It has been proved beyond doubt that the mere purchase of goods is only the beginning of the supply chain processes that an organization has to go through. The most cumbersome process in that supply chain starts after the purchase, when the goods supplied by the vendors are to be followed up with invoice payments, inspections and quality check (if required) , issue of receipts or delivery challans, creation of approval or rejection reports in case there is discrepancy found in the actual product versus what was ordered. After all these processes are done, it also requires tracking down of loans taken against purchases against which bills need to be generated.

Procurement software is incredibly puissant business software that enables organizations to effectively automate their rather onerous source-to-pay cycle. It refers to an advanced computer program or a suite per se, that furnishes easy to use set of tools to an organization, assiduously aiding the organization in completely automating all the taxing processes that are involved in purchase of raw materials. It helps maintain a detailed inventory of goods, thus eliminating all the unnecessary hassles involved in the purchase process.

Procurement software can assist in generating and managing multiple purchase orders simultaneously, whilst removing the need for maintaining and juggling your business records across multiple and different spread sheets. It can easily evaluate tenders, and can efficiently execute all ordering processes online, meticulously matching each invoice against the materials received and thus clearing all bills via an electronic mode.

Furthermore the software keeps a tab on all business purchases, hence ensuring that nothing is ordered without prior approvals. It also helps secure the best price value for each purchase by centralizing information, and by clubbing orders that consists of similar kind of goods, thus diminishing the costs associated with a specific purchase. Procurement software even brings forth suppliers to bid for various different businesses.

It is interesting to note that the digital contemporary procurement softwares let’s employees carry out a purchase virtually from across the globe.

Organisations can also set up a detailed budget planner on their procurement software dashboard in order to effectively follow through all the various procurement processes within different work departments.

Also the electronic purchase order helps organizations quickly communicate all desired purchase orders directly to the vendor, preventing any kind of unsolicited delay.

One may therefore succinctly conclude that procurement softwares are primarily designed for the following reasons :

  • In order to automate the long and tedious purchase process
  • For creating multiple purchase orders
  • Meticulously tallying an order against the specific invoice
  • For supporting all financial transactions of various goods and services that are either purchased or received
  • For homogenizing the entire purchase process that an organization complies with

Major Advantages of Procurement Software

Mentioned below are few major advantages that organizations accrue by virtue of using a procurement software :

  • Maintains utmost transparency in the organization – Procurement software maintains detailed documentation of all transactions. This hence furnishes a true and fair picture of how business funds are spent on various different purchases.
  • Helps diminish costs – Procurement software render a detailed and an accurate insight highlighting services that are regularly purchased by an organization. It provides information regarding suppliers who offer the best value of the specific service required. Furthermore it also delineates areas of high cost purchases that have some other cost effective alternatives, and it therefore helps organizations diminish various different major and ancillary costs.
  • Ameliorates operational efficiency – Procurement software furnishes a completely automated process that diminishes all the long hours and the innumerable hassles involved in creating various documentations with regards to a purchase. This not only saves time, but also helps improve the operational efficiency of an organization. Furthermore it completely eliminates the likelihood of any unsolicited error in manual data entry, and let’s an organization focus on its core business operations.
  • Homogenizes all workflow – Procurement software help homogenize all workflow by creating well structured and detailed processes, providing both flexibility as well as control in each business transaction. This may be implemented from the requisition stage itself, albeit it is assiduously maintained till the final consolidation of payment information in the accounting system.
  • Integrates with the Record System Procurement software integrates with accounting systems thus ensuring that every transaction information is correctly entered into the record system. Furthermore the advanced procurement software furnish a plethora of various different integration possibilities, thus enabling organizations to hold more flexibility with regards to where the information is sent via the procurement process.
  • Creates detailed, digitized catalogues – Procurement software help organizations command both control and flexibility with regards to their purchases. It creates meticulously structured and very well detailed, digitized catalogues, clubbing all common items, hence providing clear details regarding what needs to be purchased. Furthermore procurement software even restricts the various purchases of an organization to trusted suppliers only, thus helping businesses to a tee.

Procurement software have hence proven to be a boon for businesses of all sizes, but however it is pertinent to mention that while there are innumerable procurement software in the market, you need to carefully consider your work requirements and the nature of your business prior to zeroing in on a specific procurement software that would cater to your work needs.