E-procurement & digital purchasing
Purchasing management, for many people seen as a succession of administrative tasks, has benefited in recent years from a digital revolution that has made it an ally of general management. The dematerialisation of purchasing means that tasks can be automated, enabling companies toimprove their strategic processes. E-procurement reflects the digital transformation that began a few years ago, and has since established itself as one of the new management solutions of choice for businesses. Popular with purchasing departments, these digital tools offer essential advantages for forward-looking businesses. Far from being exclusive, the digitisation of purchasing processes is opening up to French companies of all sizes. Find out in this article about the benefits of implementing a digital e-procurement solution.
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The e-procurement service for professionals
The term e-procurement service is used to describe a process that enables professionals to purchase materials, products or even services over the internet. Like Amazon, which makes personal purchases instant and easy, this process is increasingly being applied to the B-to-B (Business to Business) sector. In other words, companies.
The E-procurement service enables you to connect with your suppliers via a digital interface, and all your company’s purchasing procedures can be administered from this online tool. This is a very practical service, particularly in a health crisis situation where interactions with stakeholders are difficult: teleworking, decentralisation of processes, supplier risks, etc. Thanks to an online supply management tool, you can control risks within your organisation. The needs of your internal customers are immediately known, approved remotely and your supplier relations maintained.
This means that e-procurement is an exclusively professional service. A company’s purchasing chain is closely interwoven with its various corporate functions. Guaranteeing purchasing procedures and centralising data are of strategic importance, especially when the purchasing process is linked to the production process. The popularisation of e-procurement services has brought significant changes to corporate purchasing. For example, certain products for professionals can only be purchased via e-procurement. The user experience when selecting products, as well as the exhaustiveness of a range of products or services, means that the strategy can be taken further with purchasing contracts, for example.
Simplified processes thanks to e-procurement
E-procurement enables savings to be made in a number of ways, because it optimises a company’s purchasing organisation. It minimises the number of direct interactions between people byautomating processes. Supplier management is also optimised, because it is possible to quickly identify suppliers and their product catalogues. This means that in-house staff can easily compare the supplier offers available to them. The order is then sent to the digital validation circuit, the management parameters are analysed via the validation workflow, and the overall ordering process is streamlined. E-procurement even routes the supplier invoice through to the order, simplifying processing.
Delivery takes place quickly, as soon as the group in charge receives notification that an order has been placed and needs to be delivered. This is much faster than with a physical supplier, who imposes a succession of manual tasks on one of the representatives. The process is even more complex when subcontractors are included. Ultimately, the error rate is reduced. The stages in the purchasing process are thus optimised and buyers’ practices improved, as they are better able to concentrate on implementing value-added tasks.
E-procurement for optimised purchasing
C-class purchases are much more practical for companies: all indirect purchases such as office supplies, personal protective equipment, etc. This is thanks in particular to the facilitation of the process by means of software solutions from which :
- Far fewer participants are required in the purchasing process,
- Orders are placed in record time
- Redundant tasks are automated
The speed of purchasing procedures is certainly one of the major benefits of e-procurement. This involves all the tasks that a company needs to manage in order to function properly. When it takes too long, it can be detrimental to the company and generate costs.
The automation of tasks and the reduction in the number of people involved in the process converge on the same advantage: the reduction in errors. With software, there is much less chance of errors occurring during the purchasing process, whereas information passed from one person to another can be misunderstood, causing problems. Purchasing software ensures the traceability and completeness of information.
Better expense management
Expenses also benefit greatly from an online purchasing management tool. Without e-procurement, the budget allocated to a company’s purchasing function can quickly be exceeded. E-procurement limits as many unnecessary and time-consuming steps as possible so that you can concentrate on what’s really important: meeting the internal customer’s needs. At the same time, it limits the associated process costs.
The time saved is more than just time saved. Expenditure is reduced from the outset thanks to greater transparency of information. With the purchasing process, it’s not uncommon to come up against hidden costs that you don’t necessarily realise. Here, you have all the crucial information in front of you, eliminating this risk.
E-procurement is therefore a key resource for companies looking to modernise their purchasing management. With Weproc, digitalise the administrative management of your purchasing process and improve your company’s profitability.
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Weproc is a SaaS software specialized in digitizing the procurement process of companies. From purchase requests to supplier invoicing, through the validation process, Weproc is designed to simplify the purchase management of SMEs and mid-sized companies by centralizing all purchase-related activities.