E-Procurement
The term E-Procurement refers to the electronic essence of delivery and helps companies organize goods and services at the lowest overhead cost. In the most optimal case, the entire purchasing process, from planning to creation to payment, is automated.
Brief description
E-Procurement is primarily conceived for Part C or MRO items. In many companies, the course of delivery activities is organized regardless of the type of product to be delivered. This means that the same effort is used for purchasing high-value A items as for acquiring C products. The process of ordering and acquiring product C in view of the true value of the products to be acquired, however, is incomparably more expensive.
E-Procurement systems have a supporting role here, by making the delivery processes as automated as possible. This is done with the help of the so-called Desktop Purchasing Systeme, a system application that makes it possible to automate the execution of procurement activities with low strategic importance and a high level of automation.
Implementation
In order to effectively shape the electronic delivery of products, it is important in the enterprise, in addition to the system application, to manage the catalog of products from manufacturers. This catalog administration or Content Management is actually the core of E-Procurement. Suppliers here place their products at the disposal of online buyers along with the entire product specifications. However, the constant care of such a product catalog is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming activity. The essence of supplying via the Internet only makes economic sense if the contents of the catalog are kept constantly up-to-date.
Directory administration
Depending on catalog responsibility, there are three types of product catalogs:
- internal directory
This integrates supplier-supplied product data and the buyer's own fixed material data from the buyer's side into one own catalog shared on the server. The benefit is that no data can be changed without the buyer's knowledge. Combining the buyer's own product data together with information from suppliers makes the ordering process significantly easier, and payment processing can also be carried out more easily.
- external catalog
In this variant, the data is entirely uploaded and refreshed by suppliers. It is assumed that all product data is transferred to a server for the buyer's use at the vendor. The benefit lies in the cost savings, as all the time and expense is borne by the suppliers.
- electronic markets
In this form, the supply and demand of buyers and sellers on the Internet are linked. Characteristic of this application is that multiple bidders can reach multiple buyers through electronic marketplaces.