Purchasing Made Simple Self-service procurement can save millions of dollars by lowering prices and administrative costs. While most individual purchasing transactions are small change, they can add up to a large part of a company's budget. Companies that move from traditional procurement methods to an online self-service approach, however, can save significantly on their total operating expenses. Businesses are currently wasting huge amounts of money just by continuing to use traditional purchasing procedures for supplies and services outside master procurement schedules. The current decentralized approach leaves each employee or department with minimal leverage to negotiate with the supplier, since each purchase is relatively small.
Employees often order from convenient but higher-priced suppliers.
In many cases the cost of processing the order exceeds the price of the item itself. The new approach provides a framework for integrating supplier and purchasing information, giving employees an easy but structured way to shop. Automating each step of the process from choosing suppliers to ordering, approval, tracking, receiving, and payment can deliver dramatic savings in operating costs. Coordinating purchasing companywide and working with key suppliers can substantially improve prices. And beyond dollars, automating purchasing shortens the time needed for approval cycles, eliminates paperwork, and allows for more effective tracking.