Procurement: What Is the Best Professional eSourcing Service?

eSourcing in procurement falls under the umbrella of the procurement process, just as procurement fits within the supply chain. eSourcing stands for electronic sourcing, so it is the process of inviting suppliers to an RFx, collecting information about the suppliers, holding eAuctions for the procurement of goods and services, inviting a supplier to a contract, and evaluating the supplies afterward.

eSourcing software should be a part of your overall procurement software suite, and finding the best professional eSourcing service depends on the procurement needs of your company. Read on to learn more about the benefits of procurement software and how you can use it to streamline your overall procurement process.

The Benefits of Procurement Software: Automation

Automation is one of the more prominent benefits of procurement software, as it saves labor and time by eliminating repetitive tasks. Robust procurement software should allow you to create templates, by spend category and / or by region. Not only does automation provide better accuracy, it streamlines the procurement process by allowing you to breeze through tasks that used to be cumbersome. You do want to ensure that your software allows you to view this content in a centralized location, not only for ease of access but so your team can easily collaborate and access content quickly as well. Automation to some may seem like a procurement risk, but it is an efficient way to save time.

The Benefits of Procurement Software: eAuctions

Holding an eAuction, allows you, the buyer, to find a satisfactory supplier and award them the business at the best price possible for that date and time. eAuctions can be perceived as a negative for suppliers, but in many instances, they can be of great value to suppliers finding new customers quickly and easily. . As the buyer, you need to utilize the right reverse auction procurement strategy.

From there, vendors are selected to be in the auction and then a few days later you typically hold the auction. In some industries, reverse auctions are a prominent benefit of procurement software. They allow you to find new suppliers at a potentially lower cost. Some cloud software stands above the rest and finding the right eAuction portal is crucial to both standard and reverse auctions.

The Benefits of Procurement Software: Streamlining

Streamlining is an important benefit of procurement software. In years past, there would be a lot of calls, filing, faxing, and other steps that made the procurement and sourcing process cumbersome. It was a slow process, and the earliest procurement software was in spreadsheets, which were frustrating to many.

Procurement software has come a long way since those early days. Ensure you find the right software with an easy-to-use interface that actually saves time in the process for you and your team. AllImage of an office building for an article about Procurement: What is the best professional e-sourcing service?. procurement software houses your data in the cloud for easier collaboration, but if the process takes longer, then the collaboration isn’t worth the extra time. Procurement software also allows for transparency and collaboration with both suppliers and your team. Anyone granted access to the software can view everything in real-time.

Procurement software allows you to:

  • Make quick decisions
  • Save time and money with speed
  • Have spend insight with the proper analytics

Many procurement software trends align with these needs, focusing on cloud-based software, microservice platforms, automation, AI, and analytics.

To learn more about the benefits of procurement software, or if you’d like to schedule a software demo, contact EC Sourcing Group today at 973-936-9672. We want to help you reimagine the way you think about procurement.