OVERVIEW

A second wave of coal plant closures is projected across the United States in the next five to ten years. The first wave began in the early 2000s and was driven solely by economic considerations. The coming second wave will be driven by similar economic considerations but will be buoyed by socio-political factors. Net-zero, renewable portfolio standards, and other clean energy emission goals and mandates, coupled with a new emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, will accelerate the timing of coal plant retirements. ScottMadden projects the end of coal as an electric generation source in the United States sometime within this century.

Procure-to-pay (P2P) is a value chain with many moving parts that span procurement as well as finance—which means that there are plenty of challenges that can occur as the process is executed. Oftentimes, challenges related to P2P come from a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities for parts of the process, confusion from customers who feel the process is too complex, or an inability to focus on strategic and value-added work in the midst of daily transaction processing.

End-to-end processes like procure-to-pay (P2P) transcend business silos and functional boundaries. To coordinate the work of separate functions across the entire value chain, leading organizations centralize governance of the end-to-end process in a single process owner. This governance structure helps ensure that activities like measurement, process standardization, and process improvements all work in service of the larger end-to-end process.

Designing and implementing a new service delivery model for procurement is no small feat. This form of procurement transformation requires sophisticated project management, substantive changes to policies and processes, new designs for organizational structure, robust change management, enabling technologies, and more. Coordinating all of these activities can quickly become messy and overwhelming if it is not carefully planned and orchestrated.

Beginning in the mid- to late-2000s, many procurement organizations evolved from a largely decentralized model to one that is more centralized and focused on strategic procurement activities. As a result, organizations today are looking for improvements through new areas of focus like automation, strategic sourcing, and category management. However, challenges including unclear roles, ineffective uses of technology, and poor customer service continue to plague procurement and the procure-to-pay (P2P) process in many organizations.