What is Procurement Software?
What is Procurement Software?
Procurement software (sometimes known as eprocurement software) can be used to support businesses with tools to source goods and services, contract management, supplier management and savings management. Contemporary procurement software is usually hosted within the cloud and can be especially cost effective against older systems as there should be little need for implementation or training costs as a good procurement software will be self-service and user-friendly.
A cloud-based procurement solution should allow your employees to have visibility and control of sourcing goods and services from anywhere and any device as well as offering advanced supply chain visibility. Keeping track of all your procurement processes, whether is it by location or department is becoming more critical as remote working is becoming more the norm. With a procurement software in place, employees can gain better visibility and insights of their suppliers and colleagues activities and a secure smart repository for their contracts and supplier documents.
Cloud procurement software allows businesses to request and approve supplier documents, contract documents, purchase orders, invoices and a platform for secure communication with their suppliers.
Monitoring employees buying habits is also a critical solution that digital procurement software’s can offer company’s. Approval levels restricting what an employee can approve for a supplier or contract to having a full historical view of who sourced what and from which supplier is key information that companies have struggled to control in the past. Procurement software’s centralise information for key stakeholders, which in turn can create savings opportunities, reduce risk and drive compliance.
Procurement software can:
- Automate procurement processes
- Reduce supplier risk
- Increase supply chain visibility
- Drive compliance with suppliers, allowing organisations to vet and mark suppliers as preferred
- Monitor supplier performance
- Standardise an organisations procurement processes
- Offer a centralised platform for a company’s documentation (including contracts and supplier onboarding documents)
- Act as a source of truth of your organisations procurement habits
The Benefits of Procurement Software
Transparency & Control
Procurement software can hold a complete view of an organisations documentation and procurement habits. This in turn allows organisations to make better decisions in the future based on historic data and insights
Reduction of cost and increased savings
A historic record of what has been sourced and by who. This is critical knowledge to have at a click of a button to fully understand a companies past sourcing activities and how they can be influenced going forward to find potential savings opportunities the next time a good or service is procured or a contract renewal is approaching. Detailed insights can provide organisations with the tools to get the best value from their suppliers and discover new cost reduction and cost avoidance opportunities.
Drive confidence & efficiency
Procurement software allows organisations to standardise and automate their procurement processes. This can significantly reduce the number of hours spent creating esourcing activities on excel spreadsheets, chasing suppliers on email and analysing their responses. A good procurement software will also allow company’s to build a full picture of their suppliers, their capabilities and even create stronger and longer lasting relationships with them.
