by more than one department. Procurement is typically tasked with selecting the appropriate tool to solve the issue. Therefore, procurement must solicit input from every part of the business that touches on the process. Source to Pay technology is a prime example. Provided procurement views the process as a customer-focused process. Input would be obtained from order takers, requisition creators, purchase order creators, document approvers, contract writers, invoice processors, supplier vetting team, and the functional team that benefits from the spending. They would then solicit input from the traditional groups for governance, risk, marketing, and compliance. Note that even before the information is requested, a business imperative under an audit finding or strategic vision document should have been generated to indicate the c-suite support for the initiative.

The result of this exercise will provide a sound footing to ensure that whatever solution in procurement or finance is sourced; is done based on an updated vision that is genuinely based on a customer-focused process and provides the best fit digitally, using the latest automated control processes that eliminate waste elements that were causing all the major problems related to wasted time, motion, repeat processing, defects, and under-utilized talent present in the aging process.