The Digital Transformation of Procurement: CRM for Buy-Side

Procurement. As a function, it’s the act of strategically procuring goods and services that add value to a business. As a group, it’s about orchestrating relationships with suppliers, stakeholders and internal channels.

You can imagine the sheer number of contracts and documents that require signatures. But if adding value sits atop a Procurement team’s key objectives, paper just doesn’t cut it.

Enter Salesforce: A leading CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that allows businesses to manage processes and workflows sans paper. In other words, the business world is your oyster as you can also automate relationships on your Buy-side with the Suppliers.

Recently, Linda Chuan, Sr. Director of Global Corporate Services & Strategic Sourcing at salesforce.com, led a session called “CRM for Buy-side: Anywhere, Any Device, Any Time” at Dreamforce ’14.  

Linda added to conversation with the following observation:

 "We all understand the importance of having fully executed contracts completed and on file, yet the process of ensuring the signing process is completed has been deemed burdensome, transactional and non-value add. It is critical to us that we ensure all of our commitments with our suppliers are fully executed and documented. Implementing Docusign to automate the chasing down of signatures and uploading the final signed document into our salesforce database has allowed us to spend our time and resources on more value-added activities while still ensuring we have fully executed contracts completed and uploaded! It's a real time saver!"

Procurement pros: Listen up! Linda spelled out what you’ll gain by diving into the digital side of workflow management.

1. It’s All About The Cloud – Fly Up Now

In the session, Linda discussed how salesforce made the transition from spreadsheets, paper, and other manual process to Cloud-based solutions. A fully digital cloud solution can help your stakeholders conduct business at a much faster pace. Your staff won’t have to wait for an executive, who happens to be on a vacation to return, before approving supplier contracts. A fully digital solution will also help you scale your business without having to grow your staff linearly.

2. Force.com and Docusign DTM Platforms: Match Made in Cloud Heaven

Salesforce built their own internal solution on the Force.com platform along with Docusign technology. Salesforce chose to implement their solution along with Apttus contract generation solution for Suppliers (SRM). Docusign offers a package for the Force.com platform called Docusign for Salesforce that can be customized for a variety of implementation flavors. A strong ecosystem of partners offer their own integration solutions including many salesforce packages. So, you can select from many different partner integrations to implement a solution that works for your needs.

3. Add Value Like You Mean It

With the implementation of Docusign, salesforce gained much in the way of value: trust and compliance, cost savings, convenience, and faster turnarounds to name a few! All procurement executives need to get on board today to move their business into hyper drive growth.

You might have lingering questions, but not to worry: Feel free to Contact me to discuss how you can drive similar benefits in your organization.

The conversation will continue at Docusign MOMENTUM 2015 in San Francisco from March 10th – March 12th. Click here to learn more and register today.