E-Procurement, the importance of Digital Procurement Transformation

By Pratik Narula, Partner & Managing Director, PeoplePlus Software, Inc. 12 Comments

Traditional purchasing or procurement management involves the scouting of various suppliers or vendors, evaluating and negotiating terms, and acquiring the required products or services. In today’s ever-changing digital world, procurement has evolved immensely into a digital tool allowing businesses to interact with one another and reduce cost on commodity goods, parts, and

Procurement management has four main functions: planning, scouting and sourcing, communicating, and closing.

Supply Chain software systems incorporate real-time inventory intelligence, to allow purchasing managers to automate their product requirements or procurement needs. By managing their consumption, monitoring minimum and maximum values, and tracking reorder quantities – managers can generate automated purchase orders. Additionally, purchasing managers also have to manage their vendor database and track their vendor contracts to define and update inventory costs.

Some of the key responsibilities and decision making that needs to be made include:

• Association between various vendors and inventory categories, individual parts

• Determine a selection criterion to help narrow down potential suppliers

• Call for proposals and bids; vendor rating/scorecard

• Form contract and maintain relationship

Data Driven Procurement

With the emergence of digital platforms (Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and many other personalized ecommerce hubs) which allow for B2b or B2c operations to sell their products to the end user – companies must adapt to data driven systems in order to provide competitive pricing and service to their customers. As per a study conducted by E&Y, by 2025 procurement decision making will be significantly influenced by high quality data analysis.

Revamp Procurement

PeoplePlus Software Inc., has developed a cloud-based platform, iM3 SCM, which automates inventory management, procurement, vendor management, vendor contract management, warehouse management, receiving, put away, order picking, invoice generation, quote/sales management and several other functions which enable digital transformation and efficiency. A solution developed keeping in mind the exact needs of the Supply Chain management functions, iM3scm a scalable, robust tool to optimize your SCM operations. iM3 procurement and purchasing management module provides visibility for product requirements and automates the purchasing process. Other valuable features include Min/Max Set up, Automated suggested reorder, Vendor Contract management, One Click Purchase Order generation, PO Releases and more. iM3 assures improved cash flows and accuracy.

Reap the benefits of consistent good quality, cost effective procurements with PeoplePlus Software’s iM3 SCM Suite - for your procurement management operations.