Chrys Barnes knew she had a problem. We buy everything from chicken to condoms,'' Barnes says. The process was so chaotic that one office might order pencils, not knowing that thousands sat unused in a county warehouse. We couldn't just turn people loose to place orders over the Internet,'' she says.
Barnes bet on a high-tech solution.
Routine purchases are O.K.'d using rules built into the software, while special items get routed to managers for their approval. Orders and payments are all electronic. We're seeing tremendous savings,'' Barnes crows. She's not alone. Analysts are divided over how much companies will save, but conservative estimates hover in the tens of billions.