logo
logo
Sign in

How does eProcurement Work? What are the E-procurement challenges?

avatar
AlexHale
How does eProcurement Work? What are the E-procurement challenges?

Inadequate procure-to-pay software systems might cause problems for procurement departments. A procurement cycle can all result from poor procurement planning that is: 

  • Full of bottlenecks 
  • Excessive risk
  • Dark purchasing
  • Damaging data mistakes, and 
  • Problematic supplier difficulties.

Unimpressive and disjointed procurement strategy and execution should not have to burden procurement teams with lost time, lost chances, and improper resource allocation.

We are living in a time when technologies and innovations are booming and updating industry standards. As a result, there is the quick development of technology and corporate needs. The need for procurement teams to be more current than ever with the newest trends and technologies is greater than ever. If they are not, they run the perpetual risk of being quickly surpassed by rivals.

Businesses depend on the procurement process to expand their operations and increase revenue. But, they also invest in digital transformations to move their workflows away from manual and paper-based administration and onto an effective software or web platform. As a result of the combination of these developments, electronic procurement, or e-procurement, has taken over duties like: 

  • Processing purchase requests for approval.
  • Producing purchase requisitions, and 
  • Controlling suppliers.

What Is E-Procurement?

E-procurement is a B2B online ordering and purchasing process for products and services. Based on an online catalog, an e-procurement program streamlines communication between clients and their preferred suppliers.

E-procurement employs a web interface or an app to link buyers and sellers by the standards each of them has established. The eProcurement technology assures compliance with each company's unique set of procurement policies and regulations at every procurement.

Automation assists the buying process. Delivery times are slashed and procurement cycles are shortened thanks to centralized activity tracking, streamlined reporting, and contract adherence.

How Does E-Procurement Works?

E-procurement does away with the need to complete time-consuming procurement-related processes including: 

  • An eauction tool and eTenders
  • Exchanging supplier contracts, and 
  • Completing questionnaires for supplier onboarding.

Through the use of a centralized platform, the process connects multiple entities and processes. One of the most crucial elements of e-procurement is vendor or supplier management. As a result, supplier information management and supplier relationship management are also included.

Among e-other procurement's essential elements are the following:

  • E-sourcing involves defining needs and screening prospective suppliers. E-tendering entails requests for information, proposals, and quotes;
  • E-auctioning involves assessing vendors, contract administration, and negotiation; e-ordering and payment involve issuing requisitions and purchase orders and receiving requested goods.
  • Analytics: view expenditures and take necessary corrective action.

Potential Challenges With E-Procurement

The answer to the question about whether to move to e-procurement should be a strong "yes," since the benefits far surpass any potential disadvantages. But, it is also important to consider its drawbacks to gain a better understanding of how it will benefit your teams.

It Might Not Always Be The Best Option:

The majority of the time, e-procurement makes sense and is particularly effective when working with indirect procurement, or operations that don't involve the production of goods.

But, e-procurement might not be as effective for all purchases. These consist of items that are:

  • They are mission-critical and have limited procurement flexibility.
  • Products with a limited number of exclusive suppliers.
  • Requiring difficult discussions to procure.

Because of how infrequent these occurrences are, e-procurement is still the best option for the vast majority of your purchasing department's tasks.

Legal Compliance Is Still A Concern, But It Is Not A Big Deal:

International laws have an impact on how well e-procurement solutions work, especially those that deal with data privacy. But the common use of business software impacts several laws. So, as long as the service provider you select covers worldwide legal compliance, you don't need to worry too much about it. Ensure that your solution complies with enterprise-grade standards for all its cybersecurity capabilities.

Invest in Staff Training:

Your workers may need some initial training to ensure a smooth transition to the new procurement platform. It can take some time to get used to working with new technologies and procedures at first, but a solution that offers an integration manager will make things much simpler.

As a result, increase the rate of user adoption by offering pertinent training materials in addition to practical experience. Although webinars, blogs, and other internet resources can be quite helpful, giving users walkthroughs and guidelines is much more pertinent and efficient.

How to Buy Software?

We will wrap off with a simple buyer's guide on things to consider while shopping for e-procurement software.

Features:

You must first consider the feature set. As features differ from seller to vendor, make sure what is being offered meets your unique needs. Examples comprise:

Approval processes:

The same transaction is typically approved by several parties. Automated workflows make a guarantee that the next person in line to authorize the transaction can do so right away and move the process along while maintaining complete visibility of all previous actions made.

Three-Way Matching:

Before processing the payment, the crucial three-way match process compares the: 

  • Purchase order
  • Invoice, and 
  • Products received a note to thwart potential fraud.

Options For Personalization:

Is the default deployment inadequate for your requirements? No issue! You can adjust the features and properties of modern procurement software to your liking.

Analytics And Monitoring:

Nothing is more helpful for making future business decisions than a graph or chart that illustrates the areas of procurement that have the greatest financial impact. To be able to review precise data and use the information to decide ever-more-better.

Compatible With The Cloud:

It makes sense to host an e-procurement solution on the cloud. Among other advantages, you are safeguarding your data since service providers have implemented security measures.

It is not unusual for managers to discover additional functions throughout the search that they weren't aware they wanted. Keep an open mind; you never know what you will discover.

The Buying Procedure:

Do you now need e-procurement software? These procedures are normal for any acquisition of business software. The following is the purchase procedure:

  • Gather internal input, list your problems, and look for ways that software may solve them to determine your needs.
  • Establish your time and financial budget. What billing strategy works best for you, and did you allow time in your calendar for staff members to join the platform for the first time?
  • Evaluate your choices. Cross-check the offerings of different e-procurement companies. Are they entirely functional? How do they stand on cybersecurity? If you can ask for quotes or samples.
  • Analyze a specific vendor holistically before making your ultimate choice.

The future? A perfect match might make your quest for an e-procurement platform the last challenging procurement choice you ever have to make!

How to Address Procurement Issues

By creating a centralized method for handling the procurement process, organizations can overcome procurement issues. The stages of such a structured procedure might go as follows:

  • Appropriation justification
  • Finances approved
  • Review of Relevant Standards and Laws
  • Recognizing the Staff in the Procurement Process
  • Starting the purchase process by organizational and governmental requirements.
  • Post-Acquisition Management in its entirety.
  • Procurement teams can improve their procure-to-pay processes with: 
  • Quick and automated approval route discovery.
  • Rules-based procurement cooperation.
  • Intelligent automated workflows.
  • Task instigation to encourage accountability.
  • Potent purchase order management inclusion.
  • Sturdy eSourcing, and many other tools.


collect
0
avatar
AlexHale
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more