{"id":4602,"date":"2021-12-09T18:23:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T18:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=4602"},"modified":"2022-08-23T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T15:50:13","slug":"achieving-the-business-case-for-using-coupa-for-accounts-payable-p2p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2021\/12\/achieving-the-business-case-for-using-coupa-for-accounts-payable-p2p\/","title":{"rendered":"Achieving the Business Case for Using Coupa for Accounts Payable (P2P)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

With companies increasingly moving to Shared Services or Global Business Services to provide Accounts Payable services, and with Purchasing activities (both indirect and direct) typically split between either centralized or decentralized organizations that are almost never part of Shared Services, coordinating an end-to-end design for Purchase-to-Pay<\/a> can be a significant challenge.\u00a0 Fortunately, software providers are becoming increasingly sophisticated about providing solutions that benefit more than a single functional area.<\/p>\n

One cloud-based software solution gaining a lot of attention from Peeriosity members is the use of Coupa to help them manage transactions across Procurement, Accounts Payable, and Supply Chain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Company Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Peercast discussion in our Accounts Payable (P2P) research area<\/a> featured a large company with 20,000 employees dispersed across more than 1,000 locations, processing over 1.2 million payments with 75% processed using paper invoices, with roughly a 50\/50 split between PO and non-PO invoices.<\/p>\n

Their vision was to upgrade, streamline, optimize, and simplify the P2P process by leveraging advanced technologies.\u00a0 The primary call to action was because their current P2P platform subscription was expiring and the price was expected to increase for a technology that wasn\u2019t changing fast enough, was not intuitive, and was difficult to use for end users and the back office<\/a>.\u00a0 The initiative was also part of a strategic direction alignment that included transforming work processes, reducing risk by promoting compliance to contracts and process discipline of Good Manufacturing Practice, and for ISO9000 compliance.<\/p>\n

The transformation was significant, impacting how field operations requisitions supplies and services, how Procurement buys supplies and services, and how Accounts Payable pays for supplies and services.<\/p>\n

The benefits were also significant, reducing processing costs in Accounts Payable, but more significantly reducing overall spending by increasing contract compliance, allowing for supplier base consolidation, and the writing of more favorable contract terms.\u00a0 These benefits were all directly tied to the Coupa implementation.<\/p>\n

iPolling Results Review<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peeriosity\u2019s iPolling was used to provide insight into the status of Peeriosity member companies with respect to implementing an end-to-end process transformation for Purchase-to-Pay, with additional insight into the biggest inhibitors to the transformation of the Purchase-to-Pay process.<\/p>\n

The polling results indicate that 44% of Peeriosity member companies have status with respect to implementing an end-to-end process transformation that is strong, with many of the pieces in place and with specific plans to continue in the process, and an additional 31% report they are in process, where they are making progress and working on a long-range plan to transform P2P.\u00a0 The remaining 25% of Peeriosity member companies are either starting to work on plans for an end-to-end design or moving in this direction isn\u2019t something in their current plans.<\/p>\n

\"company<\/p>\n

With regards to the biggest inhibitors, technology issues were cited by 52% of responding companies, with 32% having difficulty finding the right solutions, 13% being resource-constrained to implement the solutions, and 7% having difficulty related to multiple ERP platforms.\u00a0 Other inhibitors cited were organization issues, and specifically difficulty in bringing different functional areas together to improve the end-to-end design (27%), the lack of clear leadership making end-to-end a priority (14%), and finally the lack of a compelling business case to secure funding (7%).<\/p>\n

\"biggest<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are some of the comments from Peeriosity members:<\/p>\n