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Key benefits of Operational Procurement Services

by | August 22, 2018

Organisations are continuously searching for ways to standardise their operational procedures and processes so as to maintain cost saving objectives. A procurement department has a great opportunity to follow suit by combining the standardisation and the automation of the operational procurement processes, here’s how:

Because of the rapid technological changes in ERP technology and web-based procurement systems, the procurement department now has the tools for purchase and supply management cost reduction whilst strengthening information security and compliance.

E-procurement systems can bring your company enormous benefits such as lower TCO, greater savings and improved innovation. But supporting those systems and extracting the best value for your organisation can be a real challenge.

You can further simplify your eProcurement systems by using different types of operational procurement support services. From outsourced e-auctions, to spend analysis and support desk functions, operational support is in fact critical for a procurement function to work smoothly.

Operational procurement support services are designed to support procurement teams and can be split across three areas:

1. Service desk – support can be provided for both on-premise and cloud systems

2. Enhancement Services – in this category there are a range of procurement enhancement services intended to maximise the benefits gained from using your systems:

  • Release management – this is delivered when upgrades are applied and provides recommendations of new functionality that improve the use of the system
  • Spend Analytics – visibility of data is key to understanding your spend
  • Supplier Enablement – procurement systems are most effective when the majority of spend and suppliers are flowing through. In turn, this helps improve the user experience, increase compliance and savings, and reduce costs.
  • Training – tailored training sessions with best practice materials specifically designed for your business can make a significant impact in getting the most from your investment.

3. Sourcing – the scale and scope of sourcing projects can vary enormously and the approach to a project should be specific and targeted. Sourcing activities include:

  • Identification of low-cost sourcing opportunities
  • Category-specific suitability assessment for e-auction
  • Objective supplier selection
  • Review, develop and design category-specific or strategic projectsOperational procurement support services can generate greater benefits than can normally be achieved by internal resources, allowing businesses to re-align key staff to other activities.

Interested to know how Xoomworks Procurement helped a global insurance group reach 89% supplier enablement? read more here.