E-procurement technology has come a long way.

Over the past few decades, companies have increasingly transformed their procurement processes, making the leap from paper to digital to the cloud. These changes are impacting businesses of all sizes in all industries, according to a new survey of 500 purchasers of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products conducted by WW Grainger Inc.

E-procurement platforms are at the heart of this transformation. Such systems are at the heart of a digital platform that can manage all procurement activities, from procurement to procurement, bidding, payment, and invoicing. Currently, 87% of survey respondents are using e-procurement tools.

These tools vary in scope and complexity. According to Grainger, these range from simple implementations that provide direct connectivity between businesses and suppliers to advanced systems with automation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and other high-tech capabilities.

Trends in e-procurement include:

  • MRO professionals may be underutilizing their organization's e-procurement platform. Most of his MRO professionals who responded said their organizations use e-procurement platforms. However, less than half were familiar with the platform. Organizations say they use the platform for simple tasks like tracking orders and spending rather than complex applications.
  • Approximately three in four survey respondents say their organization has very good or better data quality, but only one in four say their data quality is excellent. did. Approximately 3 out of 4 survey respondents said they could compile more than half of procurement reports, but only 1 in 3 said they could compile all of them.
  • The two most used technologies today are e-procurement marketplaces, which consolidate product, pricing, and inventory information from multiple vendors into one platform, and automation, which can simplify processes by eliminating manual data entry. is.
  • Survey respondents said AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, and API integration could benefit their operations in the future, but fewer companies are currently taking advantage of these innovations.
  • Just over half of survey respondents using e-procurement platforms reported experiencing problems with the e-procurement platform. The most commonly cited issue is suppliers not sharing all the data they have.

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