Electronic Procurement - A Smarter, Faster and Safer Answer
Saving both money and time are amongst the top priorities for every business, large or small.
Finance teams are having to become more and more creative when introducing cost cutting measures in an effort to turn red to black.
Each aspect of a business is now under closer scrutiny than ever before, every internal and external process is being analysed, every role is being stress-tested and every penny spent needs to be justified.
One way in which significant savings can be made is in the automation and streamlining of out-dated paper-based processes such as Procurement.
Electronic Procurement, also known as E-Procurement, replaces the manual Procure-to-Pay (P2P) process, whether it is a paper or free-text based procedure, with an automated system that can be easily controlled and fully integrated with an existing ERP, Finance package or CRM system.
An immediate and key benefit is the reduction in 'maverick spending', staff going outside the normal purchasing patterns to acquire an 'essential' item, by-passing any controls in place, paying more and often-times causing headaches for the AP department.
This ad-hoc purchasing can be a huge time and cost drain, resulting in pressure on resources; with knock-on effects on personnel, stock visibility, budgeting and purchasing control.
The first stage of implementing a successful E-Procurement process is getting buy-in from both staff and suppliers - the two groups that will ultimately spend most time engaging with the system.
Once staff members understand the process, the system can be rolled out across a single section, a whole department or company-wide, allowing appointed approvers full visibility over a single stage or the entire process.
With the system is in place, ensuring that is used correctly and efficiently is the next step.
A well designed system will, by its very nature, encourage use, even for the more complex multiple line requirements.
A simple step-by-step process will not allow for deviations, supplier catalogues are at hand, agreed pricing structures are in place and required approvals are automatically routed to the appropriate manager.
Defined user roles and approval hierarchies ensure that each requisition request undergoes a defined level of scrutiny prior to its approval, resulting in significant reduction in requisition-to-order times.
The right E-Procurement system enables improved visibility for finance departments and gives them the ability to accurately account for an organisation's entire spending commitments at any stage of the purchasing process.
Powerful in-built reporting allows organisations to dynamically monitor each step of their entire procurement process, addressing problems quickly and efficiently.
Analysis documents and reports can be generated making the entire process transparent and allowing bottlenecks, overspends and other potential pitfalls to be quickly identified and rectified.
Another key advantage of an electronic procurement system is the facility to monitor, evaluate and manage suppliers.
Quality, price and service can all be easily reviewed using the reporting and analysis tools, clearly illustrating spending patterns and quickly highlighting any issues.
This visibility puts businesses in a strong position when negotiating with suppliers for reduced rates and special terms.
Security protocols can be set up at each stage of the approvals process; this reduces the risk of fraud and errant orders by enforcing user authentication to allow the order to move on to the next stage.
Full audit logging captures all requisition activity and stores it on a compliant archive, satisfying even the most stringent of internal and governmental compliance guidelines.
There are a number of automated solutions on the market today.
Key to requirements is that the chosen solution fully integrates with existing ERP and/or finance packages thus enabling organisations to streamline their end-to-end procurement process and automate even the most complex of procurement procedures, as well as providing real-time reporting of entire spend.
Replacing and improving out-dated paper-based processes can be a huge time & money saver; adopting an Electronic E-Procurement solution is a big step in the right direction.
Finance teams are having to become more and more creative when introducing cost cutting measures in an effort to turn red to black.
Each aspect of a business is now under closer scrutiny than ever before, every internal and external process is being analysed, every role is being stress-tested and every penny spent needs to be justified.
One way in which significant savings can be made is in the automation and streamlining of out-dated paper-based processes such as Procurement.
Electronic Procurement, also known as E-Procurement, replaces the manual Procure-to-Pay (P2P) process, whether it is a paper or free-text based procedure, with an automated system that can be easily controlled and fully integrated with an existing ERP, Finance package or CRM system.
An immediate and key benefit is the reduction in 'maverick spending', staff going outside the normal purchasing patterns to acquire an 'essential' item, by-passing any controls in place, paying more and often-times causing headaches for the AP department.
This ad-hoc purchasing can be a huge time and cost drain, resulting in pressure on resources; with knock-on effects on personnel, stock visibility, budgeting and purchasing control.
The first stage of implementing a successful E-Procurement process is getting buy-in from both staff and suppliers - the two groups that will ultimately spend most time engaging with the system.
Once staff members understand the process, the system can be rolled out across a single section, a whole department or company-wide, allowing appointed approvers full visibility over a single stage or the entire process.
With the system is in place, ensuring that is used correctly and efficiently is the next step.
A well designed system will, by its very nature, encourage use, even for the more complex multiple line requirements.
A simple step-by-step process will not allow for deviations, supplier catalogues are at hand, agreed pricing structures are in place and required approvals are automatically routed to the appropriate manager.
Defined user roles and approval hierarchies ensure that each requisition request undergoes a defined level of scrutiny prior to its approval, resulting in significant reduction in requisition-to-order times.
The right E-Procurement system enables improved visibility for finance departments and gives them the ability to accurately account for an organisation's entire spending commitments at any stage of the purchasing process.
Powerful in-built reporting allows organisations to dynamically monitor each step of their entire procurement process, addressing problems quickly and efficiently.
Analysis documents and reports can be generated making the entire process transparent and allowing bottlenecks, overspends and other potential pitfalls to be quickly identified and rectified.
Another key advantage of an electronic procurement system is the facility to monitor, evaluate and manage suppliers.
Quality, price and service can all be easily reviewed using the reporting and analysis tools, clearly illustrating spending patterns and quickly highlighting any issues.
This visibility puts businesses in a strong position when negotiating with suppliers for reduced rates and special terms.
Security protocols can be set up at each stage of the approvals process; this reduces the risk of fraud and errant orders by enforcing user authentication to allow the order to move on to the next stage.
Full audit logging captures all requisition activity and stores it on a compliant archive, satisfying even the most stringent of internal and governmental compliance guidelines.
There are a number of automated solutions on the market today.
Key to requirements is that the chosen solution fully integrates with existing ERP and/or finance packages thus enabling organisations to streamline their end-to-end procurement process and automate even the most complex of procurement procedures, as well as providing real-time reporting of entire spend.
Replacing and improving out-dated paper-based processes can be a huge time & money saver; adopting an Electronic E-Procurement solution is a big step in the right direction.
