E Procurement – Catalogue Management

Catalogue Management plays a vital role in creating a full implementation cycle of a E-Procurement Solution. Catalogue means “A complete enumeration of items arranged systematically with descriptive details”. E catalogue is a electronic document which carries the product specifications, listings and information in detail. This E catalogue is accessible to both customers and partners through the internet. A successful catalogue management improves the working relationship between the Customer and Supplier also it automatically provides a passage to sourced products, suppliers and the ordering process. Other than this they provide link to product reviews and industry information’s.

E-Catalogue organizes the detailed information regarding the offered products and services, and properly classifies, categorizes and distributes the product information. Catalogue Content Management is not restricted to just providing the huge detailed account of catalogue mass but its activity core involves

• Helping the supplier in creating, analyzing and validating catalogue content.
• Driving, monitoring and maintaining all communication between all the involved parties.
• Performing the content validation against data formats, business logic and coding structures.
• Monitoring all catalogue management processes.
• Updating the list at the instant a new product is in market by making it available for the customer.
• Providing comparison of product features, advising related products and alternative products and services to customers.

Benefits of using the Catalogue Management Solution is

• Handling a paper catalogue is very tiring and tedious option as it consumes lots of space and time and also it proves to be expensive. But online catalogues are huge relief’ as they could be easily updated and accessed at the click of a button.
• Online catalogs are also more easily searchable and help instant recovery.
• Hierchy wise management of the catalogue becomes much easier task with this kind of application thus making it easily accessible and user friendly.
• It generates the opportunity to receive the purchase orders online which will lead to cost savings.
• It increases the accuracy of the orders placed because it reduces the time which was previously used to confirm the quotes and prices or in short we can say it reduces the conversation time by presenting the product details and specifications in full length.
• Purchases are made by selecting items from the on-line catalogue.
• Suppliers can receive the purchase order as an electronic order in the market place.
• Accurately showcased online catalogues reduces the error rate of mismatches between the invoice and the purchase order.
• The catalogue management solutions can improve the efficiency within an organization’s existing procurement process which comprises of process design, change management and communication.

E-Procurement Catalogue Content Management requires more than catalogue creation and administration. The faithfulness on the part of these e procurement systems could be ensure only and only if the purchasing organization engages itself in efficiently managing the strategy, structure, people, processes and supporting software tools.

To know how to efficiently manage and organize your contents contact us directly for more information:

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E-Market Place

E-Market Place is very significant development of this Internet domain. An E-Market Place is a virtual online electronic exchange where firms register as sellers or buyers to communicate and conduct business communications over the Internet. These E-Market Places offer their services by providing electronic catalogues, creating business proposals, negotiating on the business terms etc.

Types of E Market Places

• Independent E-Market Places
  This category is accessible to all buyers and sellers in particular region or industry. This may be created by a third party who is neither buyer nor seller. The sole purpose of creating such market places is revenue benefits.
• Buyer Oriented E-Market Places
  These market places are managed by consortium of buyers and are open to all the existing suppliers.
• Supplier Oriented E-Market Places
  These market places are managed by consortium of suppliers and is open to all the existing buyers.
• Vertical and Horizontal E-Market Places
  Vertical market places address the requirements of specific industry whereas the horizontal market place addresses functional or regional requirements.
  To qualify as an E-Market Place, the site should be open to multiple buyers, sellers and needs to perform one or more commerce related functions like forward or reverse auctions, vendor catalogues, RFQ, RFI or RFP capability, online tendering ,fixed price ordering etc. The E-Market Place does not actually take the physical possession of the goods or services traded instead it only ensures the exchange of goods or services by matching the right buyer and seller thus making the market structure liberal where no buyer or seller can dominate the structure of market.
  E-Market Places are not the mandatory requirement of all the vertical industries to conduct the business functions. There are two main types of industries where the E-Market Places play no role in business facilitation that is :
  Industries with an extensive and complicated supply chain with just a few manufacturers. Here business functions are performed with a cooperative E-Procurement System.
  
  Industries with few sellers but long distribution chains where the buyers and sellers both depend on E-Distribution System to conduct business more rapidly and cost effectively.

Benefits of adopting E-Market Places

• The E-Market Places generally concentrate on either the procurement activities or collaborative activities. Thus some benefits within these activities are more accurate than others and depend on what type of E-Market Place is in question.
  New trade relationships can be formed between buyers and traders.
• Acts as a medium for the buyers and suppliers by initiating a trading relationship with them.
• Update information and price details ensure best deals.
• There are no time constraints as the trade is possible on 24 x 7 clock basis.
• For buyers it becomes easy to struck a deal with the prospected supplier instead of spending time contacting each supplier and also there is high level of trust involved because these buyers only deal with the registered suppliers.
• For Suppliers it is beneficial as new RFQ can come their way from new and existing registered customers. It provides a wider sales channel than the traditional and existing ones.
  
  Last few years have witnessed a tremendous explosion of E-Market Places in internet jargon, thus making it difficult to relate to the significant E-Market Places. The basic criteria for being rated as significant E-Market Place is:
  Complete contact information

A statement of privacy

Information on membership criteria and transaction statistics
It is important to concentrate on following areas before deciding upon the right kind of the market place.
Industry Needs

It’s very important to analyze whether the particular E-Market Place is tailored to meet the needs and requirements of type of industry in which you are involved. It is upto you to find out who your potential buyers are and what are their requirements and also that your business matches with requirements of the buyers and sellers listed over there.

Management of Market Place
It’s very important to know about the management details of the market place like the partners in profit and the risks involved etc.

Costs Involved
If the cost involved in ensuring the dealing with such market places is high then it becomes difficult to trade. Generally the costs involved are commissions for completed transactions, membership fees and listing fees etc.

Overall Design of Market Places
It is important to understand the overall design of such market places so that you can be ensure that the purchases are conducted properly or to say it gives you the opportunity to understand whether your products are being listed properly making it accessible to the prospective buyer.

Technical Issues
Ensure that the marketplace is better equipped to perform the business functions and is also capable of performing the updations and other business related functions on your behalf.

Security / Privacy
It is important to ensure that the transaction details are not accessed by the third party person who may take advantage of the available information. An E-Market Place should have systems in place to prevent or reduce fraud.

To know whether we can help you to perform your online commerce activities with much efficiency and trust,contact us via email at
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E Procurement

According to Wikipedia “E-Procurement (Electronic Procurement) is the business-to-business purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems.”E-Procurement connects business houses and business processes with the suppliers by managing all the correspondence between them. Success of the B2B commerce sites have accelerated the popularity and need for the perfect E-Procurement solutions. This term is also referred to as Supplier Relationship Management, but its ultimate goal is automating the workflows , identifying new sourcing opportunities and optimizing the purchasing processes so that companies can utilize their management time towards earning revenues and serving to customer needs.

A perfect E-Procurement Solution is beneficial to business processes.

In India the adoption of this purchase optimization tool is in evolutionary stage. Those sectors which have adopted this software have successfully reaped the benefits like:

• Improved efficiency
• Information is very neatly organized
• Transactions are trackable
• Online submissions for tenders and bids
• Transparency in tendering process
• Reduction in cost and processing time for the tenders
• Bidding is easy
• Vendor and contractor management schedules are aptly managed
• Tracking of product delivery and payment is easier
• A better access to dynamic analytical reports which helps in identifying the right bidder
• Increased transparency which encourages fair, free and fearless participation in bidding
• Lowering inventory levels

Adopting these E-Procurement solutions might head for good governance but there are certain risk factors involved they are

• Security Lapses
  Although there are high stakes involved in bids and tenders so they have to be managed with much fairness and transparency but ensuring their confidentiality may pose a problem which may pave way for many irregularities which will reverse the business equations in wrong manner.
• 
  Large Investments
  The thought of investing large amounts of revenue in these procurement software’s may prove risky for small business organizations, as these procurement solutions can work efficiently for the organizations with large supply chains . But that doesn’t closes a way for these small business organizations instead they can achieve their business goals by using the E- Procurement packages which require low investments.
• 
  Failure in integration with the existing systems
  If the E Procurement systems fail to integrate with the existing legacy systems then they create duplicative work steps and which jeopardizes the organizational reliability.
• 
  Lack of supplier participation may hinder the supply management process
  The lack of supplier participation may hinder the network effects of these E-Procurement systems which depend on mass participation of suppliers.

At the turn of the century business analyst’s recommended that there will be a whopping increase in the list of the companies who will adopt these E-Procurement solutions for business process optimization but now we find this was another failed prediction

• Implicit relationships which investors have forged between E-Procurement technologies and B2C models responsible for the Internet jargons and complexities.
• Lack of knowledge regarding the adoption of E-Procurement solution which in turn affects the organizational collaboration and network effects underlying these technologies.
• Large expectations – Its utter foolishness on the part of companies to expect immediate ROI (Return on Investments) although some short term gains will be visible but it may take sometime before the large significant ROI’s come their way. So this situation forces the companies to adopt “Wait and Watch” attitude.
• Lack of a well defined Business Process – Due to absence of a well defined business processes the business houses tend to adopt different technology solutions and different adoptional strategies which further eliminates the possibility of a complete E-Procurement adoption.

Adoption Strategies involved:
Although it may seem easier to say that companies are now realizing the importance of the E Procurement solutions but we come across two types of adoption strategies:

Total replacement model
Companies who aggressively adopt these E-Procurement solutions by discarding the traditional models and they continuously involve in experimental advanced implementations.

Conservative Adaptation model
Companies who very conservatively adopt these technologies after selecting one technology then the other. They are generally concerned with the “Wait and See” approach .They retain their traditional practices upto some extent.

To know the how we can help you with the total supplier relationship management techniques, feel free to contact us via email at
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Immediate Benefits of Adopting the Online SRM System

Business rules and strategies have changed since the information technology started ruling the roost. So businesses are always in the rat race of evolving themselves to more sophisticated level of advances which is free from follies and exudes perfection to the tee. These businesses always try to work on the money factor they always aim to reduce the working costs and increase the saving deposits and extend the revenue domains. So supply chain execution is the most important feature of any business process. Most of the industries are struggling to automate their purchase departments with these supply relationship management techniques which will provide them more opportunities of fair business and increased earnings.

But the companies which have adopted these online SRM systems have experienced some immediate benefits like

Improved customer and supplier management relationship
Storing the details of transactions between the customer and supplier is a very important aspect of any business relationship. If those details are not managed properly then it creates a room for discrepancies and other unfairness in a business relationship to avoid that nowadays the companies depend on the online SRM’s which are capable of storing the data in centralized location that can be easily accessed by both the customer and buyer.

Well Organized information assessment saves lot of time
Unlike the manual data management system where the information management and retention is very cumbersome and consumes lot of man hours, the online SRM’s store the information centralized locations and is easily accessed so this saves a lot of time and business managers handling the information part can devote more time towards working for the customer satisfaction.

It links manufacturers with the supply chain
Unlike the manual supply chain management systems where the manufacturers have to depend on other sources for the time to time information regarding the supply chain; the online SRM’s eliminate those time lags by giving the direct access to manufacturers who can keep tabs on their supply details.

Inventory Management/Inventory Optimization
The Inventory Optimization operation performed by the online SRM systems have resulted in increase of inventory cost savings. The history of each inventory is stored in the centralized location which makes it more accessible by the user. Most of the online SRM systems are designed so as to calculate how much inventory is to be held at each time in order to minimize the costs by taking into account the uncertainties in supply, demand and operations.

Reduction in direct material costs
Many of the business organizations have used the online SRM’s and realized the importance of savings in purchasing indirect materials like office supplies, computers, desks etc. These materials are purchased more relying on the price value and brand value. But the raw materials or to say direct materials are the real life line of any business process. The cost of purchasing the direct material comprises of about 60% of the total cost of the goods sold by any manufacturer. In adequacy of the right product at the right time may hamper the production activity. But the difficulties are posed if these manufactures want to automate the direct material process because the products often have very different features which are to be matched according to the manufacturing requirements so it becomes very tedious to catalogue them and also other factors involved are the lead times and delivery performances which are highly variable. So it becomes difficult for the manufacturer to place the orders, or request the quotes and to conduct the further communications involved. But online SRM’s have dealt with this problem by managing the ROI, RFQ, Reverse Auctions, Negotiations, Contract executions, sharing schedules, etc. Increasing manufacturing uptime, improving order fulfillment are also done by the online SRM’s. In most of the cases the details of purchasing events and supplier performances are captured by the Online SRM so as to create a bank of knowledge which will loosen the iron grip on the future sourcing decisions.

If you have made your mind of installing a online SRM its important to check the following factors before actually going for it.

• Customization – Every business house has its own way of managing the supply chain and purchase processes so its important to select such customizable online SRM software’s which can meet the working requirements of your organization.
• Implementation and Integration – The other important factor while considering the online SRM solution is its easy implementation and integration with the legacy systems. It is found that some SRM solutions take lot of time for its implementation thus reducing its ROI’s. To avoid that it is necessary to check out the implementation feature of SRM.
• Security – Security of data integration is of prime importance before choosing any SRM system.

Every manufacturing organization aspires to maintain a very effective supply chain which aims its automating its purchasing and other supply related operations. When implemented effectively the above results will be obtained.

To know and experience the benefits of adopting a online SRM system, contact us via email at
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Online Auctions

Online auctions are the conducted through internet unlike the traditional auctions where prices are set by bidders bidding against each other. The process of buying and selling is made easier in internet through the auction software which automates the processes involved. The online auctions are very powerful as they are capable of reaching to wider audiences. They allow large no of the individuals or businesses to bid.

“Everyone’s going online auction crazy these days, as there’s plenty of money to be made from selling your old junk.”

Nigel Donnelly, Computeract!ve, 03 Mar 2004
His statement is correct these online auctions have paved way for getting rid of stuff (which we intend to sell) at the click of mouse in exchange of few extra pounds.
During the online auctions the seller creates a listing for the product which he wants to place for bid. These listings generally include all the relevant information which the potential buyer seeks. These biddings are conducted at specifically decided time. After establishing the opening price the seller sits back and watches in the mean time the buyers visit the site and after going through the bidding they place their bids on the product. The auction closes at a specified time and the highest bidder at the closing time is deemed the winner.

Auctions are of two types
Forward auctions

Reverse auctions

Forward Auctions
In forward auctions the bids are driven to the highest price within certain timespan and then the lot is awarded to the highest bidder. It can be beneficial to both the buyers and sellers:

Sellers:

• They can acquire new customers.
• Set prices according to demands and available stock.
• Reduce sales cost by minimizing the market price.
• Can dispose excess inventory.

Buyers:

• Time spent on searching and other enquires can be reduced.
• Acquire specialist equipments in second hand sales in cheaper rates.

Reverse Auctions

They are so called because here the roles of buyer and seller are reversed. Here the buyers take charge of the auction. Here the suppliers bid for getting good business. During the auction the suppliers compete on price with each other and the lowest bidder is awarded the contract.
These biddings are equally beneficial for buyer and supplier:

Buyers

• Reach out to large segment of suppliers.
• Reduce time and administrative costs.
• Drive down costs.

Sellers

• Reach out to customers who are ready to buy.
• Compete for business on global level.
• Building market shares.

Variations on online auction executions

English Auctions
Competing bids increase within fixed timeframe.

Dutch Auctions
This is an auction in which the seller lists multiple quantities of an identical item which multiple bidders can win. Also, one bidder can try to buy more than one quantity. All winning bidders pay only the lowest successful winning bid amount.

Reserve Auctions
This is an auction in which the item for sale has a reserve price. The reserve price is the lowest price at which a seller is willing to sell an item. Although the reserve price is not listed it can be extrapolated when a bidder bids at or above the reserve price. The high bid will automatically be elevated to the reserve price, providing the current high bidder with what the seller would agree to sell at.

Straight Auctions
This auction is also referred to as absolute auction, there is only one item up for sale, and there is no reserve price. The seller sets the opening bid and must respect the final price at the end of the auction.

The English auction is most commonly preferred.

Best Practices to be adopted when considering the entry to online auctions:

Buying
Although there are lot of stuff put up for auction but its very important to realize our needs and then go for any product. Before deciding on to buy any item it’s important to carefully read the descriptions of that item specified on the list.

Know the value
Having a idea of the product which you wish to buy is good thing other wise you may end up paying high price for the product, because one of the advantages of the auction is obtaining things at discounted rate.

Know the rules
Each auction has its rules and regulations. So it’s important to carefully read those rules and regulations otherwise there is a possibility of buying up something which is of no use because once you win the bid the item should be bought.

Check the supplier’s reputation
Most auction sites are simply where the sellers post their items so these sites does not verify the existence of such items or the advertisements so it is important to check for the item and the supplier. After winning the bid the seller’s identity should be verified from confirmed sources and also collect the feedback from the previous buyers.

Check how the bidding system works
It’s important to understand how the bidding system works and how to withdraw the bids during the auction period. Then other issues like accreditation, fee structure and other details should be known.li
Most of the auction websites specialize in sales and conduct the auctions where the highest bidder wins such auctions provide straight purchase options and the other type of the options is called Buy Now option where although the auction is conducted in normal manner but there is option for some bidder to skip the bidding and pay the asked for price. But other drawback of such auctions is that you may end up paying the price much higher than the prices which would have been attained in auction. So it increases the chances of gamble.
Online Auction Frauds are rampant nowadays to avoid that it’s important to check the following things like consistency of ratings, relativity of sellers item to what he intends to sell, whether the seller is new without rating, Check the credibility of the sellers promises. Shilling is one form of fraud where the partners or sellers participate in bid and start bidding for higher prices making the buyer to ultimately pay the prices higher than the original price. This practice is adopted by many sellers. To avoid that you should research the background of the seller and then only participate in bidding.

Benefits of Online Auctions

Beyond geographical ranges
Such online auctions are not restricted to any regional boundaries instead they are available globally making it easy for everyone to participate.

No time constraints
The online auctions are conducted all the time as there are no time constraints. They are called 24×7 auctions.

Large no of bidders and sellers
Online auctions allow large no of bidders and sellers to participate.

Free from space congestions
Online auctions are not that congesting like the man to man auctions which requires lot of space .and also the physical presence is important where as one can participate in such auctions by simply sitting in office, home or cyber cafes.

Accessible at the click of mouse
These auctions are accessible at the click of mouse.

To know more about the way the online auctions are conducted and managed, contact us via email at
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Reverse Auctions

The online Reverse Auction has become a lifeline for the businesses on global map, because it cuts the costs very quickly using the e business tools. Reverse auctions have reversed the roles of the buyer and seller. It involves single buyers and many sellers whereas the traditional auctions involve single seller and many buyers. These auctions are conducted on the fixed duration basis by the single buyer where the other sellers bid for the business. These reverse auctions are capable of reducing the cost of procuring products and services.
Reverse auctions are different from the other traditional auctions as here the buyer controls the auction. Buyers first create a description of his particular needs then sellers place their bids. It’s unlike traditional auctions where the highest bidder wins the product, but here the bid is not awarded on the highest bid or so instead it is awarded to that seller who fulfills the criteria which the buyer has placed. The bidding prices are driven to low. The marketers generally place their bids on behalf of the buyer, and then at the fixed time the sellers or suppliers will place their bids within the limited time span to let know at what price they will be providing the service.

The online reverse auctions are beneficial in many ways:

• Reduces the corruption factor involved in Procurement process
• Sometimes the Savings are more distinguishable than the traditional methods.
• Bids are visible for the buyers.
• Buyers can cut their unnecessary costs and time expenditures.
• Buyers can get the products for lower purchase prices.
• Most of the software’s allow the buyers to coordinate with the bidders for the further refinements and clarifications.
• Freedom of decision making is totally left to the buyer.
• These bids are not restricted to any particular section of the audience living in the area instead due to technology now days it’s possible for a bidder in any part of the world to place their bids on the products.
• According to William Brandel, research director for e-business at Aberdeen Group in Boston , notes that on-line reverse auctions can reduce the time it takes to purchase goods and services from months to a few days.
• Competition among the vendors may ensure better services and good products at the very lower prices.
• Short cycle time between bidding and contracts.
• It improves the market intelligence.
• There is a clear visibility of the customer demands.
• Prices decrease over time.
• Winning vendors can obtain new businesses.
• Vendors can utilize the excess manufacturing capacity.
• Negotiation periods can be compressed for both the buyers and suppliers

There are certain worries which have taunted the bidders and suppliers equally regarding bidding those worries are:

About Bidding:

• What is the age limit/restriction for bidding?
• Whether I can know what is the highest bid?
• How many times I can bid on the same item?
• How I can participate in bid?
• What happens if there are two identical bids?

Winning

• How will I come to know if Iam the winner?
• What will happen if my bid is the highest?
• What if I wish to withdraw from the bid?
• How I can get back my entry fee back?
• How I can pay?
• When will I receive my item and whether I will have to pay any extra delivery charges?

Security

• Whether my card details will be safe?

Reverse auctions have to deal with lots of criticisms like

• It kills the brand value of the product.
  In the Reverse auction it’s totally the buyer’s prerogative to select the supplier who is ready to sell his product according to the buyers needs and requirements so generally instead of going for the highly priced products the buyers always go for the low price products which are capable of performing the same function as the highly priced branded products.
• Variance in savings is observed only in few cases.
  Industry Pundits say that the variance in savings is only observed if there is a larger demand for the materials.
• According to Wikipedia the Reverse Auctions are often criticized as bid shopping where a buyer can use the suppliers bid to obtain the lower prices from other suppliers.
• These auctions are often referred to as the negative auctions.
• The observers and the suppliers both equally allege that these reverse auctions are very short sighted and unfair.
• True savings may be inflated due to hidden costs.
• Sellers often refer to it as exploitive and unfair as they can observe the shrinking of the long held margins dramatically with in the time span of 2 hours which will be the worst nightmare for any seller.
• Most outspoken critics of the reverse auctions David Stec and M.L. (Bob) Emiliani from the Center for Lean Business Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute argue that reverse auctions rarely deliver any savings.
• Buyer and supplier relationship is on a very critical path because the buyer always tries to earn profit at a seller stake.

If you are thinking to weigh your reverse auctions prospects then feel free to consult us and adopt the right path with us

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E-Procurement – RFP / RFQ

RFP or Request for Proposal is the request sent by business organizations if they want to hire contractors to perform their job. It encourages the competition among the contractors then at last the business organizations select the appropriate bidder who is ready to work according to their requirement and needs. RFP is a business document which is divided into several sections like:

Organizational Overview
This gives the introductory details of the organization issuing the RFP’s.

Required Deliverables
This gives the details of the needed final products and other mandatory requirements.

Eligibility Criteria /mandatory requirements
This defines the eligibility requirements which the supplier should possess in order to submit his proposal.

Assumptions and Agreements
This gives the details of the terms and agreements obliging to which the suppliers should provide the end products. and other details of working relationship between them.

Required Proposal format
Technical section and time cost section

Time cost

• Request for References (optional)
• Submission deadlines
• Submit proposals to(Address)
• Contact address
• Award date

The companies should concentrate on following points before it decides to send an RFP to the vendor who does not feature in their supplier database.

• Gather the preliminary details about the vendor like their company details, capabilities, their work samples, and some references.
• After gathering these points the next step is the qualification of the proposals which should be done by keeping some criteria in mind like industry experience, reputation, no of employees, specializations, and quality of work.
• Then after the qualification comes the time for creation of RFP. These RFP’s should accurately mention the specifications but it should never contain any intimidating /threat words.
• RFP should be sent out prior to minimum 10 weeks of the final submission deadlines.

If the vendor does not qualify for your proposal still it will be a good gesture on the part of the company to debrief the vendor regarding the areas which were missing in the proposal format send by the vendor so that in future the prospective vendor can keep those points in mind if he desires to apply for some proposals floated by the company in future. RFP’s created with much accuracy about the detailed product specifications stands the chances of attracting the accurate bids. RFP’s are sent by the company to their existing supplier base or to others who may not be present in their existing supplier base.
RFQ ‘s is one of the variations of the RFP as here the actual discussions are not carried out only the requests for quotations are sent if the RFP’s are sent already. The companies can model their RFP’s based on these RFQ’s which will be helpful in determining the price ranges. Some business houses also term these RFP’s as RFQ’s then there scopes become wider than price requests.

Don’t lag behind in creating the perfect RFP’s/RFQ’s which may decide the destiny of your business.

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Spending Analysis

Supply Management software’s brought a revolutionary change in the supply chain process by optimizing the time consuming business processes. If supply chain management and business are the two balances of this materialistic world then spend data management is the needle that holds these balances in place. Success of any supply management practice can be attributed to the proper evaluation of the spend data.

The problem existing with most of the organizations is their inefficiency in predicting the correct spend analysis. According to the study conducted by the Aberdeen Group very rare group of Purchase Managers know the details of the companies spend data i.e. regarding how they spend annually and on which products so the reports often they present are only their perceptions rather than the actual facts. According to Aberdeen estimates the Industry is losing $260 billions each year due to a pervasive inability to organize and analyze the spend data. Although some business houses have corrected themselves by adopting spend data management software but some are still spending millions of dollars every year towards the consultation fees and other services.

Before analyzing the correct practices of spend data management it is important to realize that spend data is more than just knowing the purchase data and history of companies’ business cycles. Spend data management is the process of aggregating, analyzing and organizing the corporate data in the order which may prove beneficial in

• Improved understanding of purchases
• Reducing costs
• Improving the overall operational performance
• Contribute to significant savings.
• Increase in revenues
• A good measurement of contractor performance

As it is found that for each dollar generated by sales a company spends around 55 cents on the purchased materials. The customer demands are often pointed towards the following issues like automated data extraction, normalization of data, ability to handle multiple languages,embeeded analytical tools, spend portals .The spend data management also faces some hurdles like

• Incomplete and disparate data sources
• Limited category expertise’s
• Improper classification of the data at the desired level,
• Improper naming conventions adopted.

These hurdles may result in the company ending up developing very immature and fragile purchasing strategies which will contribute towards misguide purchase decisions which will drain out the savings from the companies total revenue assets.

To avoid all these circumstances and to adopt the correct practice of spend data management,
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Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain has emerged as the most favorite buzzword in the corporate world since last three decades.

Supply Chain Management the word embeds in itself the sap of the total supply chain process starting from Planning, Marketing, Distribution, Manufacturing, and Purchasing.

Supply Chain exists both in Manufacturing and Service organizations although their complexity and purposes may vary if we shift from one to another. Due to globalization, outsourcing, and the explosion of Information Technology into the business scene companies have realized the value of the supply chain management and its importance in changing their business hemlines. But still some companies are not ready to adopt the modernized techniques of e-supply chain management. The companies which have adopted the e-supply chain management technique has observed a very huge variance in their revenue benefits and total costs deduction in management process.

Supply chain decisions can be: Strategic, Operational in nature.

Strategic :
Network optimization, location decisions, production design decisions etc are performed in strategic supply chain decisions. These operations are performed under along time spell. They are closely related to corporate strategy and guide supply chain strategy.

Operational :
These decisions are generally taken in short time periods and deal with the day to day information of the supply chain process. It deals with daily production management, planning and scheduling, transportation, warehouse, and event and performance management activities.

It’s important for the companies to adopt the right supply chain management practice. These companies should research intensively about the right kind of the supply chain configuration procedure which would work best in their favor. Then the next step is towards forging the strong supplier relationship which binds vendors, buyers and other participants involved. After deciding on these two core issues the next leap for the company should be in selecting the right kind of architecture which envisages your supply chain configuration strategy. Using Internets to deal with this supply chain strategy is the best idea as they are capable of optimizing many of the processes involved in the supply chain management.

A powerful supply chain management strategy is capable of dealing with the problems encountered in businesses today. Wikipedia states that supply chain management should take care of the issues dealing with distribution network Configuration, Distribution strategy, and information and Inventory management.

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Why is e – negotiation tool important for an organization?

“Negotiation is a decentralized decision making process that seeks to find an agreement which will satisfy the requirements of two or more parties in the presence of limited common knowledge and conflicting preferences.”

– Braun, Brzostowski, Kersten, Kim, Kowalczyk, Strecker, and Vahidov

The Negotiation format varies according to circumstances. Until the recent times the negotiating agents were:

• People who represented their own interests to the other party and reached to conclusion after properly analyzing the other party’s viewpoints.
• Some third party people who may be common to all the parties.
• People who represented the interest of their principals.

But these traditional methods were time consuming and involved large amount of money so this paved way for electronic negotiation in the late 1990’s where the software’s acted as the negotiating agents. Their services may range from helping the human negotiators with the mandatory details, to optimizing the total negotiation formats. These software negotiating agents may act on behalf of user by lying within purpose area for which they are designed. These software negotiators are called Negotiating Software Agents (NSA’s).

A Negotiation process has to undergo the stages of:

• Planning
• Exploring the opportunity
• Exchange of arguments
• Agreement
• Conclusion

How the NSA’s conduct these process stages?

• Planning – The phase is very important as this is the time when details of the opponents, underlying issues and the future of further negotiation conduct is determined. Agents can assist their negotiators by collecting the above details and providing a well defined solution.
• Exploring the opportunity – This phase involves discussions on the underlying issues, exploring the domains involved and the knowledge of the deadlines. The NSA’s can obtain the negotiators preferences from both the sides match them and sent reminders regarding dates and other details. This phase is generally the human directed.
• Exchanging offers and arguments – In this phase the NSA can help their human negotiators with the details of market prices, deals, etc.
• Agreement – This phase is the reflection of the above phases here mainly the NSA acts as Proposers which generates promising offers based on the user preferences .
• Conclusion – This phase marks the culmination of the negotiation process and is also the medium to check the efficiency of the NSA involved.

The NSA’s may have the capability of assisting in decision making process, or helping in structuring the terms and agreements, or helping with the organization of the whole process, or facilitation of communication, or to provide the necessary information to the party involved, or generating offers, or generating proposals, or criticizing or mediating.

These NSA’s are designed with the available technology. Generally the common trait which is observed in all these NSA’s are their limitations to specific purposes. Although different experts have classified these agents according to different terminologies but Nwana and Ndumu
Classified these agents in terms of autonomy, cooperation, and learning. They referred the NSA’s with cooperation and autonomy features as “Collaborative Agents” , and agents with learning and autonomy properties as “Interface Agents” and the agents possessing all these three properties as the “Smart Agents”.

To know more about the way to perfect E Negotiation process contact us via email at
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