Talk:E-procurement

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Bold text^{Superscript text} Good Things to be noted —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.197.155.34 (talk) 04:43, 26 February, 2007 (UTC)

The article reads like a managerial Powerpoint marathon. Can anyone explain this concept without buzzwords and meaninglessly vague statements? Is the term actually in widespread use? Any references? --Lorkki 06:40, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What e-Procurement Means

Lorkki,

I work in procurement and see it this way. First, procurement is just a fancy word for purchasing. Procurement people are purchasing people. They buy stuff for their own work, their department, company, etc. So pretty much they spend their company's money. Of course, the challenges and complexities of the business world make things very ... challenging and complex. Purchases need to adhere to company policies and country laws. Purchases need to actually add value and not just hang as some monkey on company's back and kill the earnings, etc. That's where strategies become critical in procurement, and it's no longer just calling a guy in the warehouse across town to order some wood for manufacturing. A company needs to have control over spending and get best deals.

E-Procurement allows such controls to be in place. It's basically some relatively high-end software program that helps processes of buying stuff be more organized and uniform. Lorkii, if you've ever bought something online from Amazon, eBay, Barnes & Noble, etc, you can say you used e-procurement to an extent. You were your own procurement manager for a little while. You selected the item from possibly several choices -- professional e-procurement systems often have catalogs. You chose payment and shipping methods -- professional e-procurement systems take care of that kind of stuff too. The list goes on.

So if this makes any sense, great. If not, maybe checking out the website of Ariba[1] would help. It's one of the best in class e-procurement information systems.