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On-the-Go and In-the-Know: Why Mobile Procure-to-Pay is the Key to Gaining a Competitive Advantage in Hospitality
Effective procurement departments have a significant positive impact on hotel performance. To endure persistent industry challenges - such as price volatility, tight profit margins, evolving guest preferences, and labour shortages - hoteliers must fine-tune their procurement operations to ensure greater efficiency, agility, and cost savings.
According to 2022 Amazon Business research, efficiency and cost reduction are the top two areas for improvement in procurement departments, while over half of the surveyed businesses plan to invest in automating manual procurement functions by 2027.
For many hotels, procurement advancements are being made possible through the use of e-procurement: Web-based solutions that facilitate end-to-end purchasing activities. Now that over half of workers globally use smartphones for business-related tasks, P2P software (also known as e-procurement) with mobile support offers even greater flexibility for hotels aiming to transform their processes digitally.
What is mobile P2P and how can it give your hotel a competitive advantage?
Mobile e-procurement describes the use of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, to streamline and automate procurement cycles. P2P software consolidates procurement processes in a single view, from browsing product catalogues to submitting purchase requests and managing invoices. Most solutions also offer some degree of automation, allowing personnel to focus on more complex tasks. With mobile support, your team can access this functionality from anywhere.
Mobile e-procurement often incorporates features such as barcode scanning, allowing users to quickly capture product information and automatically populate purchase orders. Other features may include electronic signatures for purchase approvals and push notifications for order updates. Solutions designed for hotels may have hospitality-specific features - for example, recipe-based ordering systems that make ingredient and allergen information easier to find.
Benefits of mobile P2P for hoteliers
The effects of COVID-19 on hotel labour shortages are still felt by many, and most likely will be for years to come. According to Deloitte, nearly two out of three hotels believe that it will take until 2030 for staff volumes to return to 2019 levels. Manual processes compound this issue, causing longer procurement cycles and a less productive workforce.
E-procurement software helps eliminate manual workflows by automating routine tasks, such as purchase approvals. Mobile support further improves this efficiency by allowing hotel staff to review purchasing information and complete procurement activities from stock rooms, kitchens, or anywhere that desktops are otherwise inconvenient to access. This can save your hotel’s procurement team time and resources, leading to cost savings.
What’s more, mobile solutions can help hotels attract and retain procurement professionals in the long term. Over two-thirds of IT leaders agree that failing to adapt to younger workforces’ technology expectations will increase churn. Forward-thinking hoteliers must invest in mobile e-procurement solutions that appeal to mobile-savvy digital natives. Since these applications are designed to support smaller screens and use more intuitive actions — like voice commands, swiping, and scrolling rather than clicking - they also tend to be user-friendly and promote more optimised and efficient workflows.
E-procurement software improves visibility into your hotel’s hotel purchasing activities. Solutions can provide a variety of real-time data, including:
- Order statuses
- Spending metrics
- Inventory levels
- Bottlenecks
This information is crucial for making smarter, data-driven procurement decisions. However, stakeholders may not always be near their computers to closely monitor this information throughout the day. Even if they are, their attention may be constantly diverted to other tasks.
Mobile e-procurement makes it easier for employees to access crucial data anytime, anywhere. Mobile applications can alert users when time-sensitive decisions may be required - like when an important product is running low on inventory. Mobile support also gives procurement teams convenient access to high-level insights, such as spending patterns, supplier performance, and operational efficiency.
With access to real-time data, mobile procure-to-pay allows your hotel to make smarter, more timely decisions when they matter most. This can have significant financial benefits. For example, imagine that one of your hotel’s main draws is its restaurant. A mobile e-procurement solution can send notifications in real-time when there’s a delay in receiving key ingredients from suppliers. Stakeholders can then quickly identify alternatives and request purchase orders on the go. This provides consistency for guests — who may be expecting the availability of certain menu items — which promotes loyalty and generates revenue.
Your hotel most likely relies on an extensive network of suppliers to maintain smooth operations and deliver reliable, quality services to guests. Hotels that have experienced supply chain setbacks, either due to the pandemic or other market uncertainties, are now recognising the benefits of supplier relationship management to stay resilient.
Supplier relationship management is a business initiative that fosters mutually beneficial partnerships with key suppliers. It’s used by three out of four supply chain professionals to reduce risk, lower costs, and improve customer service. Investing in your supplier relationships can also lead to collaborations that allow you to create unique, best-fit products and services to attract customers and differentiate your hotel.
Communication is at the core of any supplier relationship strategy. Checking in regularly with your suppliers is key to nurturing stronger relationships and realising these benefits. Enter mobile e-procurement. This technology makes real-time supplier communications possible, whether you are negotiating contracts, collaborating on new product development, or trying to resolve a material shortage. To this end, mobile e-procurement can help you avoid miscommunications that would otherwise slow down the procurement cycle. It’s also invaluable in the face of supply chain disruptions, making it easier to create workarounds collaboratively.
Transform your hotel operations with mobile P2P
Consumers and organisations are in a period of rapid digital transformation, turning to cloud-based services and mobile apps for greater convenience and efficiency. To remain competitive, hotels must adapt to this environment and integrate mobile-friendly solutions across the business — including procurement.
E-procurement software helps hotels make smarter, data-backed purchasing decisions, all while alleviating procurement teams from outdated and time-consuming practices. To optimise these benefits, make sure that your e-procurement solution is supported on mobile devices. This will not only make procurement tasks and communications faster and easier for active hotel staff but also ensure that your hotel is ready for the tech-savvy workforce of the future.
If you’re in the market for a procurement platform, consider mobile e-procurement built with hotel requirements in mind. FutureLog offers a procurement solution specifically for hospitality professionals, providing a native mobile app that gives users real-time access to supplier information, contract details, and purchasing analytics wherever the day takes them.
Visit futurelog.com to learn more about how mobile e-procurement can take your hotel’s purchasing team to the next level.
About the Author:
Johannes Vocke is the Chief Financial Officer at FutureLog, the leading global cloud-based procure-to-pay platform for the hospitality and gastronomy industries. Prior to joining FutureLog, Johannes spent over a decade at prestigious Big 4 firms spanning Germany, the U.S.A. and Switzerland, working primarily on professional audit services and honing his skills in finance. With an M.Sc. in Accounting and Taxation from Mannheim, Germany's #1 Business School, and a B.Sc. in Economics and Law from the University of Münster, Johannes is responsible for leading all strategic financial initiatives across the organisation and is driven by his passion for innovation, analytics, and process optimisation. In his free time, he enjoys travelling, exploring the great outdoors (sometimes on foot, sometimes on his motorbike!), and is an avid festival-goer. Connect with Johannes on LinkedIn.
About FutureLog
FutureLog provides a fully integrated, cloud-based procure-to-pay platform for the hospitality industry. We facilitate an end-to-end procurement process from purchasing, through inventory management and up to invoice processing; all available in one platform to save you time and money. The FutureLog procure-to-pay platform is the foundation for seamless connectivity between Hotel Operations, Corporate Centres and Suppliers.
Suzanne Ward
Vice President Digital Marketing and Communication
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