Business Tips: 5 Ways to Improve e-Procurement
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Procurement is an important process for a company. In other words, it becomes an important department for a company. As a result of its role for a company to analyze suppliers to buy products to get a higher benefit. Its department needs to communicate across the division.
In general, purchase processes are starting from making a plan to analyze the objective of a company, decide some good supplier standards, selecting the best supplier, controlling supplier performance until doing all evaluation processes. Those are important things to do a manual purchase or even digital.
In the digital era nowadays we recognize not only manual process, but also digital or as known as electronic purchase. The manual purchase is highly similar to electronic purchases but moves much faster. It means more efficiency related to document processing such as purchase requisitions, faster signatures, and purchase orders for the chosen supplier.
An electronic purchase is more than just a system for making purchases online. It has so many advantages for a company not only in document processing but also in saving much cost and time. These are the following ways for improving electronic purchases for the business.
1. Planning Electronic Purchase Process
The first important thing to make a better purchase process is planning. A professional purchaser needs to plan all processes. This process hasn’t involved other parties yet, just like B2B company, but it’s just the internal scope. A professional purchaser needs to plan the objective of a company includes goods, services, financial needs, and legal regulations.
The first step to decide the objective of a company or user in identifying and decide goods or services needs using electronic documents. Checking all items or goods stock to anticipate the lack and the void stock of goods. A professional purchaser can check the status of the goods using the system.
The purchase system will give you many information and data about which goods need to restock. For example, the status of goods for the operational department such as safety gloves and shoes is red or less quantity. It means that you need to restock to anticipate a bad thing.
Before making a procurement decision, you need to coordinate across the department. Communicate across the department can do through the system. When a professional purchaser releases purchase requisitions, all related departments will get the notification. They can give approval, feedback, or inquiry.
Approval in buying something makes a process clear and it prevents you to buy the wrong goods. The electronic system makes your work easier. For example, if you buy office goods, you just have an automatic notification and don’t need much time to collect data and analyze it.
Planning is about setting a budget and finances. This will be a crucial process because you have to coordinate with other departments. You need to calculate an estimation of the budget, then propose a budget to the financial manager. After having approval from the financial manager, you can continue to the next process.
2. Researching and Analyzing Companies
One way for improving electronic procurement is by researching and analyzing companies. If you need goods or services on a large scale, you can contact a big supplier to provide your company needs. There are some standards to choose the best supplier.
If the supplier is new, you need to analyze so many aspects. Just like product, service, and guarantee. A delivery system and payment method are important things to analyze. You need to ask about the delivery system and schedule an agreement. Meanwhile, the payment method should give benefit both companies.
When you buy a product or service on a large scale that has been purchased before in a big supplier such as a B2B company and it might already be decided so it might cut some processes such as analyzing. A professional purchaser doesn’t need to analyze many aspects again and only check data in the electronic system.
An electronic system will show the track record or reputation of an existing supplier such as timely delivery of goods whether it is on time as scheduled or having lateness. Quality products and service guarantees are also recorded in the electronic system. When there’s a problem with usage in a short time and the supplier gives solutions, it is also recorded in the system.
To analyze the price of a product consider many things such as budget and product price. Comparing the price of some vendors is also needed to get the best supplier. Looking for information on the internet or asking the company for a bidding proposal. Checking statistics in an electronic system is needed especially for the existing supplier.
A much simpler way is visiting an intermediary website as Astacipta.com. You could compare prices between suppliers while running a deep survey. No need worrying about product quality, because all the products in astacipta are 100% original. We have official authority to sell products directly from our principal overseas to customers.
3. Selecting the Best Company to Support Your Needs
After analyzing big suppliers such as B2B company, the next process is selecting a supplier. For selecting the best supplier, you can choose many ways such as asking for proposals and bidding requests. In the case of purchase in a small quantity, electronic systems often allow requisitions automatically.
You need to notify approval by all related departments or feedback in the system. If you need to discuss feedback, a meeting becomes something important. All related department managers and need to approve the order before sending a purchase order to the supplier.
For getting a special price, you need to negotiate with the chosen supplier. You can use negotiation skills to get a special offer.
After all related department gives approval, a professional purchaser can process to electronic signatures. It can make the purchase process faster. If you need a faster signature because of the importance of the product to be processed, you can do it by the system. After completing all processes, you can send a purchase order to the supplier automatically.
4. Controlling and Monitoring Supplier Performance by System
One important thing using e-procurement is to ease controlling and monitoring orders. It is one option to track their performance after making a contract. Its electronic system keeps you consistently working with the best suppliers.
You can check the status of the order in the system such as the timely delivery of goods quality and service guarantee are also recorded in the purchase system. When there’s a problem with usage in a short time and the supplier gives solutions, it is also recorded in the electronic system.
When another department asks about the status of the order, you just can monitor the big suppliers or B2B company. It will be your controlled items and ease you to follow-up with the suppliers. An electronic purchase can control supplier performance not only for the present need but also for consideration for the next order.
It is a different situation when you don’t have an electronic system. You don’t have valid data to analyze supplier performance in the next order and collaboration. Your order isn’t finished until the order is completed.
5. Closing Purchase Process and Evaluation
Evaluation is an important thing in the purchase system when collaborating with the B2B company. If you don’t have the evaluation system, you don’t have valid and important data to support future purchasing decisions. To understand that the purchase process is completed, all you need to check is a contract or agreement.
You need to check all items mentioned in the contract such as terms and conditions of the contract time, delivery of goods, and payment method. You need to communicate across departments related to the payment process to process it well.
There are so many benefits to using an electronic purchase system. It can meet your business needs and make you get more benefits. No matter what your purchasing process, you can make the best purchase using an e-procurement system.
