On 15th September 2022, a webinar titled “NewGen Applications for Procurement and Accounts Payable”, focused on the industry leaders of Southeast Asia, was conducted. I used this opportunity to address the attendees and speak about popular and futuristic tools in the area of Spend Management. The webinar was conducted with the intention of tangible and solid takeaways that can be implemented immediately.
Here is a quick summary of the same.
The Trend of Evolution of NewGen Composite Applications
About 3 decades back, large and complex legacy applications were initially made from scratch. Upkeep and maintenance of such applications were costly and needed a large, dedicated team. ERPs brought in the concept of the ready-made, ‘do-it-all’ products as a welcome change.
As the requirements became more complex and demanding, it made sense to have dedicated products catering to those specific requirements that ERPs were falling short of meeting.
This gave rise to NewGen Composite applications like CRM, HRMS, Employee Travel and Expense, Source to Pay and more. Such applications are each designed to be experts in solving one specific area of a business problem. All applications have their growth journeys and can connect across organisations, creating a seamless application structure.
New and powerful applications upgrades make the system more in tune with time and technology and free up business resources to focus on core functions and growth. Implementing process automation improvements in wake of an existing system. As an ERP user, there are two main approaches you can take to move to composite applications.
Approach 01
Identify areas of improvement and automation that are not covered by your ERP. You can use NewGen Composite applications to then fill those gaps to achieve results. Examples of functions that are not usually offered by ERPs are request for quotation/proposal systems, vendor portals, employee expense management, AP automation, and more. This is a ‘no-brainer’ approach.
Approach 02
A more sophisticated approach would involve overhauling the processes where ERP may already be providing a solution for the specific business function. However, today’s dynamic circumstances and your drive to make systems better would seek out an enhanced and modern solution in a phased manner. Examples of such processes are purchase requisitions and approvals, budget controls, catalogue management etc.
Help Question the Status Quo
The best tools and processes of today will not stand the test of time if not improved upon. However, the status quo is powerful, and one may face a degree of resistance in the face of any change. Here are some helpful tips to nudge your organisation in the right direction.
- Always look out for areas of improvement—highlight the benefits.
- Start with ‘easy wins’ like applications mentioned in Approach 01 and establish credibility with excellent ROI.
- Parallelly start exploring applications in Approach 02, as that’s where the big improvements and more tangible results lie.
- Don’t stop there. Now that the results of improvements are known, all seek more process improvements, irrespective of the type of approach.
- Seek the help of an expert at different stages in this journey for faster results.
Finally
If you want to add meaningful value to your organisation, we are here to help you! We can showcase what these NewAge applications can achieve, whether it is in financial control, good governance, ease of use, mobility, and more. Reach out to us for more details.
