With internet access now almost universal, eSourcing is being seen as the next big platform for bringing greater efficiency and competency to the sourcing process. I have outlined the six major benefits of eSourcing that can be game-changers for any business:
Improved vendor discovery: Just as Google and other search engines make it easy to search for restaurants and hotels, even in cities you have never set foot in, eSourcing vendors have a database that provides access to organisations offering multiple goods and services. The quality of such databases varies significantly, based on the quality of the information sources, the ease of searchability, and the range/number of variables that can be searched.
Another key factor for consideration is the number of vendors on the database; greater the pool of suppliers available, higher the probability that a company finds a more cost-effective and technically competitive vendor than their existing one.
Simplified process: As part of the procurement process to shortlist potential vendors, it is common for companies to ask suppliers for a ‘Request for Information' or a ‘Request for Proposal'. eSourcing centralises and simplifies this process for procurement professionals by allowing them to create such forms online, and issue them electronically.
In addition to the enormous savings on printing and mailing, the technology offers further advantages over a traditional paper or spreadsheet based process. For example, questionnaires can be instantly and uniformly modified should requirements change halfway through the process without having to re-issue all the questionnaires.
Also, respondents are forced to submit their responses in a uniform manner and any errors with incomplete or incorrect submissions can be addressed immediately. The biggest advantage is that the electronic medium provides companies a means to monitor responses from vendors throughout the qualification period.
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The author is Executive Director, Procurement Services, Xchanging.
