Spendesk launched a procure-to-pay solution designed alongside the company’s existing spend management platform.
The resulting fully integrated procurement and spend management tool is designed for European small– to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) of up to 1,000 employees, the company said in a Tuesday (Oct. 22) press release.
The launch of the procure-to-pay solution comes six months after Spendesk acquired intake-to-procure solution provider Okko, according to the release.
“Spendesk has always been at the cutting edge of innovation in spend management, and the launch of the procurement platform signals our intention to keep developing solutions that match the needs of SMBs across all European territories, supporting smarter purchasing practices,” Julien Chriqui, previous co-founder of Okko and current procurement product lead at Spendesk, said in the release.
The procure-to-pay tool features dynamic purchase request forms that guide requesters through the intake process, bespoke procurement processes that ensure the right stakeholders are involved at the right time, and clear visibility for each stakeholder that lets them see every step in the process, according to the release.
It also includes contracts and renewals tracking that alerts users when renewal dates approach, a centralized view of all suppliers, accounts payable (AP) automation, and the ability to issue virtual cards or pay bills directly from the Spendesk platform, per the release.
“The procurement process is central to the smooth operation of a business but is traditionally a source of inefficiencies that can cause a great deal of frustration,” Chriqui said in the release. “Our procure-to-pay customers will be able to unify spend management and procurement in a single workflow, improving internal collaboration, and taking away the pain of procurement from individual employees and finance, procurement, legal and IT teams.”
Most retailers and manufacturers are investing in digital procurement systems or plan to do so, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Payments: Modernizing Procurement Processes.”
When Spendesk announced in April that it had acquired Okko, Spendesk co-founder and CEO Rodolphe Ardant said in a press release that the procurement process was often laborious and challenged by poor workflows and tools.
“Now, we can help clients to increase the efficiency of these complex processes,” Ardant said.
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