Ineffectual procurement strategy can lead to elevated risk, dark purchasing, supplier issues, data inaccuracies, and a drawn out purchasing cycle or procurement cycle. March is procurement month, so organizations should seek new ways to innovate the fulfillment of purchasing goals. So stop wasting time, squandering opportunities, and mismanaging resources with a disjointed and inefficient procurement process. March into national procurement month with your eyes open for these, the best procurement software features for your processes.
Look for Procurement Workflow & Request Wizard
The procurement workflow begins with requests for goods and services. The eProcurement software system you choose should provide a diverse expanse of request options.
With leading procurement management software, requestors can fill out a standard requisition form to trigger a configured form review process that helps determine whether or not a request should involve a bid process, whether an existing contract can be used instead, or whether a new purchase order is needed. Trusted procure to pay software also proffers the assistance of an intelligent request wizard. This innovative tool for procurement automation helps users quickly answer a set of dynamic questions that can determine the RFx type that will be initiated based upon organizational guidelines and rules. It can also be decided whether an existing contract can be leveraged.
From there, a request record can be drafted. Request records can be edited, revised, and reviewed throughout the contract workflow process. After that, the assigned user for budget review can receive an alert to perform the budget review, based on a pre-configured alert setting. Next, additional bid requirements are collected. Finally, a bid is formalized and put into place.
Seek Intelligent Requests & Online Bid Advertisement
Leading procurement management software can help organizations generate rapid, formal, full, and accurate request documents and materials. With the ability to intelligently merge request record data fields with pre-approved clauses and templates from an organization's library, procurement professionals and procurement teams can oversee templates and versions for rapid document generation and convenient document exportation into standard file formats.
Once a request proposal document is formalized, bids can be announced. They can be publicly advertised or made available by invite-only – directly from an organization's integrated procurement and contract management software platform. Seamless integration between contract management software and a bid listing service sets the stage for healthy competition between prospective vendors. Consequently, buying organizations can attain more value from contract awards, and relevant vendors are easily and quickly connected to relevant buying organizations.
The capability to automate clause management with the aid of an organization's pre-approved clause library and an intuitive bid advertisement process can expedite record creation and vendor selection processes, so be on the lookout for these helpful features!
Keep Your Eyes Peeled For a User-Friendly Q&A for Prospective Vendors
After an organization drafts a request and advertises a bid, vendors can ask pertinent questions.
As you search for the greatest solution for your needs this procurement month, be on the lookout for valuable question and answer tools that can help buying organizations and vendor prospects remain in sync.
Question and answer due dates can be configured so that potential vendors are only allowed to submit questions in the allotted time that fits the needs of the advertising, buying organization. After that decided date has passed, the system can be set to stop accepting vendor submissions.
Additionally, procurement management software users can be set to receive notifications when questions are posted, as well as warnings when due dates are drawing near. Organizations are also afforded options for how they respond to vendors. Buying organizations can address questions one at a time or provide a spreadsheet of answers made publicly available to the potential vendors.
Watch for Simple Vendor Rating & Scoring
Vendor scorecards and response ratings can keep organizations reassured that they choose the vendor that is best aligned with their specific needs. Bid rating weight control allows organizations to consider certain criteria over others when scoring bids and reviewing vendor responses. Easy-to-digest bid tabulation reports can be used to integrate scoring and pricing line items for a quick overview of bids. Make sure to select a procurement software solution that streamlines vendor rating and scoring.
Reap the Benefits of Easy Vendor Awards
This March, be on the lookout for a procurement software system that provides line item auctioning functionality.
This helpful tool helps organizations enlist specific bids for specific items. This can be very useful for bid management processes that allow organizations to award multiple vendors for different aspects of a bid.
Organizations can emphasize specific items of a bid, provide an area for vendors to choose items and deliver their expected price, and have the bid specifications sent back to their system for respondent comparison.
After buying organizations have completed the steps mentioned above, they are ready to award the best vendor!
Once the winning vendor is awarded, an email can be sent to the selected vendor straight from the system's sourcing record page. Pre-approved email templates can hasten the process even more. Furthermore, buying organizations can provide emails to vendors that were not selected. The email can let unawarded vendors know that a different vendor has been selected while thanking them for their contributions and interest.
Look Out for Seamless, Quick Vendor Contract Creation
If you are searching for a leading procurement management software solution, seamless vendor contract creation is ideal for centralizing processes. How does it work?
Well, after the award phase detailed above is complete, organizations can easily commence the contract lifecycle process. A new contract record can be created within leading-edge contract management software, or a procurement record can be synced with an existing contract record. In either case, a CLM procedure can be started easily via the sourcing record page that has been used throughout this process.
You Need A One-Stop Solution for Better Procurement
The centralized and unified functionality mentioned above can help organizations to overcome a wide variety of procurement challenges, including:
- vendor administration processes, task management, vendor performance analysis, contract writing, and contract negotiation.
- spend analysis, including budget amounts, contract amounts, vendor invoicing processes, fiscal year spend management and tracking, payment processing, and purchasing control.
- structuring intelligent contract workflow automation, vendor and supplier relationship management, and full procurement analytics.
- meeting (and ideally exceeding) KPIs for vendor value and supplier obligation fulfillment, contract benefit and opportunity realization, contract workflow escalation, and data-driven contract management.
Experience Comprehensive Procurement Management!
Now that you know some great procurement month ideas and features, it is time to enlist the aid of a comprehensive source-to-contract management software suite.
CobbleStone Contract Insight is secure, acclaimed procurement software celebrated as a visionary system for organizations in a variety of industries within public procurement spaces and private sectors.
To learn more about CobbleStone’s unparalleled procure to pay software and integrated contract management software solution, book a free demo today!
Thank you, and happy procurement month!
This article was originally published on March 5, 2021, and last updated on February 21, 2024.
