Approve.com Blog

It’s not uncommon for CEOs, CFOs or COOs to find themselves debating the question of whether their company is in need of a procurement manager.  Companies can sometimes manage without a procurement manager. But having a person in charge of this role can make a tremendous difference in terms of keeping business processes running smoothly,…

If you started reading this series at Part 1, you know that vendor onboarding isn’t actually the piece of cake it’s often believed to be. It’s an important process that’s full of inefficiencies, and that creates major frustration for vendors and employees. Just to recap, the main challenges of vendor onboarding are: Employees don’t have…

For medium and large enterprises in particular, onboarding a new vendor tends to be especially inefficient. Comprising numerous players and moving parts, the process is often characterized by delays and frustration. In this two-part series, we’ll look at the three central challenges to vendor onboarding, examining who these challenges impact and how to overcome them….

Traditionally, different departments within an organization are structured around their own unique functions, objectives and operations. This is often the case for the procurement and finance departments, despite the fact that the relationship between the two is so heavily intertwined.  While at their core, the functions of the procurement and finance departments differ, their processes…

Discovering that procurement and purchasing actually relate to two different business activities comes as a major surprise to many. Sure, procurement involves the act of purchasing something. But procurement and purchasing are two separate and unique processes, and it’s important to understand the differences between them. Let’s begin with a couple simple definitions: Procurement involves…