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How EqualLevel GO “Levels the Playing Field” for Small & Disadvantaged Businesses

When making purchases, procurement professionals expect the same functionality they experience as consumers shopping online at home. They want a seamless experience between their purchasing or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and their approved vendors’ most up-to-date product and pricing information. In order to do this, businesses need to have a PunchOut store or the capability to PunchOut. Because this can be technologically complex, public sector organizations often inadvertently favor larger, more sophisticated vendors with this capability, and small businesses can get left in the dust. 

“Every year since we have had our PunchOut store, sales have increased.”

Robin Peterson
Midwest Technology Products

How can small/disadvantaged vendors compete against the big guys, especially if don’t have an online presence already?

EqualLevel GO gives small OEMs or distributors, who may have limited IT capabilities, the opportunity to establish a PunchOut catalog store, or PunchOut store, that integrates with ERPs. This allows small companies to appear alongside their larger competitors.

A PunchOut store is a web-based, supplier-managed catalog storefront. The PunchOut store can be custom built on top of an existing eCommerce site or, more commonly, managed for the supplier by a third-party solution provider. Buying organization employees can access the supplier’s PunchOut store directly from their eProcurement marketplace, also known as “punching out” to the supplier’s site, or “PunchOut.” PunchOut allows the organization to maintain full control over order approval and payment.

How PunchOut works

The customer connects, or “punches out,” from their company’s system to a supplier’s eCommerce site. The PunchOut site identifies the buying organization and displays the appropriate products and prices. The shopper searches and selects goods they wish to purchase and adds them to their cart on the PunchOut site. At the end of the shopping session, the shopper checks out, which sends descriptions and prices of the goods placed in their cart to their ERP system.

Benefits of EqualLevel GO

EqualLevel GO’s PunchOut commerce site is scalable, easy-to-use and administer, and is provided at no charge to sellers when combined with EqualLevel’s buy-side eProcurement Marketplace solution. 

EqualLevel GO customers experience tangible benefits, such as:

Increased Average Order Value

PunchOut catalog store, combined with up-selling and cross-selling, is a powerful combination that increases total and average order value. Suppliers can show related and complementary products in their PunchOut store shopping cart and can anticipate and make adjustments that will increase the average sale.

Greater Ability to Attract Big Customers

When it comes to gaining large customers, a PunchOut catalog store is a win-win. Big enterprises are often on the lookout for suppliers who can allow them to order directly through their ERP procurement system. For many large organizations, PunchOut is a ”must-have” for engagement.

Improved Sales Productivity

A PunchOut catalog store streamlines the sales process because it produces more accurate orders. This means less time is spent correcting orders, which improves response times and overall productivity.

Improved Customer Relationships

By simplifying the purchasing process, suppliers strengthen customer relationships by receiving and responding to orders more quickly.

Click here to learn more about EqualLevel GO.

Further Reading

Small/disadvantaged customers like Midwest Technology Products, GBEX, and El Paso Office Products have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, EqualLevel GO to ensure their products are showing up in the search results of big buyers. Below are their stories:

Supplier Spotlight: Midwest Technology Products

Supplier Spotlight: El Paso Office Products

Supplier Spotlight: GBEX

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McKinsey Recommends SLED Digitize Procurement, Payables to Optimize Public Sector Savings

Every year the state, local and education (SLED) procurement market spends a staggering $1.5 trillion dollars annually on goods and services. In 2018, after analyzing more than 700 procurement efforts, management consulting firm McKinsey & Company concluded that at 28 percent, the public sector has the potential for more savings than that of any other sector. In round dollars, this amounts to $400 billion in public sector savings by optimizing procurement. 

Online Tools Reduce Administrative Burdens

The public sector has long been plagued by the inefficiencies and costs associated with manual requisitioning, ordering, invoice reconciliation, and payment processing. According to McKinsey, online tools can reduce these administrative burdens. Procure-to-pay automation improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement and payables processes by digitizing manual tasks and leveraging transparency to improve decision-making. 

Innovating with a best-of-breed eProcurement and eInvoicing platform optimizes execution across all processes associated with the rec-order-pay transaction. A well-designed solution helps procurement and finance to streamline operations. 

The benefits of eProcurement and eInvoicing are numerous:

Efficiency: Automating leads to faster cycle times and improved productivity. The elimination of paper and manual steps frees up time for employees to focus on more critical initiatives.

Cost Savings: With all approved vendors housed in one centralized location, best value products can be easily identified.

Compliance: By automating the three-bid process and showing only contracted vendors, an eProcurement marketplace helps organizations comply with state and federal regulations.

Transparency: Robust reporting capabilities help ensure purchases conform to established policies. Real-time visibility into purchasing activities discourages maverick spending and provides leadership with valuable insights.

There is no doubt “the use of modern technology can take a big chunk off of public-sector bills” and the time to automate procure-to-pay is now. By improving efficiencies, the SLED market has the opportunity to generate savings that can help to offset the budget pressures they are facing. 

By Orville Bailey, CEO, EqualLevel.

Click here to learn more about EqualLevel’s eProcurement solution.

Click here to learn more about EqualLevel’s payables solution.

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How Cooperative Marketplaces Optimize Savings for Agencies

Recently, leading cooperatives have recognized the need to create one-stop-shop transactional marketplaces for their members. Cooperative purchasing organizations like Sourcewell, E&I, MHEC, AEPA, and TIPS have announced or implemented cooperative marketplaces to help their members reduce price discovery, order processing and invoicing times. 

Benefits

When you reduce costs within a government organization or institution, funds are freed up for other mission-specific uses allowing constituents to win, too. Cooperatives also realize benefits, with access to online spend reporting and tighter integrations with members topping the list.

About Cooperative Agreements

How are cooperative agreements established? The cooperative or lead agency runs a formal competitive process, following procurement codes, state and local statutes to determine which vendors qualify to sell specific goods and services under the agreement. A trusted cooperative contract eliminates the time and cost associated with your agency gathering requirements, creating the RFP, reviewing multiple bidders, and making an award. With cooperative purchasing, both the buyer and seller benefit from a dramatically shortened and less costly sales cycle.

The pandemic emphasized a vital lesson; all public sector organizations must digitize. This is especially true for cooperatives. The ones that fail to embrace a “digital-first” approach to improving their value proposition are at risk of being left behind and losing competitiveness. Digitalization is raising the stakes, so cooperatives have a growing incentive to find new ways to enhance member experience.

Click here to learn about more EqualLevel’s work with cooperative purchasing organizations.

Further Reading

GPO Utilizes eProcurement Marketplace to Bring Vendor Catalogs Under One Umbrella

eProcurement Platform Automates Cooperative Purchasing

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eProcurement Solutions Provide Real-Time Information

The role of procurement in education is evolving, and the pandemic provided a glimpse into one of the key drivers of this evolution–the importance of a procurement solution that provides real-time information. For much-needed supplies, such as personal protective equipment, procurement must have real-time information about supply, sources, and prices to accelerate decision-making and collaboration. Delays or inaccuracy in such information can lead to canceled orders, incomplete or delayed shipments, unwanted substitutions, and overpaying. The following are a few examples of how eProcurement solutions are advancing the use of real-time information in day-to-day procurement.

Real-time Comparison Shopping Across Approved Contracts

As consumers, we have always comparison shopped–haggling for the best price has been part of the earliest markets. With the emergence of the internet, comparison shopping can now be instantaneous. Consumers can find the same products from different suppliers with just a few clicks and then choose the best price. Unfortunately, requisitioners at work do not behave like consumers, and they tend to make the most convenient purchase. This convenience costs districts a significant amount each year. Artificial Intelligence technology now makes it possible to identify, in real-time, lower prices and substitutes for items prior to checkout.

Real-time Price Check

Real-time online price checks can proactively analyze thousands of contract price data points each day and identify discrepancies, enabling procurement to remedy pricing issues prior to purchase.

Real-time Evaluation of Invoices versus POs

Automating the matching process eliminates manual steps and instantly feeds the invoice into the financial system. When issues during matching are uncovered, the invoice is sent electronically back to the supplier to correct and resubmit.

60- to 90-day Implementation

Real-time procurement is a must for districts that want to streamline their procure-to-pay process and improve compliance and savings. School districts can see benefits quickly with applications that complement existing financial systems and can be implemented in 60 to 90 days. Often a return on investment can be achieved within a single fiscal year. By making informed decisions based on real-time data, school districts can quickly revert meaningful dollars directly back to the classroom.

This article was first published on the Florida Association of School Business Officials (FASBO) Bulletin Board.

Click here for more information about how EqualLevel’s eProcurement solution uses AI to provide procurement departments with the real-time information they need.

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Agencies Move Away from Full Suites in Favor of Best-of-breed Solutions

In the past, public sector organizations utilized a single unified software solution, also known as a full suite solutions, for their operations data. Despite the efficiency and uniformity of these systems, full-suite solutions have shortcomings. Today, organizations are moving away from full-suite solutions to create specialized patchwork platforms made up of best-of-breed solutions.

The Shortcomings of Full Suite Solutions

In general, updates for full-suite solutions can be infrequent and lengthy to install due to their size and coverage. This renders the functionality of the suite incomplete and workarounds to support the ever-advancing needs of department users becomes commonplace. In addition, the lack of focus equates to departments utilizing solutions that are not built for their specific functional needs.

What is a best-of-breed solution?

With cXML integration standards and the accessibility of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), agencies are now able to create a custom platforms that utilize best-of-breed solutions for each individual department function. With best-of-breed implementation, organizations ensure that their full-suite systems are open, their standards are based with APIs, and they have well-detailed documentation to optimize the approach.

The Benefits of Best-of-Breed Solutions

Best-of-breed solutions are designed to adapt and offer focused performance and specialization. They are smaller than full suites and run independently, updating smoothly and seamlessly without affecting other systems, accelerating beneficial returns, and reducing project risks.

The specialized nature of best-of-breed solutions allows manufacturers to quickly accommodate market changes and align solutions more closely with strategic business goals. Thus, agencies using best-of-breed solutions are more likely to create nuanced approaches to problems, quickly respond to market fluctuations and meet personalized requirements.

Because these systems are optimized for each niche, implementation and training (if necessary) are lighter, while user experience is generally straightforward and involves fewer stakeholders. Organizations then have access to in-depth documentation that outlines functionality for each solution and its respective performance report which can be used to promote efficiency.

The Best Solution for Your Organization

Businesses are presented with a multitude of solutions. To find the one best suited for your organization, select a solution that:

  • meets your specific functional needs without compromises
  • is built on a modern SAAS technology stack
  • helps maximize your ability to leverage the current enterprise system, and
  • has a strong product roadmap of future innovations.

Organizations and teams should consider best-of-breed solutions rather than bearing the costs and disruptions that come with outdated monolithic systems.

Click here for more information on EqualLevel’s best-of-breed eProcurement solution.

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The Benefits of Invoice Automation

Many public sector Accounts Payable departments grapple with the invoice reconciliation and approval process. It can be considered the most laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone part of the procurement cycle, especially for those organizations still relying heavily on paper and manual processes. Fortunately, advancements in technology, namely the widespread use of cloud computing and increased accessibility to eProcurement solutions, have given rise to invoice automation.

Managing invoices that are received via email, postal mail, or fax can be tedious and cumbersome. Data must be manually entered into the organization’s financial system, and the documents scanned and uploaded. One or more full-time dedicated employees are often required to enter and reconcile hundreds or thousands of invoices on a weekly basis.

EqualLevel’s eInvoicing Solution

EqualLevel’s eInvoicing solution provides a means to seamlessly and electronically exchange invoices between software systems and automate key portions of the invoice reconciliation process. With invoice automation, suppliers may generate an electronic invoice from their own system, or from a system made available by the eProcurement provider who services the buying organization. All invoices can then be sent electronically, directly to the buying organization’s eProcurement application, regardless of the supplier’s technical sophistication, greatly simplifying the process.

ERP Integration

EqualLevel’s eInvoicing solution may be integrated with an organization’s existing accounting or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to replace an inefficient, paper-based invoice approval process with a convenient online system. The invoice reconciliation and approval process may take place within the eProcurement system, the organization’s ERP system, or in both through a two-step hybrid approach. In the hybrid approach, the eProcurement system will match the invoices and automatically reject those that violate predetermined exception rules, including but not limited to invalid invoice items, incorrect tax or shipping additions, and substantial price increases. Invoices that pass these initial rules are then transmitted to the ERP system for final reconciliation, where less critical exceptions can be routed for manual review before payment approval. Options for transmitting invoices to the ERP system will depend on the flexibility and robustness of the solution from the eProcurement provider, but some possible options include sending the invoices via cXML, pulling the invoice data via an API integration, or an automated export/import of an invoice data file.

Benefits of Invoice Automation

Automating the invoice to payment process helps organizations more easily manage the entire invoicing lifecycle. Some of the key benefits of eInvoicing include:

  • Automating invoice entry and reconciliation.
  • Receiving structured and uniform invoices.
  • Reducing data entry and document handling costs.
  • Reducing errors caused by manual data entry.
  • Monitoring transactions in real-time.
  • Slashing invoice processing times.
  • Eliminating late payment charges.
  • Taking advantage of early payment discounts.

Digitizing the invoicing process streamlines the entire workflow and frees up valuable time for financial professionals to spend on more strategic tasks.

Click here for more information regarding EqualLevel’s eInvoicing solution.

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Time is Money: Learn How to Save Both with an Online Procurement Platform

Manual and paper-based procurement processes have been plagued with inefficiencies. Whether it be requisitioning, ordering, invoice reconciliation, or payment processing, the outdated, inflexible, and costly purchasing systems in use restrict the ability to conduct broad-based procurement with the supply community. But what if there was an “easy” button for the procurement process? EqualLevel’s online procurement platform allows organizations to quickly implement a cloud-based, multi-vendor, procure-to-pay marketplace that ensures compliance and can be accessed anywhere, at any time. With increased transparency, efficiency, and compliance, the marketplace enables organizations to conduct business in the office or remotely, and it provides greater access into an approved, fully digital supply network.

Over the last two decades, eCommerce has exploded in the consumer world with companies like Amazon making buying almost anything as easy as 1-2-3. By digitizing the procurement process, the shopping experience for businesses can be just as simple and can lead to increased savings and operational efficiency.

The marketplace seamlessly integrates with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems so that all approved suppliers/vendors and all goods and services managed by procurement are located in one easy-to-use, easy-to-administer system. It spans the entire procurement lifecycle, from punch-out commerce solutions to shopping for goods or services, approval workflow, catalog and contract pricing, purchase order automation,and receipt-invoice matching.

The Benefits of An Online Procurement Platform

Organizations that have implemented an eProcurement marketplace have quickly recognized the many benefits of digitizing the procurement process. To list a few:

Efficiency: By automating a significant portion of the procurement process, an eProcurement marketplace leads to faster cycle times and improved productivity. The elimination of paper and manual steps also frees up time for employees to focus on more value-added activities.

Cost Saving: Cost-saving with an eProcurement system comes not only from ordering through preferred vendors but also from increased spend visibility. The EqualLevel Savings Advisor (ELSA) analyzes quotes to ensure the best value and uses machine learning to become smarter with every purchase. Utilizing a real-time, federated search across punchout sites, similar to Travelocity or Orbitz, data is collected from distributed sources and artificial intelligence (AI) technology uses this data to identify savings opportunities.

Compliance: Implementing a one-stop, multi-vendor punchout marketplace of all approved suppliers and contracts ensures compliance with state and federal regulations. The system automatically creates a three-bid process to determine product price, select the supplier (among approved vendors), and create the requisition or shopping cart for approval.

Transparency: eProcurement also makes it easier to conduct and analyze reports on procurement systems in order to ensure that the procedures conform to established policies. Real-time visibility into what supplies employees are purchasing and from which vendors provides valuable business insight and eliminates maverick spending.

Innovating an outdated procurement process with an online eProcurement marketplace provides a single, seamless platform to facilitate the shop-order-pay transaction. It provides employees with a more streamlined and efficient experience so they can optimize every dollar spent and every moment doing so.

When it comes to procurement, time is money. Neither time nor money should be wasted. Isn’t it time for your organization to hit the easy button and jump in?

Learn more about the EqualLevel eProcurement marketplace here.

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Why School Districts Need a Procure-to-Pay Marketplace

Many schools continue to struggle with and adapt to the education budget crisis created by the pandemic. Districts can no longer afford the inefficient costs of manual, paper-based requisitioning, ordering, invoice reconciliation, and payment processes. Digitizing the procure-to-pay process is now a necessity if school districts are to pursue every opportunity for savings and efficiency.

What is a Procure-to-Pay Marketplace?

Procure-to-Pay refers to an organization’s operational procurement process, from requisition all the way through to payment. A procure-to-pay marketplace offers a single, seamless platform that facilitates all of the processes associated with the shop-order-pay transaction.

Organizations that have implemented an end-to-end procure-to-pay marketplace derive many benefits from their systems. To highlight just a few:

One-stop-shop. A single site that teachers and staff can access to easily requisition all the goods and services they require from approved supplier contracts

Optimize savings. Ability to identify savings opportunities in real-time to eliminate over-spending

On-contract, compliant spending. Automated tracking of expenditures per contract to ensure budget, contract, and policy compliance

Reduced overhead. Lower transaction costs by eliminating manual, paper-based procurement and payables processing

Business insight. Increased visibility and control across the entire procure-to-pay process informs and elevates management decisions

Further, a procure-to-pay marketplace eliminates the wall between procurement and accounts payable by automating the reconciliation of invoices and creating easy access to historical records that support audit requirements.

Understanding the Procure-to-Pay S-O-P

SHOP.  Shopping/requisitioning is the first step in the procure-to-pay process. In this stage, buyers find the right product or utilize a three-bid process to determine product price, select the supplier, and create a requisition or shopping cart for approval.

The most efficient way to shop and create a purchase requisition is to implement a one-stop multi-vendor punchout marketplace of all district-approved suppliers and contracts.  Teachers and staff can then shop across these suppliers’ catalogs to access real-time product information, and to conduct side-by-side comparisons.  EqualLevel’s marketplace includes real-time search across punchout sites and an AI-powered savings advisor that checks items in the cart to suggest lower-cost identical or substitute goods.

Once a cart/purchase requisition is created, a requisition workflow is initiated. These workflows are automated and flexible, allowing them to vary between schools, departments, and in monetary value. Approvers can either accept or reject a purchase requisition after evaluating the need, verifying the available budget, and validating the purchase requisition form. Incomplete purchase requisitions are rejected back to the initiator for correction and resubmission.  Approved purchase requisitions are converted into a purchase order and transmitted to the supplier.

ORDER. The next step in the procurement cycle, Order, involves processing, receiving, and distributing the product.

While leveraging a supplier punchout catalog creates efficiencies, these productivity gains can increase exponentially with the integration of purchase orders. With integrated purchase orders, districts can eliminate employees’ time spent placing orders over the phone or sending a pdf via email or fax. Also eliminated is the possibility of data entry and re-keying errors by the supplier. Data is seamlessly transferred and required fields are automatically populated during PO creation.

One of the biggest benefits of integrated POs is the reduction in order processing time. The POs are submitted directly to the supplier’s fulfillment system via XML (Extensible Markup Language) or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) where orders are then picked, packed, and shipped.

PAY.  This last phase of the procurement process, Pay, lets organizations maximize the benefits of procure-to-pay automation. Suppliers are able to submit invoices electronically, which boosts financial accuracy and processing efficiencies.

Once a goods receipt is approved, a three-way match between the purchase order, the vendor invoice, and the receipt of the good is performed. If no discrepancies exist, the invoice is automatically approved and an okay-to-pay notification is sent to the finance team for payment disbursement. A common frustration for districts processing invoices is missing or incorrect information that often requires valuable time spent hunting down the correct data. If inaccuracies are present, the invoice can be automatically rejected back to the supplier along with the reason for rejection.

Finance and Accounts Payable Departments want to ensure vendors are billing properly and every order contains the necessary data to reconcile. Integrated invoicing via XML facilitates information accuracy, consistency, and completion. As a result, payments go out the door more quickly.

More dollars for instruction.

School administrators need all the resources available to ensure their students are successful. Spending more than necessary on transactions or inefficient systems eats away hard dollars that could have been focused on expanding mission-centric educational programs.

With a proven ROI for school districts ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 students, the EqualLevel Marketplace will help your schools extend their budgets and make the most of every instructional dollar.

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How to Reduce Cost Per Invoice by 200 Percent

During an organization’s ordering process, there are typically a plethora of intricate steps and factors to consider before an actual order can be placed. Purchase orders (POs) often involve complex approval workflows, multiple budgets, hundreds if not thousands of suppliers and contracts, endless data, and millions of dollars. Organizations often struggle with how to manage this process without losing both visibility and control. Adding in procurement’s  interdependence with other departments makes it even more challenging to determine where improvements, such as reducing cost per invoice, can be made.

In a 2018 study conducted by Levvel Research, over 400 organizations were surveyed to determine the latest trends surrounding procurement management. The following main points were uncovered:

  • Inadequate technology
  • Procedural differences across departments and/or locations
  • Frequent off-contract or off-budget spending
  • Too much paperwork
  • Disjointed systems
  • A lack of visibility and/or control over spending

Firms Benefit from Utilizing Email to Send POs

An organization’s control over spending is significantly impacted by PO format and how it is submitted to suppliers. Fortunately, most organizations surveyed are either using eProcurement software or email to send POs. These methods provide more visibility and greater control compared with those organizations using manual or uncontrolled methods, such as over the phone or ad-hoc online ordering.

Reduced Cycle Time: Greatest Benefit to Procurement Automation 

Most mainstream organizations have some kind of automation in place, whether it be a homegrown procurement tool or a built-in tool that is embedded within their ERP system. While these companies have a more efficient way of processing their POs than novice companies, their cost per PO still remains high.

Organizations utilizing cloud-based eProcurement tools on the other hand, have very little manual involvement in their procurement process and can therefore process POs at a much lower cost. In fact, their cost per invoice is almost 200 percent less when compared to that of novice and mainstream companies.

Aside from lowering processing costs, other major improvements and benefits to procurement automation include reduced cycle times, improved visibility and transparency, and enhanced control and security.

Is your firm looking to reduce cost per invoice? Click here to learn more about EqualLevel’s AP automation and eInvoicing services.

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