US-based finance automation platform Ramp has announced its expansion into procurement and entered a partnership with Canada-based Shopify . Ramp representatives cited by Techcrunch revealed that the company decided to enter the procurement space in a bid to shift its focus on complex enterprises.

Some of the ways Ramp's customers save money is by finding best prices for software and by auto-completing expense reports. The company started out by focusing on small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), but it now works with family-owned businesses, fast-growing tech startups, and large enterprises. Ramp has been chosen by ecommerce enablement company Shopify as its exclusive expense management provider.

Following this development, Ramp launched a new edition of its flagship product offering that has a series of built-in capabilities for businesses. This additional tier was developed as a response to the needs of Shopify and other large companies. Detailed information about Ramp Plus Ramp Plus was designed to integrate bill payments, vendor management and price intelligence, procure-to-pay, and spend management into a single unified platform.

The platform allows businesses to access more information regarding spend requests and gives them the ability to perform price benchmark software purchases before committing to a purchase. Businesses can also negotiate with one click, pay their vendors, and finance all payment methods by leveraging granular controls. Some of the main advantages of Ramp Plus include: Controlling shadow spending from employee purchasing with an automated and customised procurement solution.  Helping businesses scale with ease and operate anywhere in the world, with consolidated global spending across international and domestic entities.  Automating complex financial processes within minutes with custom workflows.  Integrating within existing stacks across HRIS, ERP, and data warehousing, using custom and flexible integrations and best-in-class APIs.  Preventing overspending with advanced roles, permissions, and policy enforcement.

Ramp Plus also includes a new, automated 'procure-to-pay solution' that was designed to provide large enterprises with an alternative to the likes of Amex and Concur. Ramp Plus will be available as an optional, paid plan in early September 2023. However, the company has decided to provide all its existing SMBs and mid-market business customers with complimentary access for one year. In the company press release Ramp officials talked about the expectations businesses have from their financial services software and mentioned the importance of efficient procurement cycles and a centralized view of the process from purchase requests to vendor management and payment.

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