What is Intake-to-Procure?

Procurement involves a lot of moving parts, a lot of which can easily become complex. Keeping track of spending, the risks associated with new suppliers, and procurement policy compliance, just to name a few. 

If your procurement department is struggling to keep up, Intake-to-Procure technology can be your solution to more streamlined and simplified processes. Intake-to-Procure refers to a modernized approach to procurement that helps teams manage rogue spending and creates a simplified flow to the purchase approval process. Intake-to-Procure technology integrates with your existing workflows, which means that all of your company’s procurement-related needs and tasks, such as contracts and purchases, are easy to access from one gateway. 

This article will explore everything you need to know when it comes to Intake-to-Procure—What it is, the benefits, and how to properly integrate Intake-to-Procure in your organization.

What Is Intake-to-Procure?

An Intake-to-Procure system allows employees to request, approve, and collaborate on procurement-related items from one centralized interface. Gone are the days of complicated Excel spreadsheets and lost-in-translation email chains. Intake-to-Procure solutions empower procurement, IT, security, legal, and executive teams and departments to easily collaborate and to see all necessary information from the beginning of the intake process to the procurement and invoicing at the end of a transaction. 

It is common for procurement and finance departments to become overworked with too much on their plate. In modern business, it is essential for these teams to have the ability to access and approve purchase requests without the need for time-consuming, manual methods. Additionally, when the intake process is automated, all necessary employees can play a part in the process and see their requests through to final approval while managing compliance at the same time.

Benefits of Adopting an Intake-to-Procure Solution

By merging together the traditional ways of request and approval, procurement intake solutions help organizations improve employee adoption of procurement processes, increase efficiency, reduce risks, and allow for greater control over company spending. 

Ease of orchestration and accessibility are some of the main components of an Intake-to-Procure solution. By granting all needed individuals access to procurement information from one centralized location, data is presented more clearly and concisely, which minimizes confusion and improves the speed at wich employees are able to learn new systems. 

Improving user experience also helps catch spend and gives employees more agency and buy-in for compliance. Implementing intake processes can boost spend under management by up to 80% in initial use cases or elevate the typical range of 60%–70% to over 90%. With an estimated 9% savings for each new dollar brought under procurement oversight, this translates into potential savings of tens of millions simply by prioritizing adoption. It’s truly a measurable game changer.

If you haven’t yet implemented automation in your procurement processes, now is the time. Automation of systems in Intake-to-Procure means that procurement teams do not need to manually handle every element of the procurement process. This frees up your team’s time to deal with more important items. 

Intake-to-Procure ensures efficiency within your organization. Almost all steps of procurement are handled on one platform, including vendor onboarding, risk management, security checks, and more, strengthening your procurement process. 

Intake-to-Procure detects potential risks in all stages of the procurement process and flags these for your team to see. Additionally, since an Intake-to-Procure solution means more employees have access to procurement information, there is greater oversight, which means problems are more likely to be detected early on.

With improved efficiency and lower risk from an Intake-to-Procure solution, your organization will be able to find better budgetary outcomes. Intake-to-Procure solutions streamline request routing to preferred vendors, which enables companies to select the best options aligned with their financial objectives. The automation within Intake-to-Procure ensures efficient, low-cost outcomes.

Features of an Intake-to-Procure Solution

A Centralized Interface for All Requests

A centralized, user-friendly interface helps simplify employee adoption and reduces purchase request cycle times. This type of system makes the entire procurement process frictionless and much simpler for everyone involved.

Collaborative Approvals

The centralized nature of Intake-to-Procure facilitates greater visibility of data and procurement information. This means that everyone is on board and knows what is needed to move forward with approvals.

Integrates with P2P and ERP systems

Intake-to-Procure technology seamlessly integrates with P2P and ERP systems. This means that approved requests can easily be converted into purchase orders and contracts without the need to do so manually. This also allows for the collection of more accurate, higher-quality data.

Vendor Management

Collecting all vendor data in one centralized location makes it simpler for procurement teams to manage vendor relationships. Intake-to-Procure solutions facilitate easier access to accurate vendor information and gives you everything you need to manage your supply chain. 

Renewal Management With Automated Workflows

Intake-to-Procure systems keep track of renewal dates and notify you when one is coming up. This not only saves you time and money, but lessens the chances of important dates being forgotten.

Spend analytics

Intake-to-Procure grants you the earliest insight into your company’s spending habits and trends. Access to these analytics can help you learn where cycle time can be reduced, where the budget can be optimized, and other important insights. 

AI-Powered Workflows

In modern business, AI is a must-have feature in your procurement systems. This frees up your team’s time by streamlining processes and helps to produce the best outcomes. 

With Rio, you have the SAP Intake Management Extended Edition, bringing advanced interaction across emails, Teams/Slack, non-SAP system integration out of the box, and enhanced compatibility + connectivity for ECC customers.

‍Procure-to-Pay vs Intake-to-Procure vs Intake-to-Pay

Procure-to-Pay refers to the process of procuring the items a company needs to function. Includes the requisitioning, purchasing, receiving, paying for, and accounting for these items, encompassing the process of ordering through to payment. 

P2P improves both the accuracy and efficiency of ordering and paying for goods. This helps reduce errors, delays, and associated costs. However, one major drawback of P2P systems is that they overlook the upstream processes in procurement, such as identifying requirements, validating requests, securing approvals, and vendor sourcing.

Intake-to-Procure refers to the process of capturing and managing requests through to the purchase order or contact. I2P includes upstream procurement tasks like needs identification, request validation, approval acquisition, and vendor sourcing. I2P helps procurement teams optimize spending and allows employees to get involved in procurement requests earlier on in the process. 

Intake-to-Pay encompasses all procurement requests, from the point of need to payment of goods. I2P includes both upstream and downstream procurement activities. By keeping all procurement-related tasks in one centralized space, visibility and employee collaboration are increased, reducing the likelihood of error.

However, for large organizations that utilize multiple systems and have several workflows, I2P may take longer to implement and maintain.

Steps for Intake-to-Procure

Your intake form should be able to change as needed based on the nature of the request and the category. It should also be able to ask questions about the details of the request. All necessary information should be included in the intake form, such as the name of the vendor, type of work, desired result, completion dates, budget, contact points, and key stakeholders involved in approvals.

The workflow of approvals should clearly explain the needed criteria and the actions that are to be taken for each procurement request. The flow of approvals should be clear and collaborative so the requester and approver maintain full visibility of the request and its status.

The required stakeholders must be assigned to their specific tasks in order to keep the process moving efficiently.

The procurement process should move smoothly, and part of this involves ensuring that your team is aligned on the details of the request and that any questions anyone may have are answered. Operating in one centralized system facilitates this as everyone has access to the same data and information.

It is essential for executives, vendors, legal teams, and finance departments to be aware of procurement requests. No one involved should be left in the dark, and nothing should come as a surprise to stakeholders.

From time to time, problems come up, so it is essential to monitor for roadblocks. A comprehensive approval management system helps mitigate problems by tracking, managing and updating approvals. It can also flag any issues before they escalate.

After everything is finalized, it is wise to ask yourself, “How effective was this process?”. This answer can identify where things went well and where improvements can be made for future purchases. 

How Your Organization Benefits from Intake-to-Procure

Procurement departments are often seen as causing friction due to long approval processes, lack of visibility, and unnecessary steps, leading employees to bypass procurement altogether. Intake-to-Procure offers a streamlined system that speeds up purchases, improves delivery times, and boosts employee satisfaction. It allows procurement to focus on strategic goals, while finance gains visibility and control over spend, eliminating rogue expenditures and ensuring better financial planning. IT departments benefit from reduced shadow IT spend and earlier involvement in software procurement, improving budget outcomes and time management. For security, automated workflows enhance compliance and vendor management, while legal departments are included early, enabling thorough reviews and linking CLM tools to legacy contracts, mitigating risks and avoiding last-minute approvals. Intake-to-Procure transforms procurement into a more efficient, integrated function across departments.

What Procurement KPIs does Intake-to-Procure Impact?

Quality KPIs

Since Intake-to-Procure monitors vendors throughout the entire process, it is easy to make sure only approved and qualified vendors are used. Suppliers are also highly monitored through Intake-to-Pay, which allows for the continuous assessment of your supplier’s performance and prevents them from automatically renewing contracts.

Cost-Saving KPIs

Intake-to-Procure automation streamlines the use of preferred vendors to consolidate the supply base and control spending under management to optimize budgets. As more stakeholders see procurement's effectiveness and adopt the process, ROI improves. Faster vendor onboarding and approval also encourage price competition which helps you to better strategize category makeup.

Delivery KPIs

Intake-to-Procure streamlines all processes through automation and collaboration and thus improves supplier lead times. End-to-end order processing is also improved with Intake-to-Procure, which reduces cycle time. Enhanced visibility also reduces the likelihood of emergency orders that can throw off workflows.

How ConvergentIS Can Help Your Procurement Team

ConvergentIS offers intake and procurement solutions to help you manage spending right from the start. From customizable workflows to comprehensive request management, we have got you covered.

Download our Intake Management & Orchestration pre-assessment to get started.