Trending Procurement Automation Tools

Procurement digitization is one of the most prominent trends in recent years. In fact, according to PWC, by 2027, companies will achieve a 70% rate of digitization in the procurement process. 

Even though digitization is vital, choosing the right software solutions to achieve maximum efficiency is key to success. Luckily, we will help you make the right choice throughout this guide. 

This article explores the top 5 best procurement automation tools available in today’s market, diving into each of their key functionalities. If you are ready to find out more, let’s start. 

Benefits of Procurement Automation 

Before diving into the best software solutions, let’s observe the benefits of procurement automation. 

Increased Efficiency and Productivity 

One of the main benefits of procurement automation is increased efficiency. For instance, by automating routine and repetitive tasks, employees will have more free time to dedicate to more strategic business activities. 

Improved Accuracy and Risk Mitigation 

Another benefit of procurement automation is improved accuracy. Automation decreases the possibility of human error by eliminating manual processes such as manual data entry for POs. Besides, automation tools also provide complete visibility and transparency into the process, helping organizations to identify potential risks, errors, or other inconsistencies, quickly mitigating risks. 

Enhances Supplier Relationships 

A major benefit of procurement automation tools is that they provide organizations with enhanced collaboration opportunities with suppliers, leading to stronger relationships. Automation tools tend to come in handy with a variety of dedicated features, such as a streamlined onboarding process, supplier performance tracking tools, and real-time communication tools, allowing organizations to stay in touch with the vendors in real time. 

Faster Approval Times

One of the main goals across procurement departments is to decrease cycle times and enhance overall efficiency. Well, this can happen if the approval time is significantly reduced. Luckily, procurement automation tools are designed to help organizations achieve this goal. Such tools allow procurement teams to create automated and customized workflows, eliminating delays and speeding up the overall process. 

Top 5 Best Procurement Automation Tools 

Well, as far as we are clear on the benefits that procurement automation tools provide, it is time to understand which ones you can choose to optimize your organization’s processes. 

#1 Tradogram 

Tradogram is a robust e-procurement solution designed to help businesses improve the efficiency of procurement processes and increase returns on investment. The platform offers a variety of procurement tools to help organizations with purchasing and managing procurement processes. 

The main features of Tradogram include: 

• Multi-level management and user permissions to ensure a high level of security and productivity among the procurement teams. 
• Purchase requisition, purchase order, and invoice management tools to ensure accurate documentation and transparency. 
• Inventory management tools are needed to keep track of the stock levels and automate POs, avoiding risks associated with stockouts and the inability to meet increased demand. 
• Workflow automation tools will allow your procurement department to set customized approval workflows, automating a variety of procurement processes to save time, reduce cycle time, and enhance efficiency. 
• Budget management tools such as spend visibility and robust analytics. 
• Integrations with a variety of ERP and accounting systems to ensure smooth operations. 
• Report builder to analyze different types of activities across the procurement department, identify areas of improvement, and further enhance the overall process. 
• Supplier performance tracking and collaboration tools. These will allow you to track supplier performance over time, use the scorecards feature, and identify top-performing vendors for further collaboration. The collaboration tools will also allow the building of strong relationships with suppliers, contributing to long-term beneficial partnerships. 
• Potent vendor sourcing tool to find and collaborate with the best vendors. 
• Instant notifications and alerts to inform personnel in real time about the need to complete certain actions, such as approval. This feature greatly contributes to enhanced efficiency. 
• Contract management features to ensure compliance of vendors with the set contract terms and conditions as well as timely renewals of the contracts. 

It is worth mentioning that Tradogram is a scalable cloud-based solution that stores all the data in one single database. Also, the platform is accessible via mobile devices, making it a great solution for businesses that require emergency on-the-go approvals or other activities. 

#2 Precoro 

A good cloud-based procurement solution is Precoro. It is a procurement automation solution dedicated to helping organizations streamline purchasing processes and improve collaboration among the procurement departments to speed up the overall cycle time. 

The main features of the platform include: 

• Robust automation to automate different procurement processes and create customizable workflows. 
• Tracking tools for tracking requests and approvals stages in real-time snoring stakeholder connectivity. 
• Analytics features that provide robust insights into a business’s spending patterns allow for identifying areas for cost savings and eliminating maverick spending. 
• Inventory and stock level management features that allow companies to track items, setting custom reorder points for each. This feature helps to avoid stockouts and emergency orders that can be quite costly for the company. 

Overall, Precoro is a good e-procurement solution that will help you optimize the procurement process within the organization, reaching higher ROI rates. However, one of the main limitations of this tool is its integration capability. Integrating Precoro into tools such as NetSuite and QuickBooks is quite challenging. 

#3 Productiv

Productiv is a great and cost-efficient solution for procurement automation. It comes in handy with a variety of useful features ranging from process automation to vendor assessment tools. 

The key features of the platform include: 

• Process automation to streamline procurement by automating tasks such as renewals, workflows, and others to save time and reduce manual effort that can pose a risk of errors. 
• Collaboration tools to foster smooth communication among stakeholders across different departments during the procurement process. 
• Vendor assessment features to track and evaluate vendor performance using Productiv’s intelligence. This feature allows organizations to gain useful insights to make informed decisions regarding future procurement. 

Overall, it is an easy-to-use platform for smoothly automating procurement processes within the organization. 

#4 CloudEagle

Another good software solution for automating procurement processes is CloudEagle. CloudEagle is an excellent solution to simplify and streamline purchasing workflows, reducing cycle time and increasing operational efficiency. 

The key features of the platform include: 

• Customizable forms and requests. With CloudEagle, users can customize forms and requests, tailoring them to their specific requirements. 
• Workflows. You can easily automate and streamline procurement processes by setting custom workflows. 
• Vendor research tool to access comprehensive data regarding potential suppliers and identify the best ones for further collaboration. This tool also provides insights into pricing, features, and vendor reputation. 
• Renewal management to renew contracts promptly. 

#5 Procurify 

When talking about the best procurement automation solutions, we cannot ignore another great tool, Procurify. Procurify is a cloud-based e-procurement solution that is designed to streamline procurement processes. 

The main features of the platform include: 

• Custom purchase orders creation feature to create, track, and ensure authorization quickly. 
• Spend analytics manages spending and ensures compliance with the set budgets. 
• Supplier management tools to manage supplier data, evaluate performance, and enhance overall communication with the vendors to negotiate better deals. 
• Mobile app to use the software on the go in case of emergencies. 
• Automation tools to automate procurement processes and eliminate manual effort from the procurement process. 

Procurify is a great software solution for managing procurement and automating the process; however, a prominent limitation is that it does not offer inventory management tools. This disadvantage will not allow procurement teams to gain real-time insights into inventory levels for managing POs more efficiently.

How to Choose the Best Procurement Software Solution? 

In today’s market, there is an abundance of software solutions tailored to organizations' different needs and objectives. The key is to find the solution that is just perfect for your organization’s needs. 

A few tips that will help you in the choosing process include: 

• Identify the needs and objectives of your business. Any software solution, including a procurement automation tool, should help your organization overcome specific challenges and achieve its goals. 
• Consider the scalability of the platform. When it comes to procurement, consider the solution's scalability, as you will digitize more documents, records, and other things over time. 
• Assess integration options. It is important to consider the integration options the solution of your choice offers to avoid costly custom integration development or manual data entries. 
• Customization options. When choosing an e-procurement solution, assess the platform based on available customization options. The available customizations must help your organization meet its needs by customizing workflows to fit its processes. 
• Consider the cost Vs. value of the software solution. Also, do not forget to conduct a cost vs value assessment before proceeding with a software solution. 

One of the best procurement tools in the market, offering all the features needed to fit the needs of all small, medium, and large enterprises, is Tradogram. 

Increase Procurement Efficiency with Tradogram 

If you are looking for the best tool to increase and optimize procurement efficiency, then you are in the right place. Tradogram is an all-in-one procurement software that offers every necessary feature for increasing procurement ROI through efficient process optimization. 

Tradogram offers multiple useful features, from inventory and supplier performance management to 100% spend visibility and robust analytics. 

To learn more about how Tradogram can help you improve procurement efficiency, request a free demo, and our team will gladly assist you.