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Five Procure-to-Pay Project Success Tips
Any attempt at process overhaul is full with potential issues and trying to encompass a huge scope of financial functions in a streamlined software platform can be downright overwhelming. It’s well worth the undertaking, as it helps stave off process deviation across the board with one implementation, and yet many companies find themselves in need of better guidance to complete the project successfully. Here are 5 ways to make your P2P implementation a success.
1. Choose Stakeholders Wisely
You want to capture the scope of your project as much as possible in the early phases. It’s tempting to try and restrict planning in order to achieve the high-level corporate goals. However, this approach often leads to more significant problems during development and implementation. When the people who handle these daily processes are completely left out of the discussion, important functions aren’t covered in any implementation.
Different locations and departments will have their own input. While the big decisions need to be left to the key stakeholders, including feedback from relevant employees across the organization will contribute to the success of your new software platform and increase buy-in throughout the company.
2. Keep It Simple
Managing everything from procurement to payment is a dynamic task. Vendors have different requirements. Service providers have significant variation in how they invoice compared to how you might order. It’s all too easy to drift into complex processes that start to defeat the purpose of streamlining. Take a seriously critical eye towards the requirements and see where things can be condensed or combined. An experienced software provider will also have some valuable input as to how processes can be simplified. It’s important to consider them as business consultants as much as vendors providing a service. Their experience can be invaluable in making processes more efficient.
Take a seriously critical eye towards the requirements and see where things can be condensed or combined. An experienced software provider will also have some valuable input as to how processes can be simplified. It’s important to consider them as business consultants as much as vendors providing a service. Their experience can be invaluable in making processes more efficient.
3. Be Flexible
Learning how to understand which requirements are critical and which are just beneficial will save you thousands of hours in discussion and consideration. Although every department’s needs are important, there are often more creative possible solutions than some would suggest. For example, your department managers may be using a series of processes to track their budget against the general ledger. They may want to keep doing it a similar way but your software likely has the capacity to create one simple report that provides all of this information. Keep people’s suggestions in mind but be sure to think critically about any possible solutions.
For example, your department managers may be using a series of processes to track their budget against the general ledger. They may want to keep doing it a similar way but your software likely has the capacity to create one simple report that provides all of this information. Keep people’s suggestions in mind but be sure to think critically about any possible solutions.
Keep people’s suggestions in mind but be sure to think critically about any possible solutions.
4. Find a Cutoff
Although getting buy-in throughout the organization is critical to the success of any project, when you’re working on something this dynamic it’s important to set a firm cutoff for requirements.
Letting discussions on these items continue will lead to the dreaded “scope creep”—a project ballooning beyond what was initially expected at a very late phase. Deciding when to stop making additions and changes will save your team a lot of headaches.
5. Testing, Testing, Testing
The importance of quality assurance (QA) can’t be overstated. It’s absolutely critical that several people develop scenarios to test any software or process you’re planning on implementing. Start planning out your testing very early in the implementation. Sometimes developing testing scenarios will actually make you find holes in your requirements or places where your needs aren’t totally specified. Trying to go above and beyond in your testing will make the ensuing rollout much easier.
Sometimes developing testing scenarios will actually make you find holes in your requirements or places where your needs aren’t totally specified. Trying to go above and beyond in your testing will make the ensuing rollout much easier.
Tackling a project like a complete P2P overhaul is a worthwhile endeavor for companies who are really ready to make a major change. Conducting thorough research, learning how to separate requirements, and testing vigorously are all huge factors in success and yet having a business partner that can really provide you with the support and insight you need is invaluable to making your project a successful one.
Contact NextProcess today to get the best support for your changing business needs.
