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A recent Deloitte survey of global chief procurement officers stated that 78% of procurement leaders saw cost reduction as their top business strategy. A survey by Scout RFP shows that 77% of financial respondents from companies with more than 1,000 employees said that procurement makes finance and the enterprise more effective, a clear sign that procurement and finance are a match made in heaven.

How can finance and procurement work alongside each other to drive greater business impact for the enterprise as a whole? By investing in the proper technology, teams can easily integrate sourcing into more areas of the business and at the same time increase spend under management. Technology, in turn, must add value to the overall process.

 Invest in the proper tools

When companies invest in tools that provide greater transparency and allow collaboration between people they can bridge the gap between finance and procurement teams. A solution that integrates real-time sourcing more closely with financial planning can provide better visibility into strategic projects and spend under management. In turn, finance and procurement teams can source smarter, plan better, and align business objectives. This way, businesses strategically plan for the future without ‘looking in the rear view mirror’.

Proper sourcing solutions provide complete visibility into funding for projects, execution terms, and data points on cost streams.

Proper sourcing solutions provide complete visibility into funding for projects, execution terms, and data points on cost streams. Not only will this prevent future financial surprises, but will create a clear F&A roadmap, benefiting the company’s overall cash position. When the enterprise has complete visibility into the procurement process — including the stakeholders and suppliers — it can lead to more competitive turnaround times and allow teams to deliver more benefits to the business, without losing sight of projects and timelines. Full visibility for executives allows them to understand where finance and procurement are spending — and creating greater business impact — and report alongside the overall company goals.

More importantly, teams feel more valued and part of the larger enterprise goals when business partners see the business impact generated from procurement and sourcing efforts. Collaboration is the key component that elevates the visibility needed for procurement and finance teams to drive results for the enterprise as a whole. Through collaboration, teams can communicate their goals clearly, understand benefits, conquer challenges, and truly partner with suppliers, making this a winning strategy for all parties involved.

Scale the business with more savings

Anaplan, a pioneer in Connected Planning, utilised these key e-sourcing features to scale their business. Traditionally, Anaplan’s procurement team was known as the firefighting team — constantly putting out fires to satisfy 700 employees in a dozen offices around the globe. The continuous stream of requests put the company’s ability to scale at risk and blocked legal, finance, and compliance teams from accessing critical projects they needed to evaluate. There was no visibility into the projects and a lack of collaboration across the board. With dozens of contracts in the queue at a time, the procurement team was dangerously close to losing context on key decisions.

Levi Strauss & Co. is another example of a company combining the powers of procurement and finance. Since implementing a sourcing platform, the finance and procurement teams have been able to not only see where they are saving but how they can categorise the savings to communicate better results to the business partners.

The company knew it needed to invest in the proper technology to increase the procurement team’s efficiency to support their growth and make it easy to communicate sourcing’s impact on the rest of the company. Within just one year of implementing an e-sourcing platform, Anaplan grew to more than 1,000 employees, generated more than $240 million in revenue, and has 20 offices in 13 countries supporting more than 1,000 customers. Procurement and sourcing are now connected with all functions of the organisation, including finance, risk, and planning. Anaplan now supports contracts for more than 50% of their global spend because they are able to collaboratively source for the future thanks to these new capabilities.

Levi Strauss & Co. is another example of a company combining the powers of procurement and finance. Since implementing a sourcing platform, the finance and procurement teams have been able to not only see where they are saving but how they can categorise the savings to communicate better results to the business partners.

When companies utilise comprehensive sourcing tools, they can empower procurement and finance teams to drive company performance, source smarter, plan better, and align business objectives, ultimately leading to greater business impact and financial success.

Assetz Capital investors are predicting the worst economic quarter of the year, according to the Q3 Investor Barometer.

Last quarter, the peer-to-peer lending platform surveyed its 29,000-strong investor base. When asked ‘how will the economic situation impact you in the next three months’, only 9% thought it would be positive, while 40% thought it would be negative.

This compares poorly to Q1 (13% positive, 36% negative) and Q2 (10% positive, 31% negative), as the potential future relationship models with the EU post-Brexit start to become clearer.

Stuart Law, CEO at Assetz Capital said: “While the government may release statistics that claim the economy is in good health, our investors are not as bullish. In fact, with confidence fading in the government’s ability to secure a good Brexit deal, our investment community is expecting this quarter to be the worst of the year.

“Until this uncertainty is lifted, we expect that conventional means of business investment will continue to stall, breeding further concern for the economy. Although peer-to-peer lending has inherent risks, it now represents the best opportunity for SMEs to secure growth capital, drive employment and give the economy a shot in the arm.”

(Source: Assetz Capital Limited)

After a night of counting the votes, it was revealed at exactly 06:00 BST this morning that Britain had voted to leave the EU. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that he is stepping down by October, saying:

“I fought this campaign in the only way I know how – which is to say directly and passionately what I think and feel- head, heart and soul. I held nothing back. I was absolutely clear about my belief that Britain is stronger, safer and better off inside the European Union. And I made clear that the Referendum was about this and this alone – not the future of any single politician, including myself. But the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path. And as such, I think that the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction. “

The referendum has seen the highest turnout at a UK-wide vote since 1992 – 71.8% with more than 30 million people voting. 51.9 % of those voted to Leave by 48.1%. While England and Wales voted strongly for Britain to leave the EU, London, Scotland and Northern Ireland strongly disagreed with Brexit.

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage, who has been campaigning for Britain to leave the EU in the past two decades, said that today would “go down in history as our independence day”.

As the UK heads for Brexit, the pound has fallen dramatically hitting a 30-year low and plummeting to $1.3236 at one stage earlier this morning. In the opening minutes of trade, the FTSE 100 Index fell more than 500 points before regaining some ground.

Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown comments: ‘Global stock markets have taken a Brexit hit, with European markets actually falling more than the Footsie. Safe haven assets have soared as investors sought security, with gold rising 5% and UK bond yields plunging to historic lows.On the stock market, banks and housebuilders have been hit particularly hard this morning as markets try to factor in the Brexit effect on the UK economy.Sterling has fallen to its lowest level for over 30 years , which will mean holidaymakers heading abroad in the coming weeks will have to dig extra deep to buy foreign currency.Investors should carefully consider their plans and avoid a knee-jerk reaction. The coming days are likely to be choppy on the stock market as it digests the ramifications of Brexit, and further falls are possible.However markets will bounce back at some point, and investors who switch to cash risk buying back into the market at a higher level, and ending up in a worse position than if they had just stayed put.’

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said this morning that: "Some market and economic volatility can be expected as this process unfold. But we are well prepared for this. The Treasury and the Bank of England have engaged in extensive contingency planning and the Chancellor and I have been in close contact, including through the night and this morning.

"The Bank will not hesitate to take additional measures as required as markets adjust and the UK economy moves forward."

As the Article 50 two-year deadline approaches following the referendum results, David Cameron will be put under pressure to "steady the ship" over the coming weeks. Remain campaigners believe that it is possible that the Brexit could result in reverting to trading with the EU under World Trade Organization rules, which would involve exporters being hit by import taxes or tariffs.

After all 32 local authority areas in Scotland returned majorities for Remain, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the referendum results make it “clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union".

Germany's foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier commented that today is "a sad day for Europe and Great Britain".

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