The Importance of Using Supply Chain Management Software in Procurement

The importance of using supply chain management software is notable because of the importance of the supply chain itself.

When you’re trying to control the entire procurement process within the supply chain, you want to make sure that you have the best software for your needs at your side so that everyone—you, vendors, and suppliers, are getting their needs met within the supply chain.

Read on to learn more about types of supply chain management software and how to pick the best type for your company’s needs. 

 

The Importance of Using Supply Chain Management Software: What Does Supply Chain Management Software Do?

 

Supply chain management software can do quite a lot—part of the importance of supply chain management software is that it goes well above and beyond what procurement software can do. Procurement is just a piece of the puzzle, while supply chain software covers all of the bases. However, the most popular supply chain management software always has strong procurement features built inside of it. 

Thus, you’ll see a lot of:

  • eSourcing tools. This allows you to check and compare information across several suppliers efficiently before commitment.
  • Automated tools. These features automatically  sort through documents, verify compliance, and vet unsuitable proposals for you so you can focus on more strategic tasks.
  • eAuction tools. This helps you receive the best price. It is sometimes referred to “true market price.”
  • Contract management. This stores all contracts in one place for easy search, retrieval and automated advance warning to upcoming expirations.
  • Procure-to-pay operations. Includes purchase orders.
  • Vendor/supplier management. This can help you manage important information about strategic suppliers, as well as others.
  • Spend analytics. This helps you understand where you spend your dollars by procurement category.

Beyond procurement, you want to look for supply chain management software with inventory control, logistics, and demand planning and forecasting.

 

The Importance of Supply Chain Management Software in Procurement: What Are the Main Benefits?

 

Because there is an elevated level of importance of supply chain management software in procurement, there are many benefits and not too many disadvantages. Provided that you have the best software to meet your company’s needs and your needs at theImage of a market for an article entitled: Importance of Supply Chain Management Software in Procurement. supply chain and procurement level, the main benefits have to do with reducing costs and saving time, both of which are often related.

The software can also be a large part of risk management, as many different types of software can help you avoid taking necessary risks. The correct software can also help you with forecasting and with your decision-making. Sometimes the only disadvantage with supply chain software is integration within your existing systems.

 

The Importance of Supply Chain Management Software in Procurement: Other Benefits

Beyond the obvious benefits of saving time and money, other benefits come with the use of supply chain management. They can help automate your processing, improve your inventory management, provide visibility and transparency across the network, support communication and collaboration, and improve responsiveness. Of course, these benefits depend largely on what type of software you opt for and what features you utilize. If you use a lot of the included vendor management software tools, you can help improve vendor relationships while also streamlining the process.

To hear more about the importance of supply chain management software in procurement or to make an appointment for a demo, reach out to us at EC Sourcing Group today at 973-936-9672 to speak with a member of our team.