One of the marketing terms that you will need to know if you want to be successful in the field is e-procurement. E-procurement is one of the most important terms when it comes to large-scale business services and purchasing. In this article, we'll be exploring the entire chain of e-procurement from start to finish and define the term as it applies to the marketing and advertising industry.
What Exactly Is E-Procurement?
There are lots of new terms in the world of marketing since the internet has become the massive place to buy and sell items that it has. E-procurement is a term that simply stands for electronic procurement or supplier exchange is another word that is sometimes used. It simply means the buying and selling of supplies, services or work through the internet specifically as it applies to business-to-business and business-to-government, although it does apply to business-to-consumer sales as well.
The E-Procurement Value Chain
The e-procurement value chain consists of a few different things that are vital to the chain, as well as some optional elements like indent management. Here are some of the vital elements of the chain.
- Auctioning
- Vendor management
- Catalog management
- Integration of purchase orders
- Informing
- Shipping notices
- Order status
- Electronic payment
The E-Procurement Process
E-procurement allows for the automation of many of the tasks that used to require manual work in business. The entire process cannot usually be automated, but most parts of it can. Things like elements like marketing, payment processing and lead procurement can all be done online these days. However, it does take some work and you have to know what you are doing.
What Are The Benefits Of E-Procurement?
In this section, we are going to go over some of the benefits of e procurement. There are quite a few of them, and they are the reason that so many people are bringing their business online even if they do not primarily sell online. Many business tasks could be automated, even if the business does nothing else online. Here are the benefits.
- An almost complete elimination of all the paperwork that used to be involved in running a business, including taxes Financial spreadsheets and ledgers and much more
- A minimization of the errors that typically occur when you try to do business without the aid of a computer
- Lowered overhead in the form of purchasing, as well as in many other areas like marketing.
- Easy communication between the company that is selling the product in the supplier that is actually supplying it.
- Minimization of time between when the customer recognizes they have a need and when they actually buy the product from your website.
- Less time for employees to do paperwork such as filling up purchase orders and tracking inventory.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that there are just some great reasons why e-procurement has been able to change the way the people do business, and almost exclusively for the better. E-procurement is one of the most exciting ways of doing business in this modern computer age.