Posted on Thursday, December 24, 2015 by Breelyn
New Year's is the most popular time to transform a current reality into the promise of something better, and this is typically kicked off with an avalanche of resolutions. E-procurement is eager to join in the 2016 festivities with a list of resolutions that will likely last longer than your own - unless you too have the strength and determination of multi-talented cloud-based software. Listed in approximate order of priority, here are e-Procurement's top 5 resolutions for the New Year and beyond.
Note: 2016 is the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. Resolutions have been titled accordingly.
No Monkey Business: Reduce Purchasing Costs. Accomplish this by eliminating yearly maintenance fees, hidden fees, and per-module pricing. Banish useless features that serve no practical purpose in the procurement process, apart from making the application appear superficially glittery and as a result, unnecessarily expensive. Streamline and shape-up where it counts the most.
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Recognize Patterns. Enable users to track trends and correlations across their data. Performance metrics do more than help e-Procurement stay competitive with the other software "apes"; they provide info on the effectiveness of the purchasing function and the organization as a whole. This ensures optimal spend management and promotes decisive budgeting.
Avoid Going Bananas: Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). This will provide a holistic approach to the supply chain by encouraging collaboration and forward planning. Flexibility is key: suppliers may choose to sign-up on the software, however this should be entirely optional - transactions can be completed with unregistered suppliers. The element of choice accelerates the speed at which suppliers adapt to the e-Procurement application, and relationships will be easier to maintain long-term.
Chimp Off The Ol' Block: Simplify Navigation. Non-procurement professionals should be able to use all the tools on the platform. No training and/or elaborate user manual is required - that level of complexity impedes progress. When purchasing software is easy to implement and use, more time is available for value-added strategizing and various professional pursuits (that may or may not be related to these New Year's resolutions, no shame). Most importantly, non-procurement professionals are free to fulfill their real job description without getting tangled up in purchasing.
King Kong in The Middle: Centralize Purchasing. The requisition collection process doesn't have to be stressful, disorganized, and detrimental to the bottom line (which is the case in most decentralized networks). E-purchasing resolves to make the gathering of requisitions a hassle-free activity: establish approval routes, and source from product catalogues, supplier websites, & additional external sources.
Warning: It may be hazardous for a subpar procurement solution to attempt fulfilling these resolutions. We recommended that you observe Tradogram's style and (carefully) follow suit. Wishing all readers a safe, healthy, and happy New Year. Control your purchasing, you monkeys.
Communicate to build a better buying system.