Procurement is a vital business function for most organizations, involving interactions with external entities for sourcing, purchasing, and managing contracts for goods and services.
According to EY, automation should be in the top 5 priorities of Chief Procurement Officers in 2024 and there are compelling reasons.
Procurement automation software is designed to drive efficiency and time savings and reduce critical procurement process errors. Managing external goods and services is a business-critical activity and having the right software in place will support the success of key projects.
In this blog, I'll showcase the top six procurement automation software solutions and provide real insights into the pros and cons of each solution to support your software decision-making process.
Let's get started.
Procurement automation software supports organizations to automate processes such as sourcing, invoicing, purchase orders, vendor management and contracts.
Manual methods of procurement data collection, communication and reporting such as spreadsheets, emails and paper are replaced with streamlined and automated workflows.
This leads to improved efficiency, better quality data and ultimately cost savings for the business with procurement productivity.
FlowForma Process Automation is an award-winning no code platform used by mid-size and enterprise organizations to digitalize procurement processes at speed. The platform is used by both procurement teams and IT teams to automate procurement processes in-house, no matter how complex.
Common use cases:
Creating Purchase Requisitions
Creating Purchase Orders
Supplier Relationship Management
Receipt of Goods and Services
Matching Requests to Orders to Receipts
Vendor Management
Supplier Management
Automatic Documentation of Procurement Activities
FlowForma Process Automation consolidates forms, workflow, analytics, document generation and much more into one powerful platform.
A key feature of FlowForma is its form automation component. Forms support users to create digital firms that ensure data is accessible and completed correctly and accurately. A key procurement use case is automating purchase requisition requests with FlowForma's digital forms.
FlowForma's workflow automation component empowers users to create digital business processes that replace manual tasks.
Procurement automation use cases include:
FlowForma Document Generation can automate the dispatch of key procurement processes such as purchase orders. Automated document generation will reduce data error, speed up processes and ensure a streamlined procurement process.
FlowForma's pricing starts at $9 per user.
Features: One customer has noted that the platform could be improved by introducing new features and functionality.
Kissflow is a low code application development platform. Kissflow Procurement Cloud is designed to automate procurement processes from source to pay.
Common procurement automation use cases include:
Strategic Sourcing
Procure-to-Pay
Supplier Management
Contract Management
Inventory Management
Invoice Automation
Spend Analytics
Integration
Pricing starts at $1,500/month.
Its procurement automation features are designed for the entire procurement lifecycle.
Key procurement automation use cases include:
Vendor management and supplier management
Purchase orders
Approval processes
Operating procedures
Pricing starts at $25,000 per year.
Cost: Multiple customer reviews have highlighted the cost may be a challenge for some organizations.
Tech Support: Customers have highlighted that technical support may be lacking.
Forms: One customer has noted that Nintex Forms are not as powerful as Power Apps.
Documentation: Some customers have highlighted that there is a lack of documentation to support the usage of the platform.
Keelvar is an all-in-one sourcing platform focused on logistics that provides users with a wide range of price and non-price information from suppliers and automates sourcing for simpler, lower-value spend.
Key use cases include:
Transportation and logistics
Packaging
MRO
Direct materials
Indirect materials
Services
Automation for spot buys
Enable end users to source directly from suppliers for spot buys.
Scalability
Easily manage events with 100s of line items, 10k+ suppliers and millions of bid data.
Efficiency and tracing
Boost agility by conducting a range of sourcing events quickly with intuitive reporting.
Decision quality
Reduce supply chain risk by analyzing detailed price and non-price bid inputs to make the best decision for your business.
The right solution
Get advanced, user-friendly and intelligent optimization and automation features not found in other generic e-sourcing tools.
Extensible
Easily integrate with other upstream and downstream systems via API.
Pricing starts at $25,000.00 per year.
Pipefy automates procurement workflows to boost efficiency and maximize cost savings.
Use cases include:
Purchase process and purchase requests
Accounts payable
Vendor management
Business contract management
Request management
Pricing starts at $26 per user, per month.
Slow: Customers have highlighted the slow server speed is causing performance issues with the platform.
Automation email: Customers have highlighted issues with the automation email and notifications from the platform.
Features: Some customers have noted that there is little information about new product development initiatives.
Scalability: Customers have highlighted that the platform does not scale with your increased requirements.
Procurify is a purchasing and AP automation platform with multiple features to reduce costs and optimize productivity.
Use cases include:
Spend management
Real-time reporting
Purchase requests
Purchase orders
Contract and vendor management
Starts at at $1,000 per month.
I hope so far you have got a good understanding of the different types of procurement t process automation software options in the market. But, what should you look for when selecting software for procurement process automation?
Let me break it down for you:
Automates repetitive tasks across the procurement team
Empower you to manage supplier relationships better
Solve approval bottlenecks
Provides real-time reporting for improved business operations
Provides seamless integration with third-party platforms
Has a proven track record of automating the entire procurement process
Offers a free trial to test automating procurement tasks
Can showcase the potential ROI from investing in the platform
Has a strong customer support reputation
Understand your procurement needs and have tangible process solutions to solve your challenges
Procurement automation software can support your organization to streamline procurement, improve supplier relationships, improve budget tracking and save time and money with improved productivity.
If you are interested in fostering stronger supplier relationships, and having your entire procurement process digitalized and ready to shortlist software vendors, join a live demo of FlowForma Process Automation for a window into the art of the possible.
Our team of process experts with showcase what you can achieve with your procure-to-pay process fully automated, streamlined and delivers the results you need to drive real transformation in procurement.