Many times in everyday life or in the day-to-day life of our organizations we realize that there are tasks or processes that we could be doing better, either because we are spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks that do not generate value, because we have multiple systems and we must copy or share the information manually between them, or because, simply, many times the Supply and Treasury chain does not behave as a ‘relay race’ between the players involved, but rather as isolated processes, which does not allow it to be a simple process. and fluid.

It is at that moment that we decided to support our management on a technological tool in search of generating savings, both in negotiations and in working capital, but with so many options on the market, which one should I choose? Which one best suits my needs? What part of the process do I want to automate first? What resources do I have available to invest in a technological solution? Faced with this need, companies will have two options: develop their own tool or hire an existing one, each of the options has its advantages and points to take into account.

What should be taken into account?

If a company decides to develop custom software, it will have a tool based and founded on its process and its specific business rules , however all costs related to the operation and maintenance of the solution will be borne by the company. , some of the main costs will be: technological instance where the solution is hosted (whether own servers, Onpremise or host in the cloud), file and database servers where the information will persist, solution maintenance costs and any costs associated with integrations or constant evolution of the tool.

On the other hand, we are going to find pre-built tools that can be contracted and adopted by companies, as is the case with Suplos. 

Pre-built solutions

Pre-built solutions will allow us to have shorter implementation times, in addition to managing models such as SaaS (Software as a Service) where the client, as in traditional streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime video) , will have a subscription fee . This will allow you to enjoy the contracted modules or solutions without incurring hidden or additional costs.

Although these tools were not built based on the client’s own business rules and processes, they include the best practices present in the market in addition to offering a percentage of customization on the tool in order to adapt what exists to the reality and needs of the client. 

One of the main advantages that pre-built tools offer is that, being modular solutions, they will allow us to limit the projects and solutions to the specific needs of the organization, allowing partial implementations and adding new modules to the suite at the time. as desired, in order to share information both between the modules included in the suite and with external systems.

Regardless of the strategy adopted by companies, it is necessary to leverage our Supply Chain on technology in order to achieve more efficient, fluid and transparent processes, allowing us to delegate tasks on technology. This way, our teams will make technology work for them. There is no magic formula, so needs must be prioritized in order to initiate a structured plan for incremental digital transformation.