e-procurement software

It is estimated that the invisibility of the supply chain generates between 20 and 40% more inventories. The invisibility comes from time delays and lack of communication. Advanced technologies enable real-time communication through document sharing and enable many communications.

E-commerce platforms started with business-to-consumer sales. Characteristics of business-to-business transactions, such as the multiple decision-making process, have hampered the progress of B2B e-commerce platforms. The need to save costs has forced companies to look at the opportunities offered by the Internet. Many large corporations have begun to formulate e-procurement strategies, just as corporations developed strategies for Internet presence.

E-procurement strategies include category selection to gain online vendor access to the portal and vendor selection. The category selection decides which items will be purchased online. Vendor selection decides infrastructure access and the nature of vendor access and the platform on which the technology should be hosted. E-procurement software is a web-based interface that is open source or proprietary and integrates email, ERP, and legacy company and supplier systems.

The e-procurement software has functions to receive proposals, evaluate them, generate and track purchase orders, and process invoices. In addition to these features, the menu has an eMarketplace, where sellers can auction items. This is called a reverse auction, where you bid for the lowest price. The advantage of the reverse auction is that many sellers can participate in it; The lowest price can be obtained compared to conventional purchase prices. Electronic procurement allows suppliers to manage customer inventory by having access to inventory data.

An e-procurement package comes bundled with a supplier relationship management suite, in which suppliers and the company communicate using email and other technologies. Providers can access the web-based software using their own login passwords. Connectivity to legacy systems would require a long-term commitment from vendors and the business. Many small and medium-sized businesses, which are suppliers to large companies, lack web experience, which explains the lack of penetration of B2B commerce compared to B2C commerce.