I really enjoyed the National iPOS User Day last year. It was great to meet so many of our Australian iPOS for SunSystems clients and to be part of such a vibrant and engaged group. During the day we were honoured to have a couple of stand-up customer stories.
I’m in print. At last, it is finished. In July and August 2013 I interviewed a wide range of finance executives to research why they had implemented iPOS for SunSystems and what had motivated their spend control projects. My report is complete and I am in print!
Sometimes we have procurement projects where the project goals are undermined by Dickensian thinking. David Parmenter in his book Winning CFOs writes that the paper-based processes deployed in the accounts payable function are akin to operating in Charles Dickens’ era.
I think everyone has seen and read the story about using drones to deliver your shopping. And it is not an April fool’s day prank. It looks real enough. The Jetsons have arrived.
A key element of ‘fast close’ is an effective accounts payable function. And if fast close is not one of your goals it is worthwhile re-considering given the benefits arising from an effective accounts payable function.
I have had the pleasure of being involved in the evolution of the new Excel add-on for IPOS electronic procurement for SunSystems, iPOS XL. It will be released as two components, the first release supports requisition creation and the subsequent release will support invoice creation.
Typically, when an organisation overhauls their existing procurement practices they look at all the internal change management issues and often neglect engaging with their suppliers and getting them on board.
I’m always delighted when a company says “send me the invoice”. It’s a good measure of success for both parties. But my delight turned to horror recently when I was told “Oh yes, you can email the invoice if you want, but you must also post one to the finance address.
Punch out is the ability for a buyer to select and order goods from a supplier’s online catalogue from within the iPOS purchasing system.
I have been involved in many procurement projects and heard many different methods of mastering spend control. The best advice I have always remembered and still find relevant is to consider the procurement puzzle as having six pieces.