When you’re choosing spend management software, your list of criteria is no doubt long. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it also contains some conflicting “wishes.” We hear it all the time: the procurement team wants the software that produces the best reports. But that can mean it’s harder for your end-users to shop. On the flip side, platforms that offer a streamlined shopping experience often lack the fully functional reporting capabilities procurement pros like you depend on.
When faced with these conflicting priorities, which choice is the right one? In our experience, the best approach is to choose the solution that makes life easier for the departments you want to use it. Why?
1. Spend management software that’s easy to use saves everyone time
End-users in other departments may only be casual users of your software, so making it as easy as possible on them is key. Hopefully, you’ll be saving them time and making things easier on them on a day-to-day basis, but beyond that, software that’s easy to use will reduce training time. It also should cut back on time spent trying to remember how to use the software – which should mean fewer questions for you!
2. The easier the software is to use, the more likely it’s used
This one is pretty straightforward. The easier it is for your end users to use, the more likely they’ll use it. (By the way, mobile is big here.) Why does this matter? Aside from the obvious “we bought it for them to use,” think back to your reports. Who cares how easy they are to produce if they miss 50% of the spend because your end users have gone around the software.
3. The more spend management software is used, the more opportunities you have
The possibilities here are pretty endless.
- Want to gain more visibility into your spend?
- Boost your strategic sourcing efforts?
- Direct more spend to preferred suppliers?
All of this depends on 1) data being in your systems and / or 2) having advantageous habits and behaviors in place. Take preferred suppliers. If you already have everyone shopping in your system, now all you have to do is highlight who you want them to buy from. Pretty simple.
Of course, ease-of-use isn’t everything. Your spend management software has to have the brains behind the scenes. Difficult to find? Nope. Our customers love us for our ease-of-use. (And that’s for everyone, not just end-users.) We’re also the only tried and true full-suite solution available with the entire source-to-pay suite on one platform.
What challenges are standing in the way of your procurement success? We’re here to help so contact us today!
