So, if you’re still reading, you don’t believe that you are losing:

• opportunities,
• time,
• innovation, and
• value

by sticking with your 2^nd (or, even worse, 1^st) generation S2P platforms without program management. That’s fine. Maybe you have a crackerjack analyst team that is exceptional and finding opportunities. Maybe you have very well designed processes and your team, with experience, has actually become very efficient at using the platform. Maybe you R&D team is already using a cloud-based innovation platform. And maybe you actually got a good deal on the older platform you are using and actually realized value. It could happen. But, that’s not all you are missing by not getting with the program. You’re also missing:

Opportunities

… you don’t find. Let’s face it, no matter how great your team is, they can only analyze so much. And only on the data they have. An integrated S2P platform / process with integrated program management can allow all parties to not only do analysis to identify potential opportunities, but provide data, insight, and research the team didn’t do.

Relationship Building

Maybe you have SRM, and it contains functionality to manage your supplier relationships, but supplier relationships aren’t the only important relationships. Relationships with your extended team, especially the team members who manage your supplier and third party relationships, are critical. And without a platform to keep tabs on where they are, and how things are going, are you really maintaining the right relationships with the extended team across the global organization?

Process Innovation

Maybe you have an innovation platform that helps R&D with product innovation. And maybe it works great. But if you really want to maximize value, you have to optimize process efficiency. And if the process is disconnected across multiple BoB platforms, and only the core Procurement team is on the platform, you don’t get the full perspective, which means you don’t get enough perspective on how to possibly innovate the process. Which is another loss.

Enhanced Collaboration

If your platform is disconnected, your team is disconnected. Yes, you can do a lot over the phone and video conferencing, but that’s disconnected from the process. And where’s the record of it? And how do you know what’s been collaborated on, and what hasn’t? You don’t. Collaboration without program management is, whether you want to admit it or not, limited.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of benefits you are missing without program management. So why don’t you get with the program?