As an important organizational function, strategic sourcing plays an increasingly influential role in helping organizations compete and achieve a sustainable advantage in their missions and markets. Using e-Sourcing software to automate the strategic sourcing process allows organizations to make better and faster sourcing decisions, directly impacting the efficiency of their supply chain.
The use of e-Sourcing tools, specifically online auction software in the procurement process can generate significant cost savings for Fortune companies, small firms as well as government agencies e-sourcing software does more than establish an electronic venue for buyers and suppliers to conduct business-to-business e-commerce. It also streamlines workflows for better supply chain management and spend management.
What is e-Sourcing?
E-Sourcing is simply sourcing with the addition of technology, such as the internet and software, to carry out most of the processes involved. This helps businesses more easily keep track of their suppliers and provides more visibility into your procurement operations. But then you might be wondering what the difference is between e-sourcing and procurement tools.
e-Sourcing is the process of automating the current email or paper based sourcing process.
. Obtain bids / quotes from different suppliers using a single online sourcing portal
. Save time by streamline and automating your bid collection process achieving frictionless commerce
. Single repository for all supplier responses so that you can compare side by side On Demand
. e-Sourcing using reverse auctions can generate significant cost savings by increasing supplier competition for better spend management
Automate your procurement and sourcing with state of the art e-Sourcing software
. Conduct Online Auctions such as Reverse auctions, Forward auctions, Sealed Bid auctions, Japanese Auctions, Dutch Auctions and other additional formats.
- Conduct Online RFI (Request for information or Online surveys), RFP (Request for proposal) including scoring based RFI’s and automate the quote collection process
- Supplier Information management including complete supplier profiles
- Spend management using Spend Analysis software
- Automate the Source to Purchase Order (P.O) process
- Contract Management for unified access to all your contracts
e-Sourcing vs eProcurement
Despite the fact that both sourcing and procurement deal with suppliers and purchasing, the two involve very different processes. Sourcing consists of spend analysis; finding suppliers; managing RFIs, RFQs, RFPs and RFxs; managing contracts; and supplier relationship management
Although sourcing isn’t a commonly overlooked process, it doesn’t receive as much attention as procurement does, despite being just as responsible for cost savings.
Best e-Sourcing Software Tools
Like in mentioned earlier, businesses can optimize their sourcing process by using the various types of e-Sourcing tools that are available. These tools aid in managing the entire process from beginning to end. Whether you’re a procurement professional in need of a better sourcing process or simply exploring how to improve your supply chain strategy, eSourcing tools just might be what you’re looking for. To help you find the right solution and here are the best e Sourcing management software vendors today.
MEDIUS
This vendor offers all the features necessary when it comes to e-Sourcing. First, medius offers advanced spend analysis tools to help businesses utilize every chance to save money and improve spending. This product allows users to see total spend, spend by category, spend by supplier, number of invoices and more.
Then, medius provides a sophisticated RFx tool, which allows users to automate many of the processes related to sourcing. It includes a portal for suppliers where they can fill out questionnaires to be automatically analyzed by the system’s scoring component. Lastly, this product supports contract lifecycle management. Contracts are easily accessed from a centralized location, facilitating collaboration and compliance. This feature also contains full and partial contract templates to speed up contract creation time. Updates can be configured to appear on a user’s dashboard to alert them to metrics such as performance as well.
