Electronic Procurement

With the current emerging development pattern in Malaysia, E-Government has been unveiled by the Malaysian Government to be one of the multimedia super corridor flagship applications to implement digital technology to improve government operations. Eprocurement was originally utilized by businesses to minimize turnaround times and prices, but recently it was often used as a platform for sustainable procurement. However, there have been few attempts to investigate E-procurement technology in Malaysia concerning sustainable procurement. Also, there is no consistent and reliable framework of Eprocurement technology for sustainable procurement practices. The focal area of this research is ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia, the population of these organizations is 55, sample size (N)=162 respondents including procurement managers, executives and staff which are involved directly or indirectly in the process of procuring products and services. This study is conceptual and aims to explore how the adoption of E-procurement technologies influence sustainable procurement practices within ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia.

This paper aims to contribute to the development of a conceptual model for studying the direct and indirect impact of various forms of electronic procurement (EP) on a firm's integral purchasing (-related) costs. The model builds on existing classifications of purchasing-related costs and benefits and is illustrated by means of empirical data. Building the model leads us to conclude that assessment of the direct impact but especially the indirect impact of EP is far from straightforward. A form of EP may not only affect different categories of purchasing-related costs but also induce opposing direct effects within one such category. In addition, indirect effects can occur in many ways, as drastic reduction costs in one category may offer possibilities for structural changes in existing purchasing routines, which may in turn affect costs and benefits in other categories as well. r

Emerging information and communication technology is driving change in the digital economy. Speed, competition and globalization are key factors for development and growth in the re-engineered global business environment where electronic business promises to grow in volume irrespective of the model utilized. This paper demonstrates the case of speedsend.com which is a customized web-based business2business electronic procurement platform. The Internet start-up was established in Egypt in 2001 and became the leader in the marketplace. Speedsend.com, faced with a set of challenges related to electronic business implementation such as infrastructure, awareness and cultural adaptation, had to develop a set of models to drive down procurement costs while providing a practical and reliable electronic solution that can boost enterprise procurement efficiency and effectiveness. The paper focuses on the models deployed by Speedsend.com since its establishment demonstrating the challenges faced and lessons learnt.

E-procurement is constantly receiving lot of attention from industries, and government agencies. Analysts believe that utilization of e-procurement can lead to enormous cost saving and efficiency in procurement process. Though, e-procurement has benefited the global business tremendously, its expected growth rate has been moving downwards. The present study explores how the benefits and risks associated to e-procurement affect the e-procurement implementation. The differences and similarities among firms in different setting are also investigated. By using Swedish and Indian firms, the results show that cost benefit is the main driver for companies to implement e-procurement. The problems of implementation and integration of existing infrastructure are holding back companies from implementing e-procurement. But benefits are overpowering risks and companies are moving toward more aggressive strategic approach of implementing e-procurement. Finally, e-procurement is typically used for buying indirect material and the buyer side model is most dominated in industry.

Social Media (SM), in recent years, is emerging as a common platform for low cost information exchange, and has attracted a critical mass of users both at corporate and retail levels. Theoretically, SM can thus be used as a tool to strengthen e-procurement in the public sector. Towards this end, we have prepared a conceptual model drawing on literature reviews and some examples while identifying a set of expected benefits and challenges within four stages of e-procurement. Using the framework, a case study has been conducted involving Australian public procurement initiatives and 15 federal government senior officials engaged in e-procurement. They have been interviewed to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of using SM in the public e-procurement context. The findings of the study suggest a limited scope for SM usage in the Australian public sector eprocurement process. The implications of the findings are discussed and some recommendations offered.

Emerging technologies such as electronic procurement have rapidly become common
practice in recent years. With the advent of internet technologies and open innovations, the traditional
procurement system is transformed into an electronic procurement system. Technology adoption
is influenced by multiple factors, including the adopter, technology, and ecosystem in which they
function. Considering this, E-procurement is still being adopted slowly. This research aims to
investigate the extension of the adoption of E-procurement and identify the relationships between the
E-procurement technologies and green procurement practices across different sectors of ISO 14001-
certified Malaysian enterprises. This research is supported by the Technology Acceptance Model,
one of the significant theories of technology adoption. Using SPSS and SmartPLS, the survey data is
analyzed quantitatively. The structural model explains 86% of the variance in green procurement
and shows the positive significant relationship between green procurement and the E-procurement
technology of the ISO 14001 firms. Consequently, adopting E-procurement technology would benefit
company sustainability. A benchmark for ISO companies will be established, highlighting the
importance of E-procurement technology in improving green procurement and supply chain efficiency.
The study recommends that demand for environmentally friendly products and services be fueled by
technology-based purchases, resulting in a greener supply chain.

The current business environment has become competitive and challenging, thus, requiring that companies seek innovative approaches to increase efficiency and improve performance. The advancement in technology has provided the needed advantage by bringing automation towards the core, or key activities of businesses. E-procurement is among the technological innovations that have received attention within the supply chain administration sector. It was attributed towards the improvement for performance, enlargement of the customer base, and the reduction in costs by broadening the supplier base. However, even with the practical benefits, its growth rate, especially in Africa, is low. In Nigeria, the adoption of technology has met many challenges, although the aviation sector is in dire need of change due to the concerns on its lack of growth and poor performance. The aviation industry is one of the businesses that are striving to reduce their supply chain costs to achieve the efficiency needed for optimal performance. The analysis details the intricacies surrounding the implementation for the e-procurement within the aviation sector in Nigeria and how it differs from the traditional, or old-fashioned procurement procedures used in the supply chain for maintenance, restoration, and overhaul, or renovation (MRO). The review delves in the investigation for the substantial impact for the e-procurement within the MRO department for the aviation sector through qualitative research of one of the companies that have adopted the technology. The study shows that there are significant differences that exists between the traditional and electronic procurement and more beneficial to improve the performance of an organization. Moreover, there were impacts such as the reduced purchase cycle, improved communication with suppliers, and cost reductions that advocate for its implementation. Besides, the study shows the barriers of its implementation to expertly offer the recommendation in the aviation sector on the prospects for the Nigerian E-Procurement: Nigerian Aviation Sector 3 aviation industry. The review uses a case study of Caverton Helicopters Ltd to assess and evaluate the impact for the e-procurement on the MRO.

This paper presents a case study of Malaysia's e-procurement initiative. This initiative is locally known as e-Perolehan. The case reports among others, the vision of the Malaysian government in the light of embarking on e-procurement, the process flow within e-Perolehan, and the issues therein. The general consensus amongst both the buyer and seller communities is that e-procurement will become an important management tool to enhance the performance of the supply chain, especially in the public sector. We expect that between the next three and five years, more suppliers will grab the opportunity and benefit fully from the e-Perolehan initiative in Malaysia.

Social Media (SM), in recent years, is emerging as a common platform for low cost information exchange, and has attracted a critical mass of users both at corporate and retail levels. Theoretically, SM can thus be used as a tool to strengthen e-procurement in the public sector. Towards this end, we have prepared a conceptual model drawing on literature reviews and some examples while identifying a set of expected benefits and challenges within four stages of e-procurement. Using the framework, a case study has been conducted involving Australian public procurement initiatives and 15 federal government senior officials engaged in e-procurement. They have been interviewed to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of using SM in the public e-procurement context. The findings of the study suggest a limited scope for SM usage in the Australian public sector eprocurement process. The implications of the findings are discussed and some recommendations offered.

PhD Fellow) is a PhD student in project planning and management besides being a part time lecturer in a number of universities in Kenya. He is a freelance researcher and runs a research firm in Kenya. He can be reached at any time for research work, data analysis, interpretation and data management, journals development and publishing etc. Contact: [email protected], +254721246744 FOUNDATION INSTRUCTIONS: In this assignment you will integrate procurement tasks into a project. Consider the given case study (Procuring textiles made from recycled fibres: Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (MODNL); PDF file) and answer the following questions: 1. Explain each part of the "Flowchart for Optimal Utilization of Market Intelligence to Address Sourcing Challenges".

Electronic procurement is frequently defined as the sourcing of goods or services via electronic means, usually through the internet. The e-procurement technology is being adopted world-wide due to its convenience and capability to carry out business in real time. This research had the overall objective of investigating the factors affecting the implementation of e-procurement in the automobile industry. The choice of the automobile industry is premised on its e-procurement transactional volumes and the fact that there are challenges reported in the Kenyan mainstream media regarding its efficacy. The research, guided by a conceptual framework, adopted a lierature review method (desk research) and relied on secondary data. The study analyzes the relevant models, theoretical and empirical lierature. It highlights the findings and suggests recommendations to solve the research problem.The research adopted the survey design which took the form of literature survey (search); relevant research and theoretical information was extracted and reviewed from the internet, books and journals. The collected literature was subjected to inductive analysis: conclusions were drawn from results of the analysis of collected literature rather than proposing a theory before data collection. Conclusions and recommendations are based on the researcher"s analysis of the desk top literature survey.

The advent of the Internet as a business systems platform has been a catalyst for major changes in the operation and status of organizational procurement. Early e-procurement literature forecast significant improvements in procurement costs, an improving status of the purchasing function, and changes to the structure of supply markets. Our study seeks to evaluate the validity of these forecasts through the development of a structural model of the ‘e-procurement effect’. This model is intended to define the dynamics of the e-procurement process in an organization and provide a foundation for a research stream into the transformational effect of e-procurement deployment.The article presents the evaluation of e-procurement implementation and operation from an 18-month study of e-procurement deployment across nine UK public sector organizations. The article explores five key themes in e-procurement, namely system specification, implementation management, changes to organizational characteristics, changes in total acquisition costs, and changes to governance structures.Our analysis suggests that the proposed structural model of the e-procurement effect is broadly applicable and that many of the previous claimed benefits in the literature can be realized. We also contend that an important variable for the success of e-procurement adoption is to address the internal service quality attributes of e-procurement processes—a topic which offers significant scope for future research.

The outcome of public procurement reforms being carried out in most developing countries is negligible and has not provided significant support for good governance in the procurement sector despite having sound objectives with the initiatives. Presently, most of the governments around the world are implementing e-government procurement (e-GP) systems as a tool for public procurement reform for better governance in the public procurement sector. The implementation of e-procurement has been accepted as one of the most promising and feasible options for governments in delivering enhanced governance in the acquisition of goods, works, and services for the public sector. This action research analyzed the implementation of the e-GP system in a developing country using quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis following the utilization-focused evaluation framework. The study focused in the utility of the e-GP system, addressing different dimensions of good governance and emphasizing transparency, accountability, corruption control, efficiency, effectiveness and predictability, easy access, rule of law and equity, and civil society awareness. It studied the users’ perception about the role of the e-GP system in public procurement good governance, the users’ attitude towards e-GP system use, and the e-GP system’s impact on good governance. The research revealed that an e-GP system significantly enables and enhances good governance in the public procurement sector. The research indicated that an e-GP system can be fully leveraged for enhancing good governance if, among other things, a comprehensive e-GP system implementation framework is followed with adequate planning, phasing of implementation is based on the procurement cycle basis rather than an incremental functional basis, and the e-GP system addresses all the key aspects of good governance rather than focusing only on 1 or 2 aspects in isolation.

Purpose: Consequently, the purpose of this review paper is to trace the historical and conceptual evolution of CSR.
Design: Literature review Findings: Company must respond to meet demand in order to be more reputable and remain profitable. Contesting views have given birth to a myriad of theories on CSR over the past decades as a clear testimony that the concept of CSR is dynamic and continues to evolve.
Practical implications: This paper traces the key milestones in the evolution of CSR from the earliest debates between Dodd and Berle in the 1930s followed by arguments on CSR by Friedman in the 1970s up to the current theories Social implications: Trends have moved from corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, to sustainable development, to sustainability, to social responsibility
Original value: Since the 1950s, many scholars have been researching CSR from different points of view. In order to understand CSR's impact on organisation behavior, it is necessary to comprehend its progression.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; CSR drivers; CSR theories; Evolution of CSR.

Social Media (SM), in recent years, is emerging as a common platform for low cost information exchange, and has attracted a critical mass of users both at corporate and retail levels. Theoretically, SM can thus be used as a tool to strengthen e-procurement in the public sector. Towards this end, we have prepared a conceptual model drawing on literature reviews and some examples while identifying a set of expected benefits and challenges within four stages of e-procurement. Using the framework, a case study has been conducted involving Australian public procurement initiatives and 15 federal government senior officials engaged in e-procurement. They have been interviewed to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of using SM in the public e-procurement context. The findings of the study suggest a limited scope for SM usage in the Australian public sector eprocurement process. The implications of the findings are discussed and some recommendations offered.

Public Electronic Procurement provides a new means of communication between contracting authorities and economic operators, as well as being one of the most important areas in the development in the Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce like buyers and suppliers entities respectively. The European Union (EU) has been working hard for the adoption of e-Procurement in the governments of Member States, over all Action Plans for the Development of e-Government occurred during the new millennium. However, this transition, from the traditional model of procurement management procedure to electronic format, is very complicated, on one side by the impact of what any new technology brings and the required regulatory policies, both within the EU and in Member States. This study presents the e-Procurement from the e-Government regulatory contexts in EU. Then, it outlines the basic pillars of both the Public e-Procurement process and the management systems, and finally, introduces large-scale pilot projects by the European Commission (EC) that provide technology solutions for many of the stages of the procurement process.

E-procurement systems, which represent a core e-supply chain initiative, revolutionise the procurement function of organisations and promise many benefits. However, realisation of benefits is not always guaranteed. Existing e-procurement studies are primarily descriptive in nature and do not help management predict the likely benefits that their organisations may experience from implementing an e-procurement system. We thus propose a model to better explain the benefits that organisations may experience from these systems. The model identifies four types of relationships which organisations could establish with suppliers while deciding to introduce an e-procurement system, and associates each relationship type with several predicted benefits. We further present the e-procurement experience of an Australian local government agency, analyse it in terms of the model, and provide initial empirical support for the applicability of part of the model. Finally, the contributions of our study together with its implications for future research and practice are highlighted.

Social Media (SM), in recent years, is emerging as a common platform for low cost information exchange, and has attracted a critical mass of users both at corporate and retail levels. Theoretically, SM can thus be used as a tool to strengthen e-procurement in the public sector. Towards this end, we have prepared a conceptual model drawing on literature reviews and some examples while identifying a set of expected benefits and challenges within four stages of e-procurement. Using the framework, a case study has been conducted involving Australian public procurement initiatives and 15 federal government senior officials engaged in e-procurement. They have been interviewed to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of using SM in the public e-procurement context. The findings of the study suggest a limited scope for SM usage in the Australian public sector eprocurement process. The implications of the findings are discussed and some recommendations offered.

With the current emerging development pattern in Malaysia, E-Government has been unveiled by the Malaysian Government to be one of the multimedia super corridor flagship applications to implement digital technology to improve government operations. E-procurement was originally utilized by businesses to minimize turnaround times and prices, but recently it was often used as a platform for sustainable procurement. However, there have been few attempts to investigate E-procurement technology in Malaysia concerning sustainable procurement. Also, there is no consistent and reliable framework of E-procurement technology for sustainable procurement practices. The focal area of this research is ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia, the population of these organizations is 55, sample size (N)=162 respondents including procurement managers, executives, and staff which are involved directly or indirectly in the process of procuring products and services. This study is conceptual and aims to explore how the adoption of E-procurement technologies influence sustainable procurement practices within ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia.

This article describes the recent changes in the area of sourcing and spend management and it is in line with current calls for more efficient ways to source raw materials and (semi-) finished products and to compare prices of different products versus the market prices. The comparison versus market prices via the traditional tendering process became unusable nowadays as a consequence of the high price volatility since the financial crisis of 2008. We propose new sourcing techniques and new benchmarking techniques already used in a meta-search database containing more than 7,5 billion data points that can be used to determine quickly the supply sources and the value performance of the purchase of a product. This search process includes prices and price comparisons for more than 15000 raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products and is among others based on institutional data.

The current world of is fundamentally different from the one we lived in for the past. The major difference is a steep increase in “bottleneck and partnership products” (Kraljic, 1983, Nellore and Söderquist, 2000; Araujo et. al., 1999) to be supplied as the number of suppliers, the number of available products and the quality of the remaining supply all become more critical and buyers are faced with less suppliers than before spread all over the world and outside their home country. Yet, when time is of the essence, looking for those alternatives, which have moreover become scarce, might just take too much time. Efficient benchmarking might be helpful in this respect. Because of the time pressure, tendering becomes too time consuming and slow. Companies need tools to evaluate and assess opportunities in the market. In the remainder of the paper, we focus on one of these tools, the YQ Matrix. The YQ Matrix (www.YQmatrix.com) is a freely available tool that gives consolidated results in a number of predefined graphs and figures. Typically, these graphs include country, product, user and time-specific information. The YQ Matrix offers quick sourcing and price performance monitoring and makes it possible to have alternative solutions to the ones proposed by Kraljic (1984). The proposed gap procurement performance value makes it possible to do “Creative Time Procurement” since gap analysis enables better procurement timings. Furthermore, standardized sourcing graphs make it possible to do “Creative Geographical Procurement” (Faes and Decocq 2010), two elements that have become a necessity in creative procurement tools.

The IT platform provides the frame and the structured approach for mass data collection and validation.
1. Country selection. The simplest way would be to see if and how much products are traded to or from a specific country. Data can be collected and analyzed from more than 250 countries and dependencies, based on real life data. If desired, countries could be excluded from the analysis. The rationale underlying the country selection as a starting point for the analysis is the following: Instead of analyzing the production potential that might be available somewhere, you initially analyze what peers are already buying/selling on the market. This sourcing tool works under the assumption that if business is already happening there today, price, quality and other elements must be in favor of such procurement business.
2. Detection of emerging markets.
3. Detection of highest volumes and corresponding prices.
4. Detection of lowest prices and corresponding volumes.
The four-step approach has a number of advantages compared to more traditional tools and market research activities. Firstly, the speed of the research is increased drastically. By means of a few clicks and five minutes work, results can be obtained. For an update once the graphs are set, it’s only a matter of seconds. Compared to traditional market research taking each time many weeks, this is a large saving on man-hours. Secondly, the data obtained is objective and precise. Data is retrieved among others from official country statistics and international organizations that provide statistics. Thirdly, the official country statistics and international organization data is updated monthly, the user data is updated daily. Finally, compared to a traditional market study, which is a snapshot of reality, the data shows a truly longitudinal effect.
Procurement performance monitoring
Knowing where to buy is important, but knowing how well you perform is perhaps even more essential. The recent economic crisis has prompted many companies to closely evaluate their spend. This is not a new phenomenon and analyzing the spending exists just as long as purchasing itself, but recently there is particular emphasis on two different fields: the first one is the search for savings opportunities that are present within the company (spend analysis). Recent studies show that companies can save on average 11% of their purchase spend if they use a modern spend analysis system (Aberdeen Group Research, 2008). Even without these systems, purchasing managers could save money by consolidating and analyzing their purchases and supplier base. The second field is benchmarking. Increasingly, purchasing managers are looking outside their own company for ways to save money. Typically, companies are comparing their purchasing performances to the performance of other companies. This process, however, is not as easy as it sounds and involves a lot of data collection and data manipulation in order to get a result that is interpretable and useful for companies. In order to use the data available in the YQ Matrix, we propose a two-step process.

Step 1. Price gap analysis expressing the “price” performance

The price gap analysis is all about measuring and understanding the price delta over time. This delta is the difference between the price that you paid or currently pay and the price that are calculated via benchmark data. These benchmark data could include an index, a combination of relevant prices for the same product, or a combination of prices of different products that compose another product.  Crucial in the information from the benchmark tools is that the gap evolutions are shown. With the latest worldwide internet evolution, prices are not secret anymore. You can find almost all of them on a wide variety of websites. It is the way to achieve them that is proprietary and this achievement progress over time can best be measured through the price gap analysis.
Step 2: Price gap evolution expressing the “value” performance
The price gap evolution is the difference between the average six months price gap and the subsequent price gaps multiplied by the actually purchased volumes showing the procurement performance value versus market. This step quantifies the procurement efforts into an absolute value expressed in the practitioner’s currency.
The price gap analysis and price gap evolution have multiple advantages compared to the traditional approaches. First, companies can measure the gap on a structural basis and not only occasionally. This allows companies to have a structural follow-up of their procurement performance. Second, traditional gap analysis does not always take the volume actually purchased into account. The build-in of the purchased volume is a must. Indeed, a major price gap on ten tons purchased will hardly offset an earlier bad price gap on thousand tons purchased.
From a data collection perspective, there is less bias and manipulation by the market (e.g., compared to market prices assembled via telephone or e-mail). Each graph created on the database and defined as visible to other users is subject to voting by other users (“Like”, “Dislike”, “No opinion”). Whereas this type of crowd voting has so far been used on social media like Facebook, Twitter, … to express an opinion on a topic, the approach here is new as it is used to validate the reliability of the data. This means the YQ Matrix is not only valuable for the industry, but also for the institutional and academic world striving for data confirmation from multiple sources to carry out their academic and institutional studies.
Finally, similar to the four step country selection proposed earlier, results are reached faster and time invested is lower. Especially when prices are volatile, a thorough understanding of the market is necessary. The monitoring tool presented provides a short and long term visibility from which price seasonality and best buying times can be more easily deducted. In this way, it adds to the creative time procurement since it might be better to buy more expensive than the market at the right time than to buy the cheapest at the wrong time.

The outcome of public procurement reforms being carried out in most developing countries is negligible and has not provided significant support for good governance in the procurement sector despite having sound objectives with the initiatives. Presently, most of the governments around the world are implementing e-government procurement (e-GP) systems as a tool for public procurement reform for better governance in the public procurement sector. The implementation of e-procurement has been accepted as one of the most promising and feasible options for governments in delivering enhanced governance in the acquisition of goods, works, and services for the public sector. This action research analyzed the implementation of the e-GP system in a developing country using quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis following the utilizationfocused evaluation framework. The study focused in the utility of the e-GP system, addressing different dimensions of good governance and emphasi...

With the current emerging development pattern in Malaysia, E-Government has been unveiled by the Malaysian Government to be one of the multimedia super corridor flagship applications to implement digital technology to improve government operations. Eprocurement was originally utilized by businesses to minimize turnaround times and prices, but recently it was often used as a platform for sustainable procurement. However, there have been few attempts to investigate E-procurement technology in Malaysia concerning sustainable procurement. Also, there is no consistent and reliable framework of Eprocurement technology for sustainable procurement practices. The focal area of this research is ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia, the population of these organizations is 55, sample size (N)=162 respondents including procurement managers, executives and staff which are involved directly or indirectly in the process of procuring products and services. This study is conceptual and aims to explore how the adoption of E-procurement technologies influence sustainable procurement practices within ISO 14001 accredited firms in Malaysia.

Unlike the private sector for which the adoption of e-procurement systems has widely been discussed, little is known about the motivations behind government agencies' introduction of e-procurement systems and the challenges they encounter in implementing them. This research addresses this gap through an exploratory case study involving a Melbourne-based city council. The findings indicate the reluctance of the council in fully committing to e-procurement system while being not entirely motivated by financial gains. A major hurdle is the difficulty to integrate e-procurement to the council's financial applications. The study has implications for public sector financial managers and IT practitioners.

Emerging information and communication technology is driving transformation and change in the cyberspace. Speed, competition and globalization are key factors for development and growth in the reengineered global business environment where electronic business promises to grow in volume helping the digital economy to mature and dominate. This chapter demonstrates the case of an Internet startup that capitalized on the opportunities presented by the information economy. Since its establishment in 2001, the business2business platform of speedsend.com pioneered the electronic procurement industry in Egypt through a customized web-based platform. The transformation of classical emerging markets challenges into opportunities has been a critical success factor that related to all building blocks of the business venture including technology infrastructure deployment, community awareness, information availability, and cultural adaptation of the online business amongst others. The owners of Speedsend.com developed a set of models to drive down procurement costs while providing a practical and reliable electronic solution that can boost enterprise procurement efficiency and effectiveness and that could be appealing to a community that is known for being resistant to change and not really mature in terms of information technology adoption, diffusion and adaptation. The case focuses on the models deployed by speedsend.com demonstrating the internal and external challenges faced and lessons learnt.

This study explored how electronic procurement and performance of organizations is related. Electronic Procurement is very vital in achievement of organizations objectives. Electronic procurement involves more than online transactions. E-procurement delivers a very manageable and orderly method to provide a clear path in communicating with vendors during transactions. Despite their crucial role in improving people's lives and alleviating poverty, most non-governmental organizations have been recording poor performance. The general objective of the study was to establish the relationship of electronic procurement and performance of organizations in non-governmental organizations in Kenya. The specific objectives for the study were to establish how e-sourcing, e-ordering, e-invoicing and e-payment relates to performance of an organization. This study was guided by four theories namely,

Acceptance of e-procurement systems by employees working in the local government sector is important to ensure improved organisational effectiveness for city and rural councils alike. Although a rich body of literature exists regarding the organisational adoption decisions of e-procurement systems and their impact on organisational performance, little is however known about the factors that affect the acceptance of these systems by employees working in organisations. Using a qualitative case study research approach, we have thus examined the factors that are associated with e-procurement systems acceptance at a large Australian city council. Two sets of factors comprising perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, employee involvement, reliability, customised training, vendor support and management support are identified and their underlying relationships are discussed in the light of the existing literature. Finally, the implications of our findings are explained.

This article describes a recent trend in the area of sourcing and spend management which is in line with current calls for ways to source raw materials and (semi-) finished products more efficiently. It also covers a new approach to compare prices of different products versus the market prices as the traditional tendering process became unusable. The latter is a consequence of the high price volatility brought about by the financial crisis of 2008. We propose sourcing and benchmarking techniques that are already used in a meta-search database – www.YQmatrix.com - containing more than 7.5 billion data points. These can be used to quickly determine the supply sources as well as the value performance of the purchase of a raw material or a (semi-)finished) product. This search process includes prices and price comparisons for more than 15,000 raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products (http://www.YQmatrix.com/products.php). Login creation is free of charge (http://www.Y...

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In recent years, government organisations are expressing a growing interest in the uptake of eProcurement systems in order to achieve many of the benefits that their counterparts in the private sector have reported. These systems represent a specific instance of internet-based inter-organisational initiatives that streamline organisational purchasing processes and facilitate electronic exchange of transactions and other procurement related documents between organisations and their suppliers. Although some literature exists on the adoption of e-procurement systems within the government sector, relatively little has been focused on the outcomes of these systems particularly within the Australian local government context. Furthermore, much of the attention of the existing eProcurement literature is on understanding adoption decisions of these systems from the perspective of senior management, and few research efforts have been made to examine how employees who actually use these systems perceive the benefits arising from these systems. In addition, although the role of demographic characteristics of users is recognised in the innovation adoption and broader IS/IT adoption literatures, it is not clearly known how the demographic characteristics of employees (who interact with such systems) may influence their perceptions about eProcurement benefits. To address this gap in the literature, we analyse the views captured from sixty employees working in three large city councils located in the state of Victoria, Australia. The findings indicate that the outcomes of eProcurement systems adoption were largely seen in a positive light as the employees reported favourably about the attainment of benefits from their use of these systems. 252

In recent years, the topic of electronic public procurement has been in the centre of attention, mostly in the light of the duty to transfer to fully electronic procurement procedures introduced under the 2014 public procurement directives. However, as several Member States are still reported to show insufficient progress in this area, estimation of the possibilities as well as the challenges associated with different systems of e-procurement is an equally logical step. The Estonian model of eprocurement
might hopefully serve as one of possible examples.

Estonia has been moving towards a fully electronic public procurement environment since the year 2001, with 92 % of procurement procedures conducted electronically in 2016. The Article gives a short overview of Estonian electronic procurement system, with attention to legal issues that have been associated with e-procurement. We submit that while single steps in electronic communication in public procurement do not constitute a jump to a new level, the fully electronic procurement as required pursuant to the 2014 directives can be associated with the added quality expected to support the strive for more cross-border competition, transparency and nondiscrimination. Further, resorting to e-procurement as a system itself is a way of supporting innovation that can be viewed as a “cornerstone” of EU public procurement policy.

Emerging technologies such as electronic procurement have rapidly become common practice in recent years. With the advent of internet technologies and open innovations, the traditional procurement system is transformed into an electronic procurement system. Technology adoption is influenced by multiple factors, including the adopter, technology, and ecosystem in which they function. Considering this, E-procurement is still being adopted slowly. This research aims to investigate the extension of the adoption of E-procurement and identify the relationships between the E-procurement technologies and green procurement practices across different sectors of ISO 14001-certified Malaysian enterprises. This research is supported by the Technology Acceptance Model, one of the significant theories of technology adoption. Using SPSS and SmartPLS, the survey data is analyzed quantitatively. The structural model explains 86% of the variance in green procurement and shows the positive significant ...

This study investigated the perception of electronic procurement (eprocurement) system and rate of adoption in the federal public hospitals in Edo State of Nigeria. The rate of adoption is premised on Rogers' diffusion of innovations approach using the process of innovation characteristics: relative advantage, trialability, compatibility, observability, and complexity of e-procurement system to evaluate the rate at which organizations adopt new innovations. The degrees of difficulties faced by the hospitals in the adoption of eprocurement system and the benefits of the e-procurement system adoption were also studied. The study used convenience sampling technique to select 45 management staff of procurement departments of three federal public hospitals spread across Edo State. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique was used to estimate the model that was developed. The findings showed that the greatest challenge faced by the hospitals in the adoption of EPS was the lack of e-procurement system infrastructure due to inadequate funding. On the benefits of adopting EPS in the hospitals, the findings showed that reduction in wastage in the time lost in the process of procurement of materials and mistakes that emanate from retyping

Public e-procurement is the use of electronic means for publishing, processing, exchanging and storing all the information related to institutional purchases in public organisations. It requires complex technological tools, which must comply with legal and organisational constraints. In France, such tools have actually been deployed and used in all public institutions since 1 January 2005. The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the functional and legal requirements for public e-procurement in France, and to present a general evaluation of eight deployed e-procurement platforms using an empirical methodology. The functionalities and general characteristics of the studied platforms are sketched and compared on the basis of commercial and technical data. Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. He teaches information systems engineering, knowledge management and collaborative work. His research interests include collaborative information systems for knowledge-based systems. He has published in several national and international conferences and has co-edited two books on knowledge management and e-government. He has served as consultant for several companies such as France Telecom, Société Générale Bank and HydroQuébec.

This article aims to illustrate the resistance to change from the buyers' side that is related to the application of electronic reverse auction (ERA) in organisations. Our article focuses on the relation between the tool and the buyers. ERA brings significant changes to the purchasing process. When the method is introduced to the field, the resistance to change occurs not only from the suppliers' side, but also from the buyers' side. It seems that many buyers do not like ERA, and most of them will not use ERA spontaneously. There is a reluctance to change from the buyer's side, both at the pilot phase and sporadic phase. From this exploratory research, we also identify six reasons for this reluctance. This conclusion is deduced from a qualitative survey carried out with ERA experts from top retailer groups (Auchan, Carrefour, Casino, Castorama) and two e-procurement consulting companies in France.

Public e-procurement is the use of electronic means for publishing, processing, exchanging and storing all the information related to institutional purchases in public organisations. It requires complex technological tools, which must comply with legal and organisational constraints. In France, such tools have actually been deployed and used in all public institutions since 1 January 2005. The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the functional and legal requirements for public e-procurement in France, and to present a general evaluation of eight deployed e-procurement platforms using an empirical methodology. The functionalities and general characteristics of the studied platforms are sketched and compared on the basis of commercial and technical data. Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. He teaches information systems engineering, knowledge management and collaborative work. His research interests include collaborative information systems for knowledge-based systems. He has published in several national and international conferences and has co-edited two books on knowledge management and e-government. He has served as consultant for several companies such as France Telecom, Société Générale Bank and HydroQuébec.

During the last decade, electronic procurement has acquired a great number of supporters. Internet-based procurement applications have significantly improved the overall supply chain operation. There is a lot of research regarding the effects of such applications on supply chain management. However, very little research exists regarding the organisational impact of such applications. In order to fill this gap, research was made within the framework of a European research project. More specifically, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a number of industrial firms in six European countries. The results of the study suggest that respondents perceive a positive impact of e-procurement applications on issues such as employees' satisfaction, job formality, work and business relationships. The perceived impact on these issues varies among companies, depending on such variables as country, number of employees and sales turnover, and is not overshadowed by the e-tech sophistication of the subject companies.

Social Media (SM), in recent years, is emerging as a common platform for low cost information exchange, and has attracted a critical mass of users both at corporate and retail levels. Theoretically, SM can thus be used as a tool to strengthen e-procurement in the public sector. Towards this end, we have prepared a conceptual model drawing on literature reviews and some examples while identifying a set of expected benefits and challenges within four stages of e-procurement. Using the framework, a case study has been conducted involving Australian public procurement initiatives and 15 federal government senior officials engaged in e-procurement. They have been interviewed to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of using SM in the public e-procurement context. The findings of the study suggest a limited scope for SM usage in the Australian public sector eprocurement process. The implications of the findings are discussed and some recommendations offered.

Electronic Procurement (electronic auctions) aims to cut thechain ofbureaucracyandmake public sectorspendingmoreeffectiveandefficient. Thisarticlediscusses theimplementation process of E-Procurement in four regenciesineastern Java: Sampang, Kediri, Surabaya and Jember with emphasis ontheaccountability and efficiency issues.The findings show that in 2011there were24,475auction pack ages using the mainframe of e-Procapplication with a value of more than 38 trillion Rupiah, of which4.4 trillion Rupiah of state money could be saved by the application of e-Proc mainframe. There are two main aspectst of the process of implementing e-Proc that hampered e-Procacceleration and raised the potential for corruption in the process of implementing e-Proc: the user (end user of e-Proc) and the mediator (Procurement Services Unit-ULP of eachgovernment institution). These two elements play a crucial part in determining the process of E-Proc which subscribe to the notion of accountability, efficiency, transparency and fairness. Finally, this paper provides some recommendations to improve the current practice of e-Proc in Indonesia; first, creating indicators/criteriaTransparency and accountability in the internal e-Proc implementator; Second, Injecting the value and the importance of leadership and personal integrity; Third, he need to reformulate a new system of E-Gov that compatible or supporting e-Proc; Four, Increasing the role of government monitoring unit.

Purchasing managers have to make comprehensible selections among hundreds of alternatives considering several dozens of criteria. Selection problems like this are challenging, because they require the balancing of multiple, often conflicting objectives. Traditional approaches to multi-attribute decision making (MADM) are often insufficient in situations with a large number of attributes and alternatives. ABSolute is an application framework for electronic sourcing. The core component of ABSolute is an intelligent decision analysis engine for electronic procurement, which is designed for large amounts of alternatives and attributes. ABSolute enhances traditional approaches to decision making with advanced visualization capabilities and WORA, a new technique for weight assessment based on ordinal rankings of alternatives.