88420Enabling UK SME's to manage their supply chains in a remote world via Lightyear's cloud automation and collaboration platformClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe procurement process for most larger SME businesses requires checks and balances to ensure Purchase Orders (POs) are approved and within budget, all of which is reliant upon collaboration and communication between internal approvers. A PO is typically created on paper or on a digital system, and then approved either physically (with a stamp), or via telephone or email audit trail. The approval, exception handling and collaboration is handled outside of the software generating the PO. Once invoices are received, they need manually matched against the PO before being paid. There are a number of challenges with this process, particularly with remote-working requirements during Covid. The primary challenge is physical access to systems and documents. For SMEs that are using paper based POs, they can no longer share physical documents. For SMEs that are already using PO software (such as the market leader, Sage) these are typically old legacy solutions sitting on a desktop or office server. Most of the UK's existing PO systems are desktop/server-based that either require physical access to the desktop or to be within the SME's Protected Network (VPN) due to security requirements. These systems are therefore inaccessible from staff's remote homes. Our project will build upon Lightyear's existing market leading Accounts Payable platform. Lightyear's award winning platform is already used by more than 3,000 businesses globally, and is saving them up to 80% of their costs (and time) by automating data-extraction and removing all traces of paper from the Accounts Payable process. The project will research, design and build a cloud-accessible PO collaboration platform, accessible from any Browser or Mobile Device. The PO platform will include Lightyear's existing security framework built on the Amazon Web Services technology stack and will comply with ISO27001 security standards. This will allow us to scale the project to businesses of all sizes and meet any security concerns. Lightyear's PO platform will enable SMEs and mid-tier businesses to create digital orders, and set up internal approval workflows which will seamlessly send POs to the relevant internal approvers, before sending the PO to the supplier. The supplier will then acknowledge receipt of the order via a hyperlink in the PO, and also allow the supplier to dynamically add notes/responses to the PO itself. The platform will allow total collaboration between all internal users and their suppliers, and provide a full digital audit history of the notes, interactions and approval milestones. Finally, lightyear will automatically match Invoices to Purchase Orders providing the full end to end procurement solution. The technology will be available from anywhere, and enable businesses to enhance collaboration between their teams whilst working remotely or in the office. The Global economy is facing unimaginable costs and challenges in their supply chain management. The Lightyear Purchase Order platform will be the global leader in accessible, affordable cloud based procurement software. The technology platform will be designed and built in Lightyear's Belfast Headquarters and will be made available globally.