Everything You Need To Know About Procurement Software (FAQs)
What Is Procurement Software?
Procurement is an important aspect of conducting business, one that deals with the company’s process for getting the supplies they need to operate, at the ideal level of quality and cost. Procurement teams are tasked with obtaining competitively priced supplies that deliver the most value, and the process of procuring these supplies can differ greatly depending on the organizations specific needs and the industry they operate in.
Whether an organization requires raw materials for manufacturing, new office supplies, or a marketing service provider, they will want to make decisions based on who will best serve their needs at the most competitive price. Keeping costs low is an important aspect of improving the procurement process, but it is also vital that the quality of goods and services does not diminish.
Procurement software is a type of business software that is designed to support a more streamlined and automated purchasing process for businesses and organizations. These solutions aim to reduce cost, boost efficiency, and improve organizational performance by managing information flows and transactions between procuring entities, suppliers, and partners.
How Does Procurement Software Work?
Procurement software, which can is sometimes referred to as procurement management software or procurement automation software, works to streamline and automate aspects of the process for organizations looking to acquire goods and services.
Procurement can be categorized in a few different ways, including:
- Direct procurement refers to any procurement required for producing an end-product. For a retailer this would include purchasing items wholesale, which are then resold to customers, while at a manufacturing company this would mean obtaining raw materials and components.
- Indirect procurement refers to obtaining items that are necessary for day-to-day operations, but are not connected directly to what the organizations actually provides or produces. This might include things like office supplies, equipment maintenance, consulting services etc.
- Goods procurement involves the obtaining of physical items typically, but also includes items like software subscriptions. This may involve both direct and indirect procurement. For effective goods procurement, there needs to be effective supply chain management practices.
- Services procurements is the procurement of people-based services, that may also include both direct and indirect procurement. This will vary depending on the company’s needs, ranging from hiring on-site security services, individual contractors, contingent labor, or seeking guidance from a law firm.
By automating and optimizing the procurement process, procurement software works to help organizations enhance their efficiency, reduce the number of manual errors, achieve significant cost savings, and maintain a high level of compliance throughout the procurement lifecycle. Specific features and capabilities can vary between vendors, so organizations should take care to choose a solution that aligns with their requirements.
What Features Should You Look For In Procurement Software?
It is important to carefully evaluate your business needs to properly match them to the vendors best suited to solving them. This can be tricky as the solutions can vary widely in the feature sets that they offer, but some key features so look out for include the following:
- Easy to use, simple interface. Overly complicated software comes at a cost – both in terms of the time spent training employees to navigate it and of money spend on this training time. Procurement software does not need to be hugely complicated, especially when simplified software enables a more streamlined transition and reduces the likelihood of disruptions that might affect the daily operations of the business.
- Communication. The importance of communication, both within teams and with relevant stakeholders, cannot be understated. It is important that the necessary people are kept in the loop with updates on the procurement process. To achieve this, it is helpful to look for procurement software that comes with capabilities like automated workflows, multi-level approval routing, and collaboration tools that can be accessed easily via a website or mobile app. These capabilities help by alerting employees so they can swiftly review and expiate approvals, as well as alerting stakeholders whenever progress is made in transitional activities.
- Insight and control over budgeting. Managing finances is crucial for businesses. Any tool that offer a way to make better, more informed spending decisions and to justify those decisions is a great way to improve the businesses financial health. Choosing procurement software with budget insights and control features can effectively track business spending, compare project spending against a set budgets, and generate reports that illustrate this information in a more digestible way.
- Automation. Any software that provides a way to automate repetitive and mundane tasks is good for businesses as it saves times, increases business efficiency, and saves cost, while reducing the likelihood of human error. You should be able to automate tasks associated with expense data, compliance activities, centralizing communication channels, and placing new and repeat orders.
- Auditability. Audits are very important for businesses as they give the organizations credibility and provide the stakeholders with confidence that the accounts are accurate and up to date. Procurement software with audit trails helps to improve the businesses auditing process by detailing user and transactional activities.
