E-Sourcing Forum » A Means to an End

A Means to an End

July 31st, 2007 at 05:44am David Bush - Iasta

As a follow up to my recent post on Good People First, Good Systems Second, I’m going to highlight a recent article in Supply and Demand Chain Executive: e-Sourcing Tools – Means to an End. This article points out that in addition to good people, you also need effective process definitions and process integration in order to realize the full value provided by an e-Sourcing Tool.

The article points out that one of the primary benefits of an e-sourcing tool is that it allows staff to enter information in an autonomous, distributed manner while also allowing management access to reports that consolidate and aggregate the information into a comprehensive picture of department-wide activity but that if the staff responsible for providing the information are not aligned and using the same data definitions and usage guidelines, then the reports generated will have little or no value.

Therefore it is important that you establish uniform data definitions and provide training, build data collection requirements with the end result in mind, and capture the right data.

The article also lists ten crucial data elements that need to be captured:

Project Type
Project Status
(Over-arching) Program
Savings
Vendor Diversity Opportunity
Project Description
Project Status Update
Risk Indicator
Issue List
Priority

As well as giving a number of tips for online eRFX and Reverse Auctions, including:

Auto-scoring capabilities can be better leveraged by structuring as many requirements as possible as binary yes/no or numeric value answers.
Vendor training saves time and effort.

In conclusion, process integration considerations for a successful e-sourcing tool rollout may seem like a substantial amount of work (and it is), but in reality it is a small investment relative to the payoff received in the form of enhanced efficiency and effectiveness from the sourcing process. With significant dollars and time on the line, it is vital that the enterprise plans ahead and allocates sufficient priority and resources to process integration when making a decision to implement an e-sourcing tool.

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Entry Filed under: Functionality, General, Reverse Auctions, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology / SaaS, e-RFx, e-Sourcing Marketplace

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