E-Procurement Tools

There are a large number of E-procurement tools that could be distinguished in the marketplace (de Boer et al., 2001). Some of them are already well developed and highly accepted in the marketplace; nonetheless, there are numerous E-procurement tools that are immature and require further development (Wang, 2006). For the purpose for this paper, we aim to focus on the E-procurement tools that are widely accepted in the government and private sectors. The four most common E-procurement tools being used consist of E-Sourcing, E-Tendering, E-Reverse Auction and E-Collaboration (Boer et. al., 2001). The description of the four E-procurement tools would be provided, following by comprehensive explanations and visual diagrams to demonstrate how the four E-procurement tools work in an organization.
E-Sourcing
E-Sourcing is the process that most buying companies use to search for a list of new or potential suppliers by using the Internet in general, or more specifically in a Business-to-Business marketplace (de Boer et. al., 2001). In most situation, the B2B marketplace is an Internet-based software which developed and controlled by third parties, that are usually the supply and demand chain solution providers, to assist the purchasing company to search for suitable suppliers on the Internet. Diagram 1.1. provides a snapshot of the E-Sourcing process.
Supplier A
Diagram 1.1. E-Sourcing Process
Purchasing Company
Supplier D

Internet-based B2B Marketplace

Supplier B

Supplier E
Supplier C

Supply Chain Software Provider

According to Agentrics (http://www.agentrics.com), one of the largest supply chain software provider globally, E-Sourcing process typically consists of three steps. To implement E-Sourcing function, the purchasing company first has to collaborate with a supply chain software provider, that has the Internet-based B2B marketplace developed and readily to be used. The second step is that the new potential suppliers can either be