IBM Consulting

IBM Procurement BPO: An agile

and insights-driven approach
to enterprise procurement and
accounts payable
Work smarter with intelligent workflows
for supplier and spend management
Procurement headaches will continue if Preparation for AI-led transformation includes:
– Curating proprietary data for bias-free insights to increase
outdated processes aren’t modernized supply chain flexibility and resilience
– Defining a core platform focus to create seamless, low-touch
Manual, time-consuming processes are a blocker to competitive procurement and payment experiences
advantage but even more importantly to the accuracy, productivity – Infusing agility across procurement to enhance performance
and efficiency gains finance and procurement organizations by redesigning the function
require for timely, successful outcomes. What’s more, market – Re-engineering workflows by using exponential technologies
disruptions are necessitating accelerated change to meet to drive operational efficiencies
evolving and increasingly demanding supply chain and
stakeholder needs— such as increased digitalization, reduced Our approach is a synergy of process-led services enabled by
risk and ease-of-use. optimized platforms and smarter operations
Implementing an IBM® Procurement BPO cognitive
solution helps enterprises transform their procurement and
financial processes with the necessary insights and sourcing
Procurement and accounts payable intelligence. Concurrently, the user experience is elevated.
Digitized processes yield improved productivity, faster results,
processes are at the heart of every standardization and a platform for optimizing savings and
growth—and keeping users happy.
business—a crucial starting point for
process transformation
Procurement and accounts payable departments have
traditionally been a hub of paperwork, manual processes,
siloed teams and often chaos. Infusing AI applications and
automation into their processes enables better decision-making
and provides leaders with a better understanding of spend,
contract management and strategic sourcing.

Chief procurement officers (CPOs) and chief financial officers

(CFOs) are leading their AI charges to increase profitability,
standardize processes, improve data quality and access, and
improve the stakeholder experience. Their successes depend
on preparing their organization, their processes and their data
for AI by taking the necessary steps to help ensure efficient and
effective Procurement BPO outcomes.

2 IBM Procurement BPO: An agile and insights-driven approach to enterprise procurement and accounts payable
IBM Procurement BPO Services deliver IBM Procurement BPO Services use an
intelligent workflows that are automated, integrated, end-to-end approach
agile and transparent: Implementing world-class automated procurement can
significantly reduce your manual efforts. You’ll also benefit
– B2B commerce is a seamless, low-touch procurement and from improved compliance and supplier utilization, as well as
payment experience that drives value from unmanaged spend. generate savings.
– Strategic payables optimizes payables with extended
payment terms of 120–365 days, financing and early payment
for suppliers as a managed service.
– Procurement service desk is a single point of entry for
intake and requests that provides seamless engagement for
procurement and its stakeholders. Source to contract is underpinned by analytics and powered by
– Procurement analytics combines stakeholder data with category expertise on a multicustomer platform for improved
IBM’s cognitive expertise in the form of compelling analytics decision-making.
and actionable insights for both direct and indirect spend.
Benefits:
– Unprecedented visibility
– Enhanced selection
– Optimized contracting
– Buying power

Purchase to receive automates routing of all spend and buying

channel interactions through a single user portal.

Benefits:
– Greater business impact
– Process efficiency
– Contract compliance through end-to-end compliance
and analytics
– Sourcing realization through catalogs and marketplaces
– Buying power

Invoice to pay reinvents the back office with transformed

and automated processes for enabling technology and
empowering talent.

Benefits:
– Lower OpEx
– Optimized working capital
– Prevention of spend leakage
– Improved vendor satisfaction
– Reduced effort for buyers in managing transactions
– End-to-end visibility

3 IBM Procurement BPO: An agile and insights-driven approach to enterprise procurement and accounts payable
IBM Procurement BPO differentiators: Envision, design, co-create and scale intelligent workflows
with IBM Garage methodology
Cognitive technology, category management expertise, We offer clients an approach to innovate at the speed of a
and multiclient agreements startup and the scale of an enterprise. The IBM Garage™
Our global reach equates to the breadth and scale of serving our methodology provides our clients a unique framework that
customers anywhere in the world. Procurement and accounts helps them put innovation at the heart of their enterprises,
payable practitioners are transforming—with the ability to: driving meaningful, measurable transformation—fast. It brings
together the right people, practices and technology into a single,
– Process and derive insights from downstream procure to user-centric, data-driven and outcomes-measured framework.
pay data to feed category managers the right information to We work closely with these companies to co-create—envision
negotiate better sourcing deals. the opportunity and co-execute—iterate to achieve product
– Simplify downstream management compliance with a and market fit and cooperate to transform their organizations
real-time measure under management to identify and and technologies.
manage leakage.
– Digitize the end-to-end lifecycle for speed with data-driven
processes for real-time, touchless transactions.

Intelligent workflows for procurement and accounts payable

Intelligent workflows are how work gets done. In the worlds of
finance and procurement, intelligent workflows are transforming
organizations to operate with cognitive results. We advise IBM Garage delivers real value:
and manage end-to-end financial processes and provide
IBM Procurement BPO services. With intelligent workflows, – 10X more innovation ideas generated
we can orchestrate exponential technologies like automation, – 67% faster speed to value
blockchain and AI in the back, middle and front office, and curate
data to reimagine procurement processes in your business. The
– 102% average return on investment1
IBM Enterprise Process Innovation Continuum (EPIC) framework
transforms enterprise procurement and back-office operations.

4 IBM Procurement BPO: An agile and insights-driven approach to enterprise procurement and accounts payable
Use cases

01 03
Streamline workload management Future-proof business
Problem: A large electronics distributor had multiple enterprise Problem: An industrial products company needed to realize
resource planning (ERP) software issues with manual and broken greater procurement value.
processes for non-electronic data interchange (EDI) suppliers:
missing invoices, delayed processing and more than a 4-day Solution: We implemented source to contract services to
turnaround time. take advantage of market intelligence and data insights to
guide effective negotiations for this company. Our use of
Solution: We implemented an intelligent workflows scalable an evolving sourcing process, including IBM marketplace
platform with invoice-to-pay services, delivering a scalable and benchmarks, coupled with the IBM Watson Analytics®
platform for efficiency and effectiveness to the ERP process. solution and hypercompetitive negotiations, drove significant
procurement value.
Business outcome: The company was able to automate receipt
of paper and email invoices with the intelligent extraction modules Business outcome: The company realized significant savings per
to pull invoice data. Now it experiences touchless transaction year over the last 8 years.
processing for business rules and matching services with an
interface to SAP for posting straight pass and exception invoices.

02
Supply chain innovators who apply exponential
Transform user experience technologies, such as process automation and
Problem: A global footwear and apparel retailer needed a solution
that would give them greater spend visibility with improved AI, report 34% more revenue growth and 326%
workflows and processes. The retailer experienced a low rate more profitability than their peers.2
of procurement adoption, with a user base frustrated due to
inconsistent and fragmented processes for sourcing engagement.

Solution: We designed and built a procurement service desk

solution, powered by ServiceNow, featuring a single intake
portal to capture data and provide analytics and visibility to
user demand.

Business outcome: The simplified and automated procurement

service intake, triage, routing and buying process with procurement
service desk provided efficient workflow and end-to-end
process transparency.

5 IBM Procurement BPO: An agile and insights-driven approach to enterprise procurement and accounts payable
“IBM has a diverse industry
experience, global reach, and strong
subject matter expertise in a variety
of categories. It is one of the few
players with expertise in executing
large-sized deals with an end-to-end
Procurement BPO scope.”
— Everest Group

Why IBM? Learn more about how IBM Procurement BPO

is driving enterprise change. Speak to an expert
We’re proud to share our successes with you
IBM’s own dedicated and steadfast efforts in procurement and about how to initiate this procurement and
accounts payable continue to be validated and highly recognized accounts payable solution in your company.
across the board.

– IBM Global Procurement has been chosen a top leader by the Begin your journey today
2020 World Procurement Awards in two categories, Innovation
and Transformation, in recognition of the procurement value
we deliver through the application of AI and capabilities.
– IBM’s spend analytics makes optimized sourcing decisions
available to all procurement professionals essentially
whenever and wherever they need insights.
– The team created a gold-standard service through an
“accelerate” project, which has successfully aligned teams to
stakeholders and increased agility by enabling employees to
work more accurately and rapidly.

6 IBM Procurement BPO: An agile and insights-driven approach to enterprise procurement and accounts payable
1. “The Total Economic Impact Of IBM Garage”, a
commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting,
October 2020
2. CEO Study: Find your essential, IBV, 2021

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May 2023

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