Where to start in selecting a new Purchasing Software system ?
With the dismal economic situation hitting all sectors of all markets around the world, companies are looking to lower their procurement / purchasing costs ” For this they are turning to specialized eProcurement Software and electronic purchasing systems.
With the bleak economic downturn hitting all sectors of all markets all over the world, companies are looking to trim their procurement / purchasing costs ” For this they are turning to specialized eProcurement Software and electronic purchasing systems.
So what does one look for ? Well in this brief article I go into some of the key factors that you should consider ” I know this because I undertook the same exercise for my own company.
Without getting too functionally specific, look for a software vendor that has been in business a long time and has good technical support based in the country in which you are working.
Look for ongoing operational and training costs and also ask what are the fees to change the software to your own specifications.
Find out how the software suppliers approach the required tasks ” for example if any custom software is required do they send a programmer to sit with you or do they sub-contract to a firm in India that you have to relay your hopes and wishes to ?
Functionally speaking, purchasing software can contain quite a focused set of tools, the specific functions you should be looking for are remote requisitioning, on-line multi-level approvals, obviously electronic creation and dispatch of a purchase order, goods receiving, invoice matching and interfacing with accounts ” these are all the obvious areas.
Purchasing systems also contain some non-obvious tools ” what about facilities for say a supplier portal ? This is a much better approach than a ‘punch-out’ application which is supplier specific, or providing an asset register so that your capital goods do not have to be manually entered into your accounts for depreciation calculations at the year end.
You also need to work out what metrics are available for you to measure the success and performance of your new purchasing system !
When our company went through the exercise of selecting a new eProcurement system we zeroed in on a select few and finally wound up by choosing a system from Mikrofax eProcurement Solutions ” they met our overall criteria and seemed to have a detailed idea of what we were seeking. We also thought about systems from Sap, IBM and Oracle, all who had a deep understanding of the procurement system cycle but nevertheless rather missed the point from the small business perspective.
This of course by no means an exhaustive list of issues but rather a pointer to get you thinking along out-of-the box lines and help your business weather the current financial climate.






































