Electronic purchasing
eProcurement
Does procurement take up too much of your time?
There are areas of your company where it isn’t necessarily obvious where savings could be made. But that doesn’t apply to the procurement of C items! Uncoordinated ordering of small items results in high process costs – which is why it is so important to gain control of this area and create transparency.
We would like to introduce you to our e-procurement solutions and make you aware of how electronic procurement can save you time and money, whether your company operates domestically or internationally. We offer our e-procurement expertise in 18 European countries, so wherever you are, we can help you find the e-procurement solution that works for you.
Advantages for you
More control
E-procurement bundles orders and places them exclusively with qualified suppliers at pre-negotiated conditions. This means an end to maverick buying.
Lower process costs
The process costs for ordering indirect and low-value goods are often significantly higher than the purchase price. E-procurement offers complete transparency here: orders are placed using a pre-negotiated catalogue at established conditions.
Optimised processes
Time is money. With e-procurement, you save both of these, freeing you up to focus on the really important things – such as maintaining good relations with suppliers.
More clarity
The individual steps in the procurement process become transparent and traceable. You can verify who requested which items and who approved this.
Five things you should know about electronic procurement
Internationalisation of the procurement markets
E-procurement also enables small and medium sized companies to harness new procurement markets by means of the Internet.
The advantages: you can find suppliers at the touch of a button and compare any number of offers and prices. The easiest way to do this is by using multi-supplier platforms such as simple system. There are several suppliers that offer their products and services on these system solutions, which function as electronic marketplaces.
This increases your flexibility: you can order products and take advantage of promotions and discounts around the clock, regardless of time and place.
Speeding up operational processes
Procurement departments at many companies are struggling with the same dilemma: requirements are becoming increasingly complex and at the same time business processes are expected to become more efficient.
How can you achieve your goals despite this? With efficiency and standardisation. After all, e-procurement solutions allow you to work much more productively than conventional purchasing processes would, which are based on manual input. Using e-procurement solutions as support for individual transactions and business processes, such as order processing and payment processes, simplifies them and speeds them up at the same time. In addition to supply chain management, this also applies to finance departments and other company divisions involved in procurement processes.
Tactical and strategic advantages
Would you like to make your procurement processes more transparent, and have a direct way to measure their success? Analyses and reports are part of the standard repertoire of e-procurement systems.
How are your suppliers performing, how satisfied are your customers? You can find out all of this information with just a few clicks. What’s more, you can also generate market analyses, standardise supplier contracts and implement additional procurement guidelines in no time at all. This gives you full transparency over expenditure throughout the company, and it also helps you to get a better grip on the often encountered, and cost intensive, “rogue purchases” (maverick buying).
C-goods: those who don’t take of the pence...
C-goods are items with a low individual order value and a high order frequency. Many say that C-parts are insignificant for a company's success, which is why many purchasing departments do not pay enough attention to them. That said, it is exactly these items that are ideally suited to e-procurement solutions and which allow you to secure benefits for your company within a very short time! They allow you to process higher cumulative order quantities in a standardised way.
We at kaiserkraft are specialists in this field. That's why we have written an article about this very topic: read more here.
Quality and savings potential
Compared to manual purchasing processes, electronic procurement automates a whole series of process steps. This makes other procurement activities significantly faster and leaves more time for other important tasks in your company. The resulting process cost savings can amount to up to 70%. When there are no media discontinuities, transmission errors are minimised and paperless workflows have a positive impact on time, finances and the environment.
If you frequently place orders for large quantities of goods, it may be worth introducing your own purchasing system that incorporates a range of different catalogue systems.
The perfect solution for every need.
1. The dynamic catalogue
Open Catalogue Interface (OCI/PunchOut)
OCI and PunchOut are standardised interfaces for transferring catalogue data sets between your procurement platform and our webshop. We support up to OCI 4, and level 1 level 2 PunchOut.
Straightforward
Direct access to our catalogue data via the internet – no need to install beforehand.
Convenient
Forwarding to our external shop system, after which your shopping basket is transferred directly back to your ERP system.
Up to date
Always displays your current prices as well as the latest technical descriptions, product images, pack sizes and product codes.
Current item availability
You receive real-time availability data about all products. This means you always have access to the latest stock levels and can avoid delays or bottlenecks in procurement.
2. The static electronic catalogue
The static electronic catalogue is a truly comprehensive solution. It offers the benefits of a traditional catalogue (clear overview of products), whilst remaining constantly up to date thanks to the web connection (API feed).
We support the following static electronic catalogue formats: BMEcat, CIF, Excel, CSV and TXT.
Customised
Product ranges (product groups, manufacturers etc.) can be adapted to individual customer requirements; customer-specific classification and material or article numbers can also be applied.
Detailed
Can be supplemented with quantities, prices, images, design drawings and additional information as required.
Efficient
Having a pre-established pool of suppliers provides a high degree of control.
3. Electronic document exchange
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
An important part of the end-to-end process is our EDI solution, which is used to transfer orders, order confirmations and invoices between your system and ours.
Fast
Very fast data transfer with no media discontinuity.
Sustainable
Reduces paper waste.
Efficient
Reduces process times/costs.
- Communication protocols / transaction standards: SFTP, OFTP, HTTPS, SMTP
- EDI formats: EDIFACT, OpenTrans, XCBL, CXMLSAP, IDOCs, ORDERS0x, ZugFerd, XRechnung
4. Customised Web & Special Agreement
Online solution
Customised Web is the “mini” solution for optimised material procurement without requiring your own e-procurement system.
Special Agreement is the regular registration in our online shop.
Customised
Customised conditions and product ranges, as well as the option to have your own company logo on the kaiserkraft website.
Functional
Comprehensive search options and other intelligent features.
Option to add extra features
Specific budget limits, user management and approval processes can all be added.
Approval
Assign different rights for individual users within one account. This makes it easy to implement authorisation workflows
The piece of the puzzle that you were missing?
All information on e-procurement and Customised Web can also be found in our e-procurement brochure.
Learn all about which data formats and classifications we use and how you too can simplify your material procurement in no time at all.
Your contact with us!
Our e-procurement specialists are at your side to answer your questions.
Simply arrange a zero obligation consultation – which can even be held in your company premises.