B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

426 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
An e-procurement solution should include features for desktop
requisitioning, automated processing, indirect purchasing, direct and
indirect sourcing, travel and expense management and electronic forms.
It should streamline accounts payable systems; enable easy transition
from a paper-based contract management system to an electronic one,
procurement of requisition and project-based resources, aggregation
with service suppliers and optimization of business processes; provide
access to centralized commerce services, such as supplier content,
sourcing, liquidation, logistics and payment; deliver an open architecture
that allows buying organizations to connect with thousands of trading
partners worldwide; and track requisitions allowing end users immediate
visibility into the procurement process. Once integrated into a company's
infrastructure, the solution should enable connectivity with any number
of e-marketplaces and collaborative networks. This feature is only
possible if the solution is based on open standards and architecture.
GET ON TO THE FAST, EFFICIENT TRACK WITH
E-PROCUREMENT
A recent American Express and Ernst & Young study revealed that
firms using manual purchase orders to buy low-dollar supplies and
services incur an average process cost of $90 for each transaction,
with some organizations spending as much as $200 on certain
transactions. In comparison, the study indicated that companies using
e-procurement systems incurred significantly lower processing costs
of $20 to $45 per purchase.
Better still, firms that employed purchasing cards for payment and
accounting tasks with electronic procurement systems to buy supplies
reduce their process costs to as low as $4 per purchase, a decrease
of 95%. In addition, companies can cut the time required for the
purchasing process from two hours to 7.4 minutes by using a combined
purchasing card and electronic purchasing solution.
Source: Condensed from eProcurement: End-to-end Solutions Deliver Big Cost
Savings, Alliente, Inc.