Monday, 5 January 2015

Adopting an Electronic Procurement Process

Authored by  Junaid Khan 


eProcurement is B2B or B2C or B2G procurement of products or services through an automated electronic platform such as internet or any other ERP system. eProcurement allows qualified vendors to submit their online technical and commercial responses against the different requirements of buyer organization. eProcurement is a real value addition of eCommerce solutions which not only facilitate but also integrate and streamline the whole procurement process. 

A well-organized ERP system can helps the organization to minimize process costs by fast transaction of purchase orders. Transparency, accountability, efficiency in cost effectiveness is the keen pillars of an eProcurement cycle. Different organisations have their own systems and documentation which is being used by procurement staff during the procurement process and for time being these tools may carry out the procurement cycle in an efficient manner but there is always a need for implementation of well-mannered eProcurment system with core procurement fundamentals for automation of the process. These fundamental elements include eRequsition, eVendor Management, eCatalog, eTendering, eContract Management ePerformance Management and eInvoice management. 

By the implementation of an eProcurement System or ERP system organisations can reduce entire purchase cycle and purchase cost. The eProcurement dramatically reduces error in the procurement process, as orders are created by selecting items from catalogs within the system.  Process efficiency is a benefit to implementing an electronic procurement system, but workload efficiency is not the only benefit. eProcurement produces tangible spend savings through strategic sourcing, maverick spend reduction, and by identifying cost saving opportunities. The most important from all the real factors, eProcurement can shift transaction process to the end users who actually using the purchased products or services; it can gave extra time to supply management personnel for strategic value creation work.