Integrated Smart Business Buying: A Game-Changer for Manufacturing & Industrial Companies
The current manufacturing and industrial landscape can be marked by significant unpredictability. Geopolitical events, supply chain disruptions, and shifting buyer behaviors are just some of the factors that intersect, creating a dynamic and challenging environment for procurement professionals.
“As a business discipline, procurement is becoming more and more complex,” says Satya Mishra, director of products and technology at Amazon Business, whose 2024 State of Procurement Data Report revealed that nearly half (47%) of procurement leaders feel that their operations, processes, and tools are more complex than ever.
By connecting Amazon Business to their existing purchasing systems, manufacturing and industrial companies can save time, simplify their operations, help cut costs, and improve their bottom lines. Integrations can help organizations save time and money, drive compliance, and increase spend visibility. Common examples of Amazon Business procurement integrations include Single Sign-on, Punchout, Punch-in, Integrated Search, and eInvoicing and reconciliation.
Getting Everyone on the Same Page
Modern procurement departments should be aligned with their companies’ IT teams for optimal business results. This can entail having automated spend controls and streamlined data flows in place to support shared business goals related to cost savings, budgeting, ESG, or another organizational mission. These are all areas where automation and systems integrations can deliver value.
“Procurement, IT, and finance teams are all typically working toward different goals,” Mishra explains. “Procurement integrations can tie these functions together, streamline data processing, ensure that data is centralized, and help provide better insights that companies can use to improve decision-making, reconciliation, accounts payable, and other processes.”
Procurement leaders seek spend oversight, but they can’t always get that if buyers work around approved channels to order materials and parts. When internal procurement systems are connected to an approved source of supply, however, it both simplifies the business buying process and ensures that orders are only placed with certified or approved sellers. This is an especially big win as more governments, organizations, and end customers may be paying attention to ESG and sustainability.
The Right Product at the Right Price
Integrated smart business buying journeys also help M&I companies develop customizations, spend controls, and buying policies that can be applied to the broader organization. If spot buys are allowed in one department but not another — or if someone needs quick delivery of safety equipment for the factory floor — inconsistent policies can stand in the way of those deliveries.
“Integrations solve these problems by automating the end-to-end procure-to-pay process across the organization, complete with the right policies, customizations, and controls for their business goals,” Mishra says. Procurement leaders can rest easy knowing that the integrations are set up, the data within the system is streamlined, and that their buyers can always find the right products at the right price.
According to Mishra, Amazon Business simplifies procurement processes by integrating with third-party systems to drive efficiencies and quickly discover insights. Amazon Business builds integrations with e-procurement, accounting and expense management, e-sourcing and IdP systems, and it also builds application programming interfaces (APIs) that M&I companies can use to create customized, connected business buying journeys.
One multinational M&I conglomerate recently automated procurement processes across all of its operations by working with Mishra’s integrations tech team. In doing so, the company centralized the procurement function and created a more secure, trusted business buying experience for employees. The latter was important because the company repeatedly dealt with product shortages with its registered suppliers, at which point buyers were forced to work around the system in order to get the required equipment, materials, or parts.
Mishra says the M&I company’s CPO decided to integrate his company’s existing procurement system with Amazon Business. “He says it was the best decision they made,” says Mishra. “Using the integrated system, both casual buyers and power users are saving time, saving money, and also doing the work they were hired to do, versus spending their time trying to source goods and do price comparisons across suppliers A, B, and C.”
Simplifying, Improving, and Decreasing Friction
Integrated smart business buying journeys help M&I companies leverage existing tools to simplify procurement operations, improve productivity, and decrease friction. Distributed buyers are often among the biggest beneficiaries because they gain a simple way to access preferred items, the right controls in place to ensure a simplified buying process, and a procurement system that integrates directly with Amazon Business.
These are just some of the ways Amazon Business helps M&I companies adapt and thrive in the ever-changing business environment. “How procurement was carried out a decade ago versus how it’s being done today is very different,” says Mishra, who adds that the incoming workforce is yet another reason why M&I organizations should be implementing integrated smart buying journeys now versus later.
“The incoming and upcoming talent pools for M&I procurement can be comprised of Millennials and Gen Z candidates,” Mishra says. “These professionals are more likely to be attracted to organizations that implement digital tools that streamline their work, improve decision-making, and enhance overall job satisfaction.”
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