How to Choose a Procurement Software

The demand for procurement software has increased since the pandemic as more companies want to save costs and plan for contingencies. Right from small businesses and medium-sized companies to large corporations with a turnover of billions, all organizations want to cater to their needs with maximum efficiency. 

Hence, selecting the right software becomes very important. Choosing the correct software makes your business operations seamless and hassle-free and helps your organization stay ahead of the competition. Let’s have a look at some factors the decision-makers of a company consider before choosing a procurement software. 

Choosing the right procurement software

Below are some of the questions your organization can ask which will help in selecting the right software for the business: 

1. How easily can your team use the software? 

When your company is selecting a procurement software, it is crucial to take note of the ease of use of the software. After all, the employees should be able to transition to digital procurement seamlessly, without any hassles. 

A good way to check if the end-user in your company can use the software with ease is to sign up for a free trial. This way, you can run your company’s procurement processes, check if the reports are working, if the approval flow is user-friendly, etc. 

2. Is the onboarding and implementation process hassle-free? 

After purchasing the software, you do not want to waste time on complicated onboarding and implementation processes. This can get challenging for the company’s procurement team. Abiding by a complex implementation process is usually not accepted well. 

A digital procurement software should have a quick data onboarding process, little but efficient training time, clear onboarding materials and a user onboarding process, etc. 

3. Is the application easily accessible on mobile? 

When you are on the go, your purchasing activities should not stop and that is exactly what ‘procurement on the go’ means. A good procurement software will have a mobile app which will enable procurement teams to work remotely without affecting the company’s efficiency and productivity.

An efficient mobile procurement app will let the employees request, approve, and receive goods on the go, will alert the users of pending approvals to speed up the approval process, will let users view budgets and set spending thresholds to control spending limits, etc. – all this on the go. 

4. How prompt is the software’s customer support? 

The most important aspect while selecting a procurement software is customer support. If the software has good customer support, you can rest assured that your issues will be resolved promptly and there will be minimal damage to your procurement activities. 

For example, if the procurement software has a dedicated onboarding team that takes care of the onboarding process and helps out the team 24/7 with it, this means that the customer support is excellent.

5. Does it provide digital audit trails? 

Finally, the primary objective of a digital procurement software is to provide transparency in a company’s purchasing process. A digital software records and captures the event log history for all your company’s purchasing documents. 

This provides you with digital audit trails which can help your organization in future internal or external audits or tax purposes. A good procurement software should be able to track the approval history of every order and the purchase made, every edit that was made to the order, etc. 

Conclusion

There are numerous digital procurement software which are available and can be easily used by a company at any given time. However, it is important to first – understand the kind of business your organization is conducting and then choose the software as per the requirements of the business. 

Now, if you have already shortlisted a few solutions, use our exhaustive buyer’s checklist to make a head-to-head comparison and find the best one suited for you.