The procurement process helps organizations find the right supplies and vendors. The challenge is that most procurement processes are messy and unorganized. That is why having the right procurement management software can simplify this process.
One of the best procurement management software tools is the SharePoint-powered Bid Management Add-In. The software digitizes pre-bid and post-bid activities to help with:
Before we get into how procurement management software works, we want to cover the basics of the procurement process. In this case, procurement refers to the techniques & methods to streamline the supplier process. It also involves processing and preparing demand, negotiating prices, and inventory control. Procurement is a strategic process involving the exchange of goods and services. It is a proactive approach emphasizing value and identifying and filling future deficiencies.
Procurement has three different types of processes:
Direct– Acquire goods, materials, and other services that you need on stock for growing and developing the organization. Often these goods and services help their external audience. Direct procurement is ideal for building long-term collaborative supplier relationships
Indirect– Source goods and services for internal use to help with the day-to-day operations. Indirect procurement is ideal for short-term transactional supplier relationships.
Services– This procurement process helps with staff augmentation and consulting services to fill the organization’s gap temporarily.
Below are seven standard procurement process steps you can integrate with your procurement management software to optimize your chances of finding the right vendors.
The RFP owner starts the process by creating a Request for Proposal (RFP) with details such as the title, start/end dates, RFP documents, descriptions, evaluation members, and reminders.
The RFP owners can add as many contractors as they want or find vendors/suppliers who can directly show interest in an open RFP. The vendors are chosen based on their experience and skill in previous projects.
The bid management software sends an email to all interested vendors in bidding for the project. They also receive reminder emails to remind them to bid before the bidding ends.
Invited vendors/bidders need to submit all required documents before the end of the bid date to ensure they have a chance at winning the contract
All team members on the evaluation team get notifications after the bidding process finishes to evaluate the quality of the submissions.
By analyzing the different documents and applications from bidders, the evaluation team selects the winning bid.
The procurement management software keeps the activity logs for the bidding process to ensure anyone in the organization can analyze what went right and what to improve with the procurement process in the future.
The procurement process we discussed above relies on the right procurement management software, as we discussed earlier. Our Bid Management Software collects bids from vendors/suppliers/contractors to speed up the process and reduce vendor headaches.
The traditional bidding process is a time suck where organizations chase vendors for documents and bids. Why waste your time when you can simplify the bidding process with the right software solution.
Additionally, Bid Management software creates role-based access for RFP owners, approvers, reviewers, and evaluators along with Super admins and project owners. These roles ensure that the right people in your organization work on the right section of the project.
Finally, the bid management process benefits from having a secured SharePoint system to help ensure all bids and documentation are safe.
If you are looking to optimize your procurement process, the first step is to have the right procurement management software.
Get started with a free 1-hour procurement process assessment and consultation with our team. Contact us today.
