Nine Benefits of deploying an E-Procurement Systems
e-Procurement is a relatively new concept where an organization can deploy one centralized system and unify the majority of its procurement functions in one platform.
Some of the functions included are:
- Online catalogs from approved vendors
- Internal ordering processes
- Electronic Request for Proposal (e-RFP) process
- Online auctions (e-auctions) to accumulate bids on providing goods and services for a specific project.
This article will outline some of the significant benefits that a company can experience when they deploy an integrated E-Procurement system.
If you are looking to understand the challenges associated with E-Procurement, please read — eProcurement Integration Challenges Simplified
The Nine Benefits
Deliver Process Controls and Governance.
Procurement organizations do not always worry about what commodities or supplies were purchased. They are concerned about understanding who engaged in the process. Paper and spreadsheets can track most of the details but tend to provide opportunities for fraud. What if somebody alters what was on that paper midway through the purchase? The fact is, with older systems, there is no fail-safe way to monitor and track all of the steps. …
Human in the loop (HITL), data extraction techniques, have been around since the first introduction of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. Originally, HITL processes were seen as a series of quality checks or validations to make sure the OCR tools collected data properly. These days Machine learning is becoming more and more mainstream, and the role of the human within the data extraction process is becoming far more complex and important.
In almost every industry there exist a significant amount of ‘critical’ information that needs to be accessed at a moment’s notice but unfortunately may be buried deep in an email, pdf or word doc. The problem is that most of these documents have no real data structure or content organization so getting at that ‘critical’ content, when you need it, is a tremendous challenge. …
Ten Tips to Improving Business Collaboration:
1. Set common goals and outcomes.
It is essential to identify and communicate specific common goals at the start of a project. These goals can be associated with core values and placed in a mission statement, or they can be part of a strategic directive or project. It is also beneficial to evaluate potentially most desirable outcomes, as well. Make sure all members of your team accept and agree to the goals as well as the outcomes completely.
2. Evaluate your available collaboration tools.
Start by making an initial list of people you want to collaborate with. Then, add the mediums at your disposal for successful information exchange. It is worth mentioning that communication mediums don’t necessarily limit themselves to the technology-oriented variety. …
Unstructured data is the term used to describe the collection of data that is not organized in any pre-defined format or in a database. Unstructured data is usually created with the intention of direct human consumption; it can include email conversation, conversation transcriptions, audio files, photos, web pages, pdf, and old-fashioned paper documents. It is estimated that over 80% of the data available in an enterprise is considered unstructured.
With all of this unstructured data flowing in and around an enterprise, it is no wonder why it is so difficult to create the perfect Artificial or Business Intelligence application. In machine learning systems, runtime efficiency depends mostly on the ease of access to data to ensure faster processing. …
Why You Need to Cleanse Your Supplier Database
There’s plenty of room for improvements in this field. Without any exaggeration, we can freely claim that almost each and any supplier database comes with duplicates, inaccurate, or incomplete records. Also, it’s also very likely that you’re using a couple of databases, rather than only one on a daily basis. Cleaning up of your supplier databases can help you structure and cluster data to come up with a single clean and reliable vendor master database.
Improving the Quality and Accuracy of Your Supplier Database
It comes without saying that any supplier database ages rapidly. It’s an inevitable process. According to some estimates, various changes can affect between 30 and 40% of the available data in your supplier database on a yearly basis. Your business relocates, merges, or changes all the time, including the names and contact persons associated with it. Also, some databases can contain a few hundred million records you have to keep up-to-date. Therefore, improving the quality of your business data and optimization of data management processes present themselves as an absolute must. You’re required to normalize, rationalize, standardize, update, improve, and maintain your data all the time. Needless to say that you also have to remove all duplicate records. Duplicate and inaccurate supplier data should be deleted as soon as you identify and locate it in your system. Updating, organizing, and enhancing your supplier database on an ongoing basis will enable you to get the most out of your business systems. When you’re using a clean and accurate accounts payable vendor master database, you’ll be able to work more efficiently. …
Supplier evaluation checklist strategies vary from company to company. In most cases, they can be a proactive way to expand your organization’s ability to reduce supply chain risk as well as attract and maintain the right suppliers.
Establishing a company-wide methodology to help evaluate suppliers is easier than you think and will contribute to making sure that you avoid mistakes.
Mismatches between your expectations and those of your suppliers can cause delays, severe costs, and even damage your business reputation. …
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