How it Helps to Hire an Ivalua Consultant

In most cases, when a company makes a huge investment they want to get as high of a return on it as possible. When it comes to investing in the Ivalua platform, the best way to get the highest return from it is to hire an experienced Ivalua consultant. With the help of an expert when it comes to a digital transformation there is much less of an impact on the company, and the amount of time that it takes to see results can be much shorter.

Why Hire a Consultant?

For most people, when their vehicle breaks down, they bring it to a mechanic to have it repaired. The reason for this is that the mechanic is an expert in what they do. If a person has no knowledge of how vehicles work or even how to pop the hood, they have no business trying to fix their own car.

Although a consultant will not fix your car for you, they will show you how to be really good at whatever it is they are consulting you for. When it comes to a qualified Ivalua consultant, they will have extensive knowledge in regards to the platform, and the way that businesses operate financially.

Some of the benefits of hiring a consultant to help with an Ivalua implementation are:

• Extensive knowledge of the platform
• Trained and educated in all aspects of procurement
• Able to guide and direct efficiently
• Able to show how to get the most out of the investment

Where business owners will only have limited knowledge about the platform that they have experienced during the course of their purchasing journey, a seasoned consultant will be able to provide them with a deeper understanding of how the program works for their particular business, and the best practices to get the most out of the investment.

Understanding the Way Procurement Works

Most businesses rely on the way that they manage their finances. While procurement is only one part of the financial aspect of the company, if it is not done correctly there is the risk of losing a substantial amount of money for each procurement cycle.

While the old style of procurement and sourcing may have been about calling around to different potential sources and trying to get the best deals, the new way of sourcing through the Ivalua platform will be able to provide a robust list of all of the potential sources for the business and package them out in a neat report.

In addition to the platform being able to find great sources, things can be taken further by the application reaching out to the potential sources and establishing deals so that there is not much need for an extra set of people to work overtime trying to locate the sources and bring them into contracts.

What all of this means is that a consultant will be able to show the company how to leverage the software so that it can strategically pick out the best sources by being programmed to do so with details and parameters for the searches.

Finding sources that offer the same goods or services for a substantially lower amount of money can put the business at an advantage and allow it to gain revenue by saving money. However, if the software is not correctly set up, there is a good chance that the potential for saving money could be lost by the wayside, and nobody will ever know it.

Not Technologically Challenged

Let’s face it, not everybody is as savvy about technology as they would like to be. One of the reasons why is that it evolves and changes so quickly that it is challenging to keep up with. When it comes to a platform as sophisticated and robust as Ivalua it takes an advanced knowledge of technology and how it works to know how to set it up and be in harmony with the specific needs of the company.

Because an Ivalua consultant is trained specifically in the platform they know every side of the program from one end to the other. Where it would take an inexperienced person a long time to figure out how to set up different functions within the platform, the consultant would be able to show the administrator how to set up the platform and configure it to be exactly the way the company that is using it needs it.

The less time and resources a company spends on a certain task, the less money, and energy it has to expel in order to get things done. Where the absence of a consultant could cause costs to rise far above a budget, having one on board could potentially cut enough costs to cover the costs of the consultant.

Training and Educational Value

Who would be better to train the employees of a company on how to use the platform than a seasoned professional who knows everything about it? During the initial setup phase of the platform, there will be a pretty big learning curve for the employees that are being introduced to the software. A consultant can bridge the gap between the knowledge of the employees and what needs to be understood about the setup.

Between the new business structure and the lack of knowledge from workers, there can be a huge loss of production that could be avoided if the implementation was guided by a professional that could lead the company through the murky discovery phase of the application and how it operates.

Training the employees how to use the software as it is being installed can:

• Cut down on the learning curve time
• Help everybody understand the platform as it expands
• Ease frustration and confusion
• Help the whole company to prepare for the transition

As the implementation continues to unfold and the company continues to use it there will be changes in every aspect of the business. One of the key factors that a consultant can provide is continual training and education as the software progresses and gets updated.

Bringing the Team Together

One of the phenomenal skills that a consultant can bring to the table is the ability to be a great leader. The insight and knowledge that they have are readily at the fingertips of anybody that asks for it. Instead of focusing on one aspect of the implementation, the consultant will be able to see things from perspective to the entire picture. Where putting the software together correctly and training the people how to use it is important, encouraging the people to move forward as a team so that the company gets the most out of the investment is an even bigger part of the equation that is not forgotten.

Conclusion

The difference between having the help of a seasoned professional during the implementation of the Ivalua platform, and trying to do it alone is like night and day. Sure, there are plenty of companies that actually install the platform and get it running without a consultant, but somewhere down the line, sooner or later, they are going to need help. Whether it is at the beginning f the installation or way later down the road after they have wasted hundreds of work hours to get things done, they will need help. Why wait until you absolutely need it if you can get all of the assistance you need from the beginning and skip the frustration?