Regardless of the industry size, acquiring an e-Procurement platform that has all the features you need can be very challenging. With so many features to consider in choosing an e-Procurement software, it may feel tough for you and your organisation to make a decision without the proper research in place. This is why we have done the legwork for you in identifying the key features that an ideal e-Procurement solution should possess. Without much ado, let’s take a look at them.
1. Easy Setup Process
One of the many benefits of e-Procurement platform is its ease of implementation. To be able to immediately commence managing the procurement processes of your organization you need an e-Procurement solution that is easy to set up. Support and in-depth consultation provided by your e-Procurement vendor is a key consideration for companies with complex procurement and approval processes. This includes an easy onboarding session for the platform administrators (who are usually the procurement or finance department) and users to understand how to utilise the platform. This makes it possible for you and your company to start using e-Procurement solutions to realise faster time-to-value.
2. Quick Integration
An ideal electronic procurement system would be open to integration with your other existing software solutions, i.e accounting, inventory, etc. When an e-Procurement platform allows room for quick integration with other software, it provides seamless sharing of data and reduces redundancy and human error. When e-Procurement software integrates quickly with other software, you will have scanning data history, transfer of data, and updates, which are vital in gaining proper insight and making accurate decisions in the procurement process, at real-time.
3. Easy-to-Use Interface
Having an easy to use interface for an e-Procurement is of huge importance. You would not want to find yourself in a situation where it would cost you more money in training your team to acclimate them to a complicated platform, or worse, investing in an expensive e-Procurement which your team avoids using. An easy-to-use e-Procurement solution would translate into a quicker user buy-in and faster implementation at all levels of your organisation with minimum hindrance. Easy-to-Use Interface is a key feature that will help your business to enhance it’s procurement management process.
Select an e-Procurement solution that requires minimal commitment and learning curve for your team to start using.
4. Easily Accessible
Another robust solution that the e-Procurement software offers is that users are able to access it from anywhere as it is a cloud-based solution. However, not every procurement solution may offer this feature. Some solutions have to be installed on your physical desktop/laptop hence limiting accessibility to the machine on which it is installed.
Before selecting an e-Procurement software, make sure that it is mobile responsive and has remote access functionality so that you and your team can remotely access the data from anywhere especially when users have to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This will go a long way in making the management of the procurement process of your organization more efficient.
5. Communication
In the procurement process, communication is essential among the stakeholders. Your choice of e-Procurement software must-have communication tools that allow for easy workflow and approval through real-time notifications and automated alerts.
The e-Procurement tool you opt for should give room for transparency to allow the stakeholders to view each activity of the procurement process. The whole procurement process should be easily traceable and centralized with customer support.
An effective e-Procurement software features a single system where every stakeholder would be able to communicate together and actualize their transactional goal.
6. Efficient Workflow
The manual execution of a procurement process is tedious and slow. Therefore, choosing the wrong e-Procurement software could slow down the procurement process. The implementation can take months or even years to deploy effectively. An automated workflow saves you time, money, and resources.
Make sure that your choice of e-Procurement platform allows for an automated workflow with no hitch. Workflows should be easily automated and flow from one user to the other to allow for the successful implementation of the e-Procurement platform.
7. Asset Management
An effective e-Procurement solution brings all the procurement process in one place enabling easy asset management. It prevents hiccups that could cause mismanagement of the assets such as human error involved in the manual process. Ensure the e-Procurement platform you’re opting for has tools that allow for asset management.
8. Generate Reports
Choose an electronic procurement system that allows users and your procurement team to generate spend, consumption and other relevant reports. This gives the team the ability to access analysis of the information they need in real-time, while reducing time in generating these reports. This will further enable them to make a well-informed decision in the procurement process.
Choosing an e-Procurement software that comes with the right features is vital to the efficient management of the procurement process of an organization. In the procuring of an e-Procurement Malaysia solution, consider the features discussed above at the back of your mind. For more details, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our helpful and professional specialists.
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