Sourcing and procurement departments play a strategic role in controlling spending and managing risks. They must think creatively to increase savings and draw insights from suppliers in an increasingly complex supply chain.
Strategic sourcing processes that improve compliance, reduce risk and strengthen supplier collaboration result in increased sourcing performance and savings. To increase sourcing performance, organizations must optimize processes across business functions including buyers, general counsel and suppliers.
Modern Contract Management Software Improves Sourcing Outcomes
Contract management software responds to these challenges by streamlining the source-to-contract process. With modern contract management software, all supplier contracts are housed in a central repository, increasing visibility and minimizing risk. Organizations can establish an automated sourcing process where buyers can get key insights on suppliers before they engage with them—for example, by assessing non-compliance or business risks based on already executed contracts.
Once the suppliers are engaged, buyers can negotiate terms that are already approved by the legal team, dramatically increasing compliance and reducing risk. Suppliers can participate in reviews and respond to requests and negotiations in real-time through a secure collaboration portal, reducing the overall process cycle time.
The ICM Sourcing Application: Streamline Complete Source-to-Contract Process
The Icertis Sourcing application is an easy to use, cloud-based solution that is built on top of the Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform. It automates the source-to-contract process for global procurement organizations and easily adapts to complex sourcing scenarios. Its simple, intuitive interface handles simple-to-complex sourcing events, encourages swift adoption and onboarding, and improves collaboration through these capabilities:
- RFx management automates the request-to-award process, with pre-approved templates that make it easy for business users to initiate requests based on best practices. With multi-currency, multi-language support, the app allows input and collaboration worldwide.
- Excel-based bid evaluation and selection lets users conduct side-by-side analyses of bids and proposals and use qualitative and quantitative scoring criteria. This data is easily available to everyone involved in the RFx evaluation process.
- Multi-round negotiation capabilities help suppliers and internal team members work together to get questions answered, obtain additional information from shortlisted suppliers, and negotiate price. Putting these functions within the app eliminates the need for multiple rounds of emails and ensures that critical information isn’t lost in the negotiation process. It also improves supplier collaboration by making it easier for suppliers to understand and respond to an organization’s business concerns.
- Dynamic associations and workflow approvals mean a built-in rules engine can automatically associate key information like pricing sheets with RFx events. The app can also create different workflow approvals for different sourcing events. Automated approvals lead to greater efficiency, less manual follow-up, and fewer missed opportunities because of approval-related delays.
- The ICM Sourcing App’s integrated supplier portal makes it easier to collaborate with suppliers worldwide. From within the portal, suppliers can review sourcing events and respond to bids/proposals in real-time.
To learn more about how the ICM Sourcing App can improve collaboration and streamline the sourcing process for your organization, download our datasheet.
