How Real-Time Data Revolutionize Your Organization’s Purchasing Experience

Organizations are quickly realizing that real-time data is the key to success. It can help enhance the customer experience and provide valuable insights for businesses. Real-time data can also transform a business’ purchasing experience, making it more efficient and more effective, and helping to reduce costs. Using e-procurement software, you can maximize productivity and minimize losses using data. Here’s how real-time data can be used to benefit your organization’s purchasing process.

One Marketplace

With procurement management software, you can upload catalogs in one place so that you can compare prices and get the best bang for your buck. All you have to do is use the data that is punched in so that the software can comparison shop all of the options available from your network of suppliers. All of this information is then shown to you in one area. Your suppliers will not need to make any investments of their own to be connected to you. Also, your employees will no longer need to search through physical catalogs to price compare.

Real-time data can also integrate product descriptions and data from online search results. This data will give up to the minute price options so that you can compare recent prices without the need to contact your suppliers directly.

Securing the Best Deals

Real-time data can drive savings by securing the best deals for your business. It tracks your organization’s purchase history and supplies useful analytics to determine the competitiveness of current negotiated supplier pricing in comparison with competitors. This information is provided up to the minute in comprehensive reports so that you have actionable information that allows you to better negotiate with suppliers.

Validate Negotiations

Discounted prices should be reflected at the time of purchase to make a well-negotiated contract. Your team works hard to negotiate agreements and terms with suppliers, but it is often challenging to ensure that they are compliant. Expensive and time-consuming audits are done to identify and recapture any transactional errors that may have occurred that are a breach of contract. This not only delays orders but requires manual interventions and reorders.

Real-time data lets users discover off-contract pricing and products before the process immediately so that you don’t pay for something that is wrong. You won’t need an expensive, drawn-out audit to discover discrepancies anymore.

Supplier Relationship Management

When you have advanced, real-time capabilities, your sales channel becomes more attractive to suppliers. Your employees will be able to browse and search catalogs and websites much more easily and from one private marketplace. As user purchasing increases through that marketplace, the supplier sales will increase. This will lead to contract negotiations that benefit both your procurement process and the suppliers to create a truly mutually beneficial relationship that will drive cost savings.

Remember, your supplier relationship goes both ways. Your procurement process affects them, too. If your supplier ships an order and doesn’t receive payment, you will damage a crucial relationship. People in the same industry talk, so protecting your reputation is essential.

Compliance is another major factor when it comes to these relationships. Both parties must follow the terms in the contract. Data will help you determine whether or not you are complying with their terms to make sure the relationship isn’t one-sided.

By making your process more efficient with data, you can quickly and effectively manage the relationships that your success depends on. 

Automation

Real-time price validation of items before an order transaction is complete will remove the potential order issues downstream in the procure to pay process. This will increase the speed of processing and reduce manual labor costs. Automation will take repetitive tasks and do them in real-time to help employees focus on more time-consuming tasks. The data is also used to reduce any human error that can happen when you are using manual processes. The wrong number can cost your business.

Your real-time purchase system will use prices from the catalogs and input them into PO’s for you so that you don’t run the risk of losing money.

Refining the Procurement Process

Real-time data will allow you to refine your procurement process. If you are using manual methods, such as spreadsheets, you will see a drastic improvement across your operation. You will also be able to see analytics that show you which areas need improvement. You can first look at which part of the process takes the most time and find out why. Maybe the approval process is holding your business up. However, with real-time data, you can automate your approval process so that you’re not waiting for one busy person. Make sure to talk to everyone involved in the procurement process to find out which areas need improvement.

Once you have refined your process, make sure to share it with all of the employees involved in procurement so that they can change the way they do their job.

Your ROI

Let’s be honest. The most significant benefit your company will see is cost savings. Efficiency means that more work is getting done in a single workday, helping you save money each day you utilize real-time data.

You may think that using your cheaper, manual processes is the most inexpensive way to run your business. However, that simply isn’t true. Both free and more robust procurement software can help your employees save time and in turn, help your business save money.

SMBs can all benefit from e-procurement software no matter how robust it is because they simply automate your processes and increase your workflows to provide a simpler, more efficient purchasing experience.