Momentum Groups
20525 Center Ridge Rd. #502 Rocky River, OH 44116Sales: 877-973-5338
Welcome
Momentum is a leading provider of Commercial Fleet and Payables Management Services. We offer a single source for managing everyday expenses, fleet purchases, leasing, maintenance, fuel, and GPS tracking of Corporate assets.
Our financial solutions enhance the way companies manage data, process vendor transactions, and manage spending on key business purchases from travel to fuel.
Each and every day our network processes millions of transactions for our customers, their employees and drivers through secure electronic networks. These networks capture real time business critical information we can deliver in a reporting fashion that enables top executives the tools to make good business decisions.
Our experienced consulting team is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We encourage you to browse our website and request more information about any of our valued services by reaching out to us online at info@momentumgroups.com .
We look forward to serving you!
News
Procure-to-pay helps buyers bank savings
A hospital, a city agency and an engineering firm save with procure-to-pay processes.
By Paul E. Teague -- Purchasing, 9/17/2009 2:00:00 AM EDT
Anyone looking for ammunition in the fight to get corporate approval for automating the procure-to-pay process should talk to Donald Sands, Michael Rath, Todd Pooler or Solie Hiekkasalmi-Linna. Though they hail from three very different types of organizations and three geographies, they have had somewhat similar experiences with automating procure to pay and the results they've seen would put a smile on the grumpiest finance officer.
Sands is the director of accounts payable at the Memorial Hermann Health Care System in Houston. His department had been processing about $2 billion in payments annually, including 150,000 checks and 510,000 invoices or pay documents. It was a system ripe for some simplification. "We managed 12,000 contracts and 2 million touch points, [so] we saw multiple opportunities to streamline our operation and reduce costs," he says. He selected the approach of OB10, a global business-to-business electronic invoicing network used in more than 90 countries.
Working through the OB10 system, Sands and his team at Memorial Hermann now validate invoices to purchase orders at the line-item level to ensure correct pricing before entering the invoices into the accounts-payable system.
But the system also highlighted for Sands the need to tighten the contracts the health care system had in place with suppliers. Sands also implemented a Buyer-Initiated Payment system, which triggers a purchasing-card payment to suppliers after invoice approval. Sands says the system helps in eliminating check requests and has generated incremental revenue in the form of rebates.
"So far, the p-card program has eliminated 12,000 checks annually, saving a significant amount of paper and the hands-on management necessary to write and issue the checks," he says. He adds that the p-card program handles about 3% of the healthcare system's total spend.
Sands says that e-invoicing has helped Memorial Hermann reduce what he calls the invisibility of costs (the time between when invoices come in, make their way into the system and get processed for payment) from 60-to-90 days to 15-to-30 days. "This, in essence, provides for a better management of cash flow and provides the ability to take advantage of early discounts," he says.
Beating the clock
Further east, in Miami, Michael Rath, the city's assistant purchasing director, has been using the procurement modules in Oracle's E-Business suite of software and has cut the time for many of its processes from two-to-three weeks to 30 minutes. "We also have better contract utilization," he says.
"In the past, oftentimes end users weren't buying according to the contract terms we had negotiated and paid whatever the suppliers charged," he says. Now that has changed. For such items as office supplies, he says, end users can log into the Oracle software and see the logos of suppliers the city has contracts with. "They select the supplier and then go to the website with our contract pricing, make their selection, and the selection comes back to us through the Oracle software and goes for approval," he says.
Now, Rath says, the city knows what employees are buying. "We know we are paying the right price because users can only buy what's on the contracts," he says.
The purchasing department used the implementation of Oracle to re-engineer its process and organization. Rath and his staff set up three commodity teams that handle non-contract purchases. "We can see if there is repetitive purchasing for the same items, and when we do we can create a contract and get volume pricing," he says. "We didn't think we would see the results so quickly."
The city started implementation of the Oracle system in December 2004 and went live in 2006. Since then, the city has added 100 new contracts.
Better payment terms
Across the Atlantic in Finland, global engineering firm Metso has used software to convert 40% of its incoming invoices to electronic form. That has cut the firm's invoice-handling costs by 60%, says Solie Hiekkasalmi-Linna, development manager in the firm's finance arm. "Also, suppliers get their money faster," she adds.
Metso provides engineering services for mining, construction, energy, metal recycling and pulp and paper applications. The firm's U.S. operations are just getting started with the implementation of the Basware software. But, Todd Pooler, regional manager of non-operational (MRO and indirect) purchasing at the Beloit, Wisc. facilities, already sees potential beyond simply streamlining invoicing and contracts.
"E-invoicing is a good tool for negotiating longer payment terms with suppliers," he says. Since e-invoicing allows the company to pay quicker it helps him convince suppliers to agree to 60-day terms rather than 30-day terms, he says.
Of course, he adds, the company will also be able to cut down on rogue spend.
Where it gets interesting
Though procure-to-pay systems aren't new, in some ways they are still in their infancy. Says David Hope-Ross, Oracle's senior director of procurement and supply chain management, the trend toward automation will continue, with the only issue being the forms that automation will take and the pace at which procurement groups will adopt automation.
"The more interesting opportunities will arise when people take a fresh look at their business practices and begin to explore the use of emerging technologies to make step-change improvements," he says. Web 2.0, analytics and web services will have a huge impact, he asserts. "They'll allow procurement groups to address inter-department collaboration, supplier communication and categories that up to now have resisted formal management approaches," Hope-Ross says.
One of the areas of interdepartmental collaboration is between purchasing and accounts payable. Without a strong procure-to-pay process, companies can overlook the alignment between the two functions, says supply chain consultant Canda Rozier. There is also the issue of too many approvals. Procure-to-pay systems can help reduce the ever-increasing number of people required to approve invoices, says Rozier. "It's not reasonable to assume that executives always know the details of every purchase, thus they ask their direct reports who in turn ask theirs and so on."
Rozier, formerly the chief procurement officer for First Data Corp., says the added steps extend the time to get purchases approved and the delays affect business. Robust procure-to-pay processes streamline the purchasing process and make life simpler for business owners, she asserts.
But, says Oracle's Hope-Ross, automation is only marginally interesting if it lets procurement groups shave a couple of points off their cost per purchase order. "Things get really interesting when procurement groups can use technology to remove themselves from mundane tasks and better align their actions and supplier relationships with the objectives of the company as a whole," he says.
Such efficient procure-to-pay processes are at the heart of a chief procurement officer's credibility, he says.
A hospital, a city agency and an engineering firm save with procure-to-pay processes.
By Paul E. Teague -- Purchasing, 9/17/2009 2:00:00 AM EDT
Anyone looking for ammunition in the fight to get corporate approval for automating the procure-to-pay process should talk to Donald Sands, Michael Rath, Todd Pooler or Solie Hiekkasalmi-Linna. Though they hail from three very different types of organizations and three geographies, they have had somewhat similar experiences with automating procure to pay and the results they've seen would put a smile on the grumpiest finance officer.
Sands is the director of accounts payable at the Memorial Hermann Health Care System in Houston. His department had been processing about $2 billion in payments annually, including 150,000 checks and 510,000 invoices or pay documents. It was a system ripe for some simplification. "We managed 12,000 contracts and 2 million touch points, [so] we saw multiple opportunities to streamline our operation and reduce costs," he says. He selected the approach of OB10, a global business-to-business electronic invoicing network used in more than 90 countries.
Working through the OB10 system, Sands and his team at Memorial Hermann now validate invoices to purchase orders at the line-item level to ensure correct pricing before entering the invoices into the accounts-payable system.
But the system also highlighted for Sands the need to tighten the contracts the health care system had in place with suppliers. Sands also implemented a Buyer-Initiated Payment system, which triggers a purchasing-card payment to suppliers after invoice approval. Sands says the system helps in eliminating check requests and has generated incremental revenue in the form of rebates.
"So far, the p-card program has eliminated 12,000 checks annually, saving a significant amount of paper and the hands-on management necessary to write and issue the checks," he says. He adds that the p-card program handles about 3% of the healthcare system's total spend.
Sands says that e-invoicing has helped Memorial Hermann reduce what he calls the invisibility of costs (the time between when invoices come in, make their way into the system and get processed for payment) from 60-to-90 days to 15-to-30 days. "This, in essence, provides for a better management of cash flow and provides the ability to take advantage of early discounts," he says.
Beating the clock
Further east, in Miami, Michael Rath, the city's assistant purchasing director, has been using the procurement modules in Oracle's E-Business suite of software and has cut the time for many of its processes from two-to-three weeks to 30 minutes. "We also have better contract utilization," he says.
"In the past, oftentimes end users weren't buying according to the contract terms we had negotiated and paid whatever the suppliers charged," he says. Now that has changed. For such items as office supplies, he says, end users can log into the Oracle software and see the logos of suppliers the city has contracts with. "They select the supplier and then go to the website with our contract pricing, make their selection, and the selection comes back to us through the Oracle software and goes for approval," he says.
Now, Rath says, the city knows what employees are buying. "We know we are paying the right price because users can only buy what's on the contracts," he says.
The purchasing department used the implementation of Oracle to re-engineer its process and organization. Rath and his staff set up three commodity teams that handle non-contract purchases. "We can see if there is repetitive purchasing for the same items, and when we do we can create a contract and get volume pricing," he says. "We didn't think we would see the results so quickly."
The city started implementation of the Oracle system in December 2004 and went live in 2006. Since then, the city has added 100 new contracts.
Better payment terms
Across the Atlantic in Finland, global engineering firm Metso has used software to convert 40% of its incoming invoices to electronic form. That has cut the firm's invoice-handling costs by 60%, says Solie Hiekkasalmi-Linna, development manager in the firm's finance arm. "Also, suppliers get their money faster," she adds.
Metso provides engineering services for mining, construction, energy, metal recycling and pulp and paper applications. The firm's U.S. operations are just getting started with the implementation of the Basware software. But, Todd Pooler, regional manager of non-operational (MRO and indirect) purchasing at the Beloit, Wisc. facilities, already sees potential beyond simply streamlining invoicing and contracts.
"E-invoicing is a good tool for negotiating longer payment terms with suppliers," he says. Since e-invoicing allows the company to pay quicker it helps him convince suppliers to agree to 60-day terms rather than 30-day terms, he says.
Of course, he adds, the company will also be able to cut down on rogue spend.
Where it gets interesting
Though procure-to-pay systems aren't new, in some ways they are still in their infancy. Says David Hope-Ross, Oracle's senior director of procurement and supply chain management, the trend toward automation will continue, with the only issue being the forms that automation will take and the pace at which procurement groups will adopt automation.
"The more interesting opportunities will arise when people take a fresh look at their business practices and begin to explore the use of emerging technologies to make step-change improvements," he says. Web 2.0, analytics and web services will have a huge impact, he asserts. "They'll allow procurement groups to address inter-department collaboration, supplier communication and categories that up to now have resisted formal management approaches," Hope-Ross says.
One of the areas of interdepartmental collaboration is between purchasing and accounts payable. Without a strong procure-to-pay process, companies can overlook the alignment between the two functions, says supply chain consultant Canda Rozier. There is also the issue of too many approvals. Procure-to-pay systems can help reduce the ever-increasing number of people required to approve invoices, says Rozier. "It's not reasonable to assume that executives always know the details of every purchase, thus they ask their direct reports who in turn ask theirs and so on."
Rozier, formerly the chief procurement officer for First Data Corp., says the added steps extend the time to get purchases approved and the delays affect business. Robust procure-to-pay processes streamline the purchasing process and make life simpler for business owners, she asserts.
But, says Oracle's Hope-Ross, automation is only marginally interesting if it lets procurement groups shave a couple of points off their cost per purchase order. "Things get really interesting when procurement groups can use technology to remove themselves from mundane tasks and better align their actions and supplier relationships with the objectives of the company as a whole," he says.
Such efficient procure-to-pay processes are at the heart of a chief procurement officer's credibility, he says.
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20525 Center Ridge Rd. #502
Rocky River, OH
44116