E procurement
E-procurement refers to the use of digital technology for purchasing goods and services. It streamlines the procurement process by automating tasks such as supplier management, sourcing, and purchase order processing. This can lead to cost savings, improved efficiency, and better supplier relationships.
7 Key excerpts on "E procurement"
eBook - ePub- Badenhorst-Weiss JA, Cilliers JO, Dlamini W, Ambe IM, Badenhorst-Weiss JA, Cilliers JO, Dlamini W, Ambe IM(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Van Schaik Publishers(Publisher)
...However, it should be noted from the data that many people had more than one SIM card. Source: Adapted from Maritz and Sullivan (2016) 13.5 E-PROCUREMENT E-procurement refers to the use of an internet-based system to carry out individual or all stages of thE procurement process, including search, sourcing, negotiation, ordering, receipt and post-purchase review (Wangui, 2013). It supports the execution of procurement activities in the different industrial sectors, which has been on the increase since the mid-1990s when the 245 web and email services of the internet became popular. E-procurement involves the adoption of basic e-commerce capabilities and provides for completely reviewing existing purchasing and supply processes in order to streamline and redesign them to be more compatible with e-commerce practices. E-procurement can be defined as follows: E-procurement, the supply management application of e-commerce, refers to all digital/web-based solutions aimed at supporting purchasing transactions and supply processes, internal and external EDI, functional and cross-organisational integration and the promotion of relationship management. This definition emphasises the main tasks of e-procurement: supporting basic transactions such as requisitioning, ordering and payment; facilitating processes like finding, selecting and communicating with suppliers; locating technical data; assisting value analysis and performance evaluation; enhancing advanced applications such as cross-functional and cross-organisational cooperation and integration; and assisting in relationship management. Baily, Farmer, Crocker, Jessop and Jones (2008: 396) list the following benefits of e-procurement as good reasons for its adoption in an organisation: Reduction in purchasing cycle time Enhancement of budgeting control Elimination of administrative errors Increase in buyer productivity Lowering of prices through product standardisation and the consolidation of purchasing...
eBook - ePubProcurement Systems
A Cross-Industry Project Management Perspective
- Derek Walker, Steve Rowlinson(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In many cases they can communicate at virtually no cost 8 and transact instantaneously. While e-commerce is typically associated with the emergence of the internet, it dates back to the facilitation of transactions in the 1970s using EDI standards for electronic invoicing. Many banks and their business partners have been extensively using electronic funds transfers since the 1980s as a fast and cost-efficient payment model. E-procurement can entail various procurement facilities from electronic order systems (whether used in online stores or electronic exchanges), to electronic market places and desktop purchasing systems (DPS). E-procurement yields a series of benefits: reduction in (administrative transaction and back-office) costs; improvement of process efficiency; shortening of order fulfilment cycle times; improved commercial relationships with suppliers; lowering of inventory levels; improvement in management of the supply chain and lower price paid for goods. However, e-procurement is not a one-size-fits-all approach, due to the following disadvantages: significant increase in IT maintenance costs, ongoing management and updates, standardisation of processes between differing systems and general interoperability issues; significant upfront cost for enablement; IT security risks and increase in prices paid for goods is possible, especially for small order volumes. The main driver for e-procurement is cost reduction achievable through process automation, reduced inventories, identification of and procurement at lowest market prices for commodities and the better use of economies of scale and other effects. Five e-procurement models and their impact on projects are explained as follows: These present not only how e-commerce transactions are conducted but also the ways in which it...
eBook - ePubPublic Procurement
International Cases and Commentary
- Louise Knight, Christine Harland, Jan Telgen, Khi V. Thai, Guy Callender, Katy McKen, Louise Knight, Christine Harland, Jan Telgen, Khi V. Thai, Guy Callender, Katy McKen(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...20 E-commerce and information Michael Essig, Christine Tonkin and Tom McGuffog Introduction Advances in public procurement have been mirrored in the developments in e-procurement over the past two decades. Neef (2001) has suggested that ‘e-procurement means a giant leap forward in the long-sought-after development of the extended enterprise, where the supply chain becomes a continuous, uninterrupted process extending from buyer through selling partners’. Neef regards e-procurement as one of the major enablers for supply chain (or maybe better: value chain) management. Breite and Vanhantara (2001) go a step further and believe that ‘information technology changed the supply chain management concept more radically than any other technology’. McGuffog (2002) argued that electronic business is necessary for future success, but far from sufficient by itself … it is an enabler for better joint processes across the value chain, for better collaboration supported by sharing structured data to support common objectives, and for better service and lower total cost through promoting speed and certainty of response. At the moment, internet-based e-procurement can range from an ‘enabling technology’ or a mere sourcing instrument. On the one hand, e-technologies help to lower transaction costs, and on the other hand they can provide a strategic approach to intensify global supplier competition. Considering state-of-the-art applications in the private sector, e-procurement seems to be substantially implemented already in many organizations. In the public sector, many e-procurement applications (such as reverse auctions) still struggle with official regulations. The European Community regulations now include a testing clause for reverse auctions, but without enforced implementation...
eBook - ePubThe Evolution of Electronic Procurement
Transforming Business as Usual
- Tobias Schoenherr(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Pivot(Publisher)
...Certainly, in a narrower sense, electronic procurement these days is primarily referred to as the use of electronic means, primarily the Internet and cloud-based solutions, and also hardware-based software applications, to facilitate and enhance the purchase of goods and services through automation, integration, and information sharing. While this is the definition used in this book, it is worthwhile to trace how we got to where we are today. This chapter focuses on these early beginnings and the journey procurement went through until today. The chapter commences with a brief section on the common theme inherent to the underlying benefits of IT in general, and electronic procurement more specifically, which is the facilitation of information flows, both internal and external to the organization. I will then delve into a description of the first IT-enabled processes that had an impact on the purchasing function, covering the period between the 1960s and the early 1990s. This includes the approaches and associated technologies related to electronic data interchange (EDI), MRP, manufacturing resource planning (MRP II), and ERP. A particular emphasis is placed on ERP systems, since it is these systems that often form the backbone for electronic procurement systems. As such, issues that will be discussed include integration and implementation benefits, implementation considerations, and arguments that position ERP systems as an enabler for competitive success. The tracing of the evolution of electronic procurement in this chapter will then be continued in Chap. 4, where I will describe the early applications of the Internet to thE procurement context with a particular emphasis on online reverse auctions, and in Chap. 5, I will focus on the emergence of electronic sourcing suites. An overview of the evolution of electronic procurement, as traced in this and the next chapter, is provided in Fig. 3.1. Fig...
- Peter W. G. Morris, Jeffrey K. Pinto, Peter Morris, Jeffrey K. Pinto(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...CHAPTER ELEVEN PROCUREMENT: PROCESS OVERVIEW AND EMERGING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES Mark E. Nissen EffectivE procurement is critical for effective project management. Depending upon the specific type of project being managed, over 50 percent of the total project cost can be attributed to parts, supplies, and services procured, and for many high-technology projects, this procurement fraction can approach 90 percent. Further, because of long lead times, procured items nearly always define the critical path through the project schedule network. And dependence upon markets for procured items can create project management difficulties in terms of agency (e.g., information asymmetries, incentives) and coordination (e.g., redundant project management organizations, interorganizational communications). In short, if a project manager is not managing procurement, then he or she is only managing 50 percent or less of the project as a whole. Despite this critical role, however, the term ‘‘procurement’’ remains broadly defined and is used to describe a variety of entities (e.g., functions, organizations, systems, processes). The term is also evolving through time, as the activities associated with procurement have become increasingly important to enterprise success. For instance, procurement was once descriptive of the simple clerical activities associated with purchasing well-specified items, but it has evolved in some organizations to describe instead strategic partnering efforts made by senior executives. In the former case, all that is required is buying an item that has already been specified, from a vendor that has already been selected, for a purpose that has already been determined (e.g., a part to be installed on an assembly line)...
eBook - ePubProgramme Procurement in Construction
Learning from London 2012
- John Mead, Stephen Gruneberg(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...For example, they rely on physical delivery means, which are prone to delay, loss or damage. The formal procurement process employed in a PSE approach makes use of two very different electronic tools, shown in Figure 7.1. These are electronic sourcing (eSourcing) and electronic evaluation (eEvaluation). The role of the eSourcing tool is to act as the interface between the buying and selling parties, while eEvaluation makes use of the facilities offered by ICT to compare the offers of different vendors. These two electronic systems can be delivered by a single tool, but for ease of explanation they are described separately here. Figure 7.1 The formal procurement process: eEvaluation and eSourcing. eSourcing An eSourcing system needs to be accessible to all potential vendors; therefore all commercially available eSourcing tools utilise the internet, and almost all are web-based. Typically, eSourcing systems need to cover the interactions between the buyer and the suppliers at different stages of the process, beginning with the initial publication or advertisement of the opportunity through to the bidding process. Generally, eSourcing works by allocating responding firms a log-in to an advertised opportunity. This grants them access to the online pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ). If a respondent’s PQQ is accepted, or forms one of the highest-scoring returns, they are then sent an invitation to tender (ITT). In the public sector the advertisement of a contract tender opportunity is called a contract notice, and that is published via the internet in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). The eSourcing tool is used by responding organisations to enter data about their firm and their offer and to submit the PQQ and ITT information. A fully functioning eSourcing system also needs to be able to deal with two-way communication and allow for exchanges of information and a wide variety of issues that flow as part of the buyer–supplier interaction...
eBook - ePub- Willi Darr(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- tredition(Publisher)
...2. Importance of procurement management a. Historical overview The role of procurement has changed dramatically in the last decades since 1945 (e.g. Lysons/Farrington, 2012, p. 9 ff. or Hug/Weber, 2011, p. 11 ff.). Until the end of the 1960s, for example, the focus was on supplying production and ensuring that purchasing processes ran smoothly. ThE procurement markets were predominantly local or regional. For the company, the clear priority was to secure production. With the saturation of national markets in the seventies and eighties, the importance of marketing, controlling and logistics increased. Within the framework of an integrated materials management system, purchasing was responsible for coordinating material flows between suppliers and production. Maintaining quality at the lowest possible cost was a typical priority of purchasing. After 1990, especially the Russian and ChinesE procurement markets opened. New opportunities arose to purchase goods at significantly lower prices. On the other hand, these new markets had to be developed through market research and business relations with suppliers in these countries had to be established. From 1990 onwards, the outsourcing decision of companies increasingly turned out in favor of suppliers. The early involvement of suppliers in the product development process has shortened the time-to-market. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approaches were developed and applied in the context of a developing purchasing management. After the turn of the millennium, value creation networks have become established worldwide. Product innovations, production processes and production controls were carried out worldwide and coordinated with each other. From 2000 at the latest, purchasing has played a central role within leading companies...
