E-procurement solutions: how can companies save money?

These days, everything can be done remotely. New solutions are flourishing on the market, with the aim of improving business productivity. E-procurement digitises a company’s purchasing process. With management tools such as e-procurement, it is now easier for every company to dematerialise transactions, resulting in considerable savings. In this article, we’d like to give you a few tips on how to successfully implement an e-procurement IT project and generate value for your organisation.

Understanding the e-procurement concept

Before going into the details of how to use e-procurement, it is important to understand the concept. As with anything else, mastering the key points is essential. To make savings with e-procurement, you first need to take the time to understand how it works. After that, it will be easier for you to adapt the advice to your company’s situation.

E-procurement is a supply management module developed as part of the new technologies available to company departments. In practice, it translates into online procurement, but in reality it offers an innovative purchasing experience that contributes to an organisation’s performance. It consists of a number of stages, including

• Product selection: this is done viaa platform interface, often in the form of a catalogue. By using the platform, the company automatically defines the main suppliers in its procurement process. It is also possible for the tool to group together several suppliers at once. With a single click, the order is sent directly to the supplier concerned.
• Sending the order: the purchase validation workflow leads directly to sending the order, to which the supplier must respond within a certain timeframe. This lays the foundations for future commercial transactions.
• Receiving the invoice: following all these operations, you automatically receive your electronic invoices so that you can pay your partners once the order has been processed. The whole process is carried out online. The invoice is also dematerialised, saving you time and money on processing.
  

Optimised purchasing management

If a company is to make real savings, it needs to adopt a purchasing policy to limit uncontrolled buying and define approval thresholds in line with the interests of the organisation. It’s true that the needs of each branch of the company may be different, but that doesn’t mean that just anyone can make purchases. An effective purchasing process must therefore be defined.

The most practical and cost-effective way of optimising your company’s purchasing management is to use e-procurement software. As already explained, everything is mapped out, making it easier for a handful of players to control operations and expenditure. This centralisation gives you control over all the purchases you make. As a result, it will be much easier to limit expenditure and take advantage of end-of-year discounts by making good use of supplier contracts. The great advantage of e-procurement is that suppliers often promote their products. As a result, consumers, particularly businesses, enjoyintrinsic advantages thanks to this type of software.

Centralise purchasing and accounts payable management

Once again, centralised purchasing is mentioned because it aims tooptimise purchasing management. Already, it offers a large number of advantages compared with supply management. But thanks to the digitalisation of supplier management, it is much easier to identify and exploit performance indicators. Average cost per order, coverage of purchases under contract, supplier payment times… the purchasing strategy is improved.

What’s more, with the digitisation of purchasing, all the parties involved in the company will be able to keep an eye on the financial situation. In this way, relations with suppliers are also optimised, because invoices are always paid on time. With reliable expenditure commitments, real-time visibility of budgets and well-constituted provisions, your company can make financial gains.

Controlling expenditure

With e-procurement, you can keep a tight rein on your company’s spending. But to do this, you first need toadopt the right techniques, such as reducing administrative management and manual tasks as much as possible, which are not insignificant costs. Next, you need to define the scope of the purchases covered by e-procurement. Business purchases covered by e-procurement are often indirect purchases. You will then be able to check expenditure in real time using e-procurement software.

Implementing an e-procurement process offers companiessignificant savings opportunities. Mastery of the tool is a plus if you want to make the most of it and find ways to improve performance. Once deployed, it becomes an element in the company’s growth. That’s why you need to know the market for the solutions on offer and find the one that best meets your expectations.

For a company, profit and profitability are the main priorities in every operation. When it comes to purchasing, e-procurement is one of the most effective ways of reaping all the benefits. That’s why Weproc was created, to offer a complete e-procurement software package for SMEs with an easy-to-use interface and powerful features.

Want to learn more about our procurement management software Weproc? Contact us or request your free 15-minutes demo below!

Team Weproc

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.