An e-procurement system that is correctly implemented can connect a company’s business directly with suppliers and manage all of the interactions between them. It is much more than simply a system to make purchases on the Internet. This interaction includes multiple emails that are sent to multiple participants, questions and answers, bids and tenders, and management of all correspondence.
A good e-procurement system can help a business organize it’s interactions with its most critical suppliers. It can assure maximum supplier performance and control costs by providing those businesses that use it with a set of monitoring tolls that are built in. During the business process it will provide an organized method to maintain open lines of communications with potential suppliers. The e-procurement system permits managers to leverage previous agreements by confirming pricing to make sure that each new price quote is more competitive than the previous one was.
A good e-procurement will help with the decision making process by maintaining relevant information neatly time stamped and organized. Most of this information is driven by templates which make all transactions able to be tracked and standardized. Keeping track of all bids means that businesses can focus their efforts on their most lucrative contracts and trading partners and leverage their knowledge in order to obtain better pricing.
An e-procurement system that is managed well can also help to reduce inventory levels. Knowing contact points, bid prices and product numbers can help companies close a deal while other suppliers are busy trying to collect their data that is relevant.
E-procurement systems that permit multiple permissions and access levels will help managers to organize administrative users by tasks, groups, or roles. Procurement managers don’t need to be as highly paid or trained since these systems are easy to learn and standardized.
Some businesses have had problems such as supplier participation in their system and content management because many of their transactions are still taking place on paper. Most businesses who want to switch to an e-procurement system are one of two types. Some follow the total replacement model where they slowly implement on piece of the system at a time to bring their trading partners on board. They build a completely parallel system and then switch over to it after it is working. Usually, there are some mistakes that are discovered and corrected but the company will continue on. Others adopt a step by step method.
No business should take on more that they can handle. The approach using a parallel system should only be used if you have the resources than the time to do it. The incremental approach is best if the business doesn’t have the resources or the time.
The business shouldn’t expect a return on investment (ROI) immediately. They might notice a gain in the short term but this can be used up by the cost of equipment and staff training. The business should see a larger ROI a year or two down the road.
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