PM 598
The following topics will be helpful to review in preparation for the week three quiz. 1. Ways to gain maximum results in an e-procurement environment.
E-procurement has had an increasingly important role in business-to-business(B2B) commerce. Web-enabled B2B e-commerce enhances inter-organizational coordination resulting in transaction cost savings and competitive sourcing opportunities for the buyer organization. E-business has radically altered the ways in which firms interact with their suppliers(Phillips 2003). Continued improvements in Internet technology connectivity provide an opportunity to make procurement for goods and services more transparent and efficient. Six forms of e-procurement applications have been noted. Knudsen cites; e-sourcing, e-tendering, e-informing, e-reverse auctions, e-MRO and web-based enterprise resource planning.
E-procurement is predicated on being able to deliver a variety of benefits, which include: lower prices, lower transactional costs, better compliance and speedier processing and delivery. E-procurement is done at a much more rapid pace, but still not as fast. However, e-procurement allows for buyers of commodity products, services, and even some customized business solutions to conduct market research, solicit bids or proposals, analyze offers, place orders, submit invoices, and transmit payment for purchases electronically via numerous methods, including net marketplaces, web portals, private exchanges, vertical exchanges, and horizontal exchanges.
E-procurement ranges from older electronic data interchange (EDI) batch-processed simple transactions to more recent net marketplaces involving multiple buyers and sellers exchanging transactions via the Internet, to accelerate both delivery to the buyer and payment to the seller.
There are two main approaches to contracting: competitive methods, such as purchase cards, imprest funds, auctioning, net marketplaces, vertical exchanges,