Procurement Technology: An Economic Force

In our increasingly global economy, it is easy to acknowledge that the economic conditions facing small businesses have a tremendous impact. Declining or stagnant economies have caused many businesses to tighten the belt. They are looking at spending, cost-cutting initiatives, and nearly anything they can find to improve the bottom line. Even while economies are struggling, technologies are still advancing and can have a direct economic impact on small businesses. Are you considering technology, or specifically procurement technology and how this can be an economic force in your business?

 Still unsure of the power of technology to make an economic impact in your business? How about a brief history lesson? According to Harvard Business School, Working Paper No. 08-093 titled “The Importance of Adopting New Technologies” the authors (Diego Comin and Bart Hobijn) it places tremendous importance on new technologies for the overall economic health of entire countries. To make the case, they examined the rapid growth of Japan after World War II and other Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea in the 1990’s. Their growth was directly tied to the acceptance of new technologies like the Internet and new steelmaking processes. By comparison, many Latin American countries were far slower to incorporate these technologies during the same time period and saw an economic decline. The authors also took a broad look at nations over the past 200 years and the variances between those adopting new technologies like the steam ship and more modern technologies like the cell phone. Those who adopted them more quickly saw a widening gap in per capita income compared to those who were slower to adopt the new technologies. Many developing countries today are still trying to catch up to more developed nations.

If you take a narrower look the adoption of new technologies comes largely through small businesses. Have you adopted new procurement technologies for your business? Believe it or not, there are still businesses out there that use a paper-based purchase order system. Are you one of them? Or maybe your business considered itself cutting edge at one time and implemented what is now considered an archaic purchasing software system. Maybe it hasn’t been updated in years and is becoming increasingly difficult to use and you are wondering if you might just be better off ditching it and going back to a paper-based method.

Our society is constantly changing and it may be time to reexamine your chosen procurement methods. Cloud-based procurement technology allows you to take advantage of all the latest technologies by allowing you to incorporate procurement processes into your business from anywhere at any time.  By utilizing cloud-based technology you have the latest advancements at your fingertips. System updates are easily added without all the requirements of having your own in-house IT team or paying exorbitant fees to have new modules custom made for the changes in your own business.

As you can see, whether you have a paper-based purchasing system or even a dated software system, new technologies can make conducting procurement operations for your business decidedly smoother and have a great economic impact. If you have questions about cloud-based purchasing please let us know.