Introduction:
Procurement is a key strategic process of every industry to satisfy its customers by delivering the right products/services on time. Implementing a successful procurement process is the backbone for every industry to save their operational costs and meet their estimates YoY. So for this, technology is helping a lot which can improve the procurement process of every industry.
And, here are some of the technologies that industries are applying in their procurement processes.
Digital Transformation:
Digital Transformation in the procurement process is driving the industry a lot easier to manage the flow of goods and services on time. For e.g: Industries are adopting cloud-based technologies to manage their supply chain data and retrieve them at any time, any place. Like sending orders to vendors through digital transmission and having the records of orders received, which helps companies store and record accurate data to eradicate errors in the supply chain activity, thus saving costs.
Requisition through E-cataloguing:
Electronic catalogs make supplier product offerings available electronically and provide buyers more visibility into product price and information. With the increased usage of these catalogs suppliers tend to provide competitive standardized quotes to their customers. Also, these catalogs are making it easier for different departments of an organization for requesting products online with the purchasing department through item classification.
Order processing through EDI:
Order processing through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) will help companies to share their documents such as orders, drawings and any other technical documents with their suppliers and in-turn automatically receive responses from them like order confirmations and invoice processing through an internal system integration between organization ERP and supplier ERP.
So, the main benefit of this technology is to save costs of both, companies and suppliers due to less manual intervention and increase the accuracy of purchasing in an organization. By this, suppliers are offering additional discounts/rebates to their customers and thus improving relationship with their customers.
Analytics with AI:
Machine learning with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating advances in procurement departments today with robust technology. It is mathematical modeling often used to speed up procurement processes through automation. These analytics are now helping supply chain professionals to take strategic decisions with ease. For e.g: Machine Learning is now helping industries to predict the need for spares for their machinery, based on the past performances and workload of the machine.
Through this, planning teams can easily take decisions on inventory management of spares to avoid delay in maintenance due to possible breakdowns. So, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in procurement, organizations can:
Single User Interface:
Single User Interface (UI) will be commonly used as a tool to operate different ERP systems having different user interfaces of an organization. A tool that allows users to work on different systems using a common interface. The benefit of this technology is to help companies from migrating their systems internally. This allows end-users to avoid errors while working on different user interfaces due to confusion. This also helps industries to centralize their procurement process using different ERP’s in different sites/branches of an organization.
Making Technology Handy:
With advancements in the usage of technology and hardware through internet connectivity, having technology handy, procurement professionals can level up their game by managing procurement process on the go. Visit here to learn how to enhance your procurement strategy.
For e.g: industries are seeking to adopt lite versions of their ERP’s and install them as an application in their mobile phones/tablets from which professionals can access them to check inventory balances, approve purchase orders, receive orders on time and place requisitions at any time any place even if they are on the field or out of office.
