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Procurement Software For Businesses: The Benefits & Advantages Of e-Procurement

  • Post published:January 21, 2022
  • Post category:eProcurement
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Procurement Software For Businesses: The Benefits & Advantages Of e-Procurement

SMEs tend to have smaller amounts of resources than MNCs, which can make winning tenders difficult. But this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t try. 

In fact, 80% of government tenders went to SMEs back in 2017. Many of the benefits of using e-procurement software also seem too great for smaller firms to pass on this opportunity.

In this article, we will discuss the various advantages of e-procurement that SMEs can enjoy when they utilise the various solutions effectively.

Why is e-procurement software gaining traction in recent years?

As discussed in an earlier article, the digital transformation of procurement has been going on for years now. As the industry gets increasingly competitive, more and more businesses need to streamline and automate mundane, tedious, and time-consuming tasks. And for many, using technology such as e-procurement software is the only way forward.


The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the speed at which this is happening. Given that smaller companies have already lost out in terms of resources, there is an urgent need for them to adopt the various tools to help them improve their competitive edge.

What are the benefits and advantages of eProcurement?

Manual processes made easy

The tendering process can be a complicated one. 

Sellers need to consider many factors before submitting the documents requested by the buyer’s RFT. And with the various processes involved, such as supplier management and contract management, things can get even more difficult. 

E-procurement tools such as Tenderboard come with a variety of features that can help streamline such processes and make the entire procurement journey smoother. 
One feature that eliminates the need for manual processes is its budget management tool. With this solution, not only can the procurement avoid using excel spreadsheets to track finances, but they can also generate financial reports. This in turn can help small businesses save so much time given the smaller manpower size.

An advantage of e-procurement for small businesses is that it can streamline manual processes such as finance tracking.
An example of TenderBoard’s budget tracking and finance report features

Data visualisation makes for more informed decisions

Raw data collected by e-procurement software can also be visualised. This helps SMEs improve the overview of their performance and operations. This in turn helps them make informed and strategic decisions for their business.

Cost reduction

With all the visualised data in their hands, SMEs can also make better informed financial decisions.

Which are the vendors that they are spending too much money on? Which are the raw materials that have been purchased in surplus? Were there too many people hired for an earlier project?
With good data visualisation, these financial questions can easily be answered. In fact, Tenderboard’s customers have saved between 30 and 40% of their original operational costs.

Reduced errors

Electronic paperwork is streamlined. This makes it easier to check for errors

SMEs no longer need to worry about losing old documents or messy printing errors – all the issues brought about by traditional procurement processes.

And with all documents in an electronic format, they can be easily accessed and referenced. This makes it easier for smaller firms to compare orders to ensure new ones are correct.

Increased speed of transaction

As the software is capable of handling time-consuming finance-related tasks, the entire purchasing process is simplified and the transaction speed is increased. Also, procurement cycle times speed up because of supplier relationship management features.

Mitigate procurement risks

As the world becomes increasingly complex, so do the business operations involved with compliance.

Is the vendor compliant with local regulations? What about international laws? What effects would the failure to comply with regulations have on the supply chain?

Many e-procurement software come with supplier analysis tools to help you identify which seller may potentially hinder the procurement process.

And for smaller businesses, this can go a long way in avoiding potential heavy litigation costs and fines.

Conclusion

As you can see, e-procurement can help SMEs level the playing field and help them compete with MNCs on an equal footing. With the help of procurement software, SMEs can save costs, visualise data to make more informed decisions.If you would like to start your e-procurement journey, reach out to us today!