What Can You Really Automate in Your Source to Pay Process

One of the questions we get asked a lot is what processes can you really automate within your Source to Pay process? It’s a fair question, there are far too many stories of software companies promising all the automation in the world and then not actually delivering on the promise. To help businesses we got our team of Source to Pay automation experts to look across the major processes in a typical source to pay process to see what the automation potential was. Here’s what our team found:

High Automation Potential – The majority of activities can be completely or mostly automated

Medium Automation Potential – Some of activities can be completely or mostly automated

Low Automation Potential – Few of activities can be completely or mostly automated

source to pay automation heat-map

How can businesses start to automate their Source to Pay processes?

With a range of different technology solutions out there from Basware to Coupa to SAP it can be hard for businesses to know which Source to Pay solution is going to be right for a business. At Valtatech, we want to use our expertise in over 70 source to pay automation and transformation projects to help businesses to drive measurable value from their finance and procurement operations. In our work we not only implement Source to Pay automation platforms but also work with businesses to help them understand their existing processes, their future-state processes and which technology would help them to achieve their future state.

To be able to reap the benefits of source to pay process automation there is some ground work that needs to be done first.

Understand your current processes

First things first, you need to understand how your current processes are working and what requirements your stakeholders have. Conduct an in-depth analysis of current business requirements through key stakeholder interviews and current process reviews. This delivers valuable insights and resources such as:

• Key insights into current procure to pay processes
• Identification of key pain points
• Identification of key levers to drive user adoption
• Identification of key areas and drivers for financial return on investment
• Identification of quick wins and longer-term development areas
• Current state technology landscape map across Source to Pay processes

Map out your future processes

Utilising the insights and resources from the current process review, you can then start pulling together a clear and articulated vision of what the future processes will look like to inform resource and business planning processes. Additionally, from this process you should be able to produce clear and articulate technology requirements.