Industry Best Practices

Best practices are used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated

standards and can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking.[1] Best practice is a feature
of accredited management standards such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14001

Industry Best Practice means the exercise of that degree of skill, diligence, prudence and
foresight which would reasonably and ordinarily be expected from a skilled and experienced
operator engaged in offering regulated gambling services

Best practice implementations in e-procurement are greatly reducing costs, increasing spend
volumes managed by their e-procurement systems, adding new spend categories to be
managed by their e-procurement systems, and examining other ways to reap Best Practices
in e-Procurement have many things in common. This research identified key strategies used
by companies that have achieved Best Practice status in eprocurement:

Steps for Developing Best Practices

i. Do your homework: Research what companies in your industry do regarding best

practices, in terms of customer service, hiring, promotions, production, and anything
else of import.
ii. Share your information: Once you have determined what best practices are important,
communicate this to key individuals in your company so that everyone is on the same
page.
iii. Define your metrics: When you determine your best practices make sure they are
measurable so you can keep track of progress towards their implementation, and to
boost accountability.
iv. Manage change: Employees and others are typically resistant to change. Prepare for
this resistance and develop a strategy to move forward when you implement new
practices.
v. Modify and customize for your business: When implementing a best practice, modify
it so that it meets the characteristics of your business and fits with your intended goals.
vi. Involve everyone: Like sharing your information, make certain that everyone in the
organization is aware of best practices and that they have agreed to abide by them.
vii. Align business and customer needs: Seek guidance from other businesses or
customers that might be able to help you refine and better implement your best
practices.
viii. Evaluate and refine: As your business evolves, take stock of your best practices and
refine if necessary to meet the ways that your organization has changed.

Best Practices

Just in Time- Just in time (JIT) is a best practices solution focused on inventory that seeks
to align materials ordered from suppliers to a production schedule. The goal of JIT is to
ensure efficiency and reduce waste by only receiving materials when needed. While this
trims inventory costs, it requires businesses to forecast demand for their goods accurately to
ensure proper amounts of supplies are on hand.

Kaizen- Kaizen is a Japanese management philosophy that seeks to improve productivity

gradually and methodically. It is a Japanese word that means "change for the better" or
"continuous improvement."

Kaizen seeks to involve all employees and improve operations on a continuous basis.
Characteristics of kaizen include designing a workplace to be more efficient and impactful
by creating a team atmosphere, improving everyday procedures, making sure employees are
engaged, and seeking to make jobs more fulfilling, safer, and less tiring.

Lean Manufacturing- A manufacturing methodology based on a Japanese approach to

examining business processes, identifying what truly adds value and eliminating non-value
activities. Companies have the freedom to define their own Lean journeys and identify the
waste found in nearly every business to minimize defects, reduce overproduction, limit
wasted motion, optimize inventory levels and eliminate many other inefficiencies.
Initiate Preventive Maintenance- Become proactive with a comprehensive asset
maintenance program. Effectively schedule maintenance for each piece of equipment to
reduce downtime and prevent more extensive and costly breakdowns.

Enable Automation- ncorporation of robotics and process automation on the plant floor
streamlines processes, minimizes human error and reduces overall production costs.

Implement a Quality Management System- Adapting to change is essential for

manufacturing companies. Implementing and using a quality management system allows for
greater consistency in production to reduce mistakes and improve customer satisfaction.

Track Global Trade Compliance and Environmental Standards- Environmental

sustainability and global trade compliance has become increasingly important. Manufacturers
must comply with global and local regulations, and failure to comply can result in penalties
and legal hurdles. Manufacturers utilize ERP and automation software to improve
traceability, reduce manually intensive efforts, increase transparency across the entire supply
chain and ensure compliance with global trade and environmental standards.

Maintain a Current Operational Restart Checklist- Manufacturers see increasing business

disruption whether it’s from protests or strikes, government regulations, turbulent weather,
pandemics or other occurrences. Maintaining an up-to-date restart checklist helps companies
overcome risks when operations require a restart.

Advantages of industry best practice

i. Cost Reduction- E-procurement not only reduces the cost of transactions, it also
improves process efficiency and can reduce administrative and other costs. Manual
(phone and fax) communications are reduced or eliminated, as are paper invoices and
their associated costs.
ii. Higher Productivity- Enterprises that implement e-procurement report that
procurement, accounting, and other corporate functions are more productive now than
with traditional buying methods. E-procurement systems provide a standardized
approach to rolling out efficient processes to not only procurement but all departments
involved in transaction processing and financial record-keeping.

iii. Increased Spend Under Management- Increasing spend under management helps
ensure the enterprise achieves maximum spending lever. It also ensures that consistent
and thorough market diligence, costing measures, and compliance methods are applied to
each spend category.

E-procurement Software

E-procurement software is an enterprise system that automates and integrates the spectrum of
an organization's procurement cycle. A good e-procurement solution will increase the
transparency of spending and approval processes.For example, an online procurement as a
part of an e-procurement system allows customers to browse online catalogs, add goods to
the shopping cart and send an order request.

Essential e-procurement software features to look for:

1. Mobile and easy-to-use interface- E-procurement software should be easy to use; as it’s
the number one factor in driving successful user adoption, which is vital to the success of
every procurement technology investment.
2. Communication -Communication is essential for all stakeholders to know what's
happening in the procurement process. Your software should be accessible via a mobile app
and accelerate the procure-to-pay process with:

 Automated workflows
 Compliance checks
  Multi-level approval routing
 And collaboration tools

3. Supplier management- E-procurement software features should offer supplier onboarding

functionality to ensure that purchasing only occurs with approved suppliers.

4. Auditability and risk management- Effective e-procurement software improves

auditability. Be sure to source a solution that offers audit trails that detail transactional and
user activity, with date and time stamps. This transparency promotes accountability, a
powerful driver of change in spending behavior.

5. Budget insight and control- Budget visibility empowers users to make informed
purchasing decisions. To facilitate this visibility, e-procurement software should provide
authorized staff with access to real-time data, and the ability to report on budgets vs. actuals.

6. Policy compliance- Protect working capital by configuring your spending policies in your
e-procurement platform. Your solution should actively manage policy compliance to guide
employee spend behavior, enhance auditability, and provide the internal controls you need to
maintain profitability.

7. Time-saving automation- Cornerstones of any e-procurement software - efficiency and

time-to-value, driven by automation. E-procurement software features should incorporate
smart automation to:

 Improve accuracy
 Reduce human error
 Free-up valuable time to focus on more strategic initiatives
 Accelerate procurement cycle times

8. Approval workflows- Configuring workflows shouldn't require any additional time or

money. Approval workflows should be automated, with multi-level escalation and no manual
intervention from the end-user.
 9. Vendor PunchOut & internal catalogs - Streamline business purchasing and gain access
to business-only pricing and volume discounts with vendor catalog integrations.

10. Visibility and business intelligence- A key objective of e-procurement deployments is to

gain visibility of expenditure by spend category.

11. Seamless integrations- Your e-procurement software of choice should offer integrations
with financial systems, ensuring accuracy and process efficiency.

12. Fast, flexible deployment-The implementation of some procurement platforms can take
numerous months or even years to deploy successfully. Avoid this slow time-to-value and
deployment by choosing robust yet agile cloud e-procurement software.

Functions of E-Procurement Software

The key functions of e-procurement software are:

 Automating manual processes to free up time and resources and minimize human bias
and errors.
 Streamlining and simplifying the procurement process through touchless processes,
advanced technologies, and improving compliance.
 Giving employees and stakeholders a centralized platform for monitoring and
optimizing procurement performance
 Enabling streamlined negotiation between multiple partners and stakeholders

E-Procurement SoftwareS

1. Coupa Procurement is a cloud-based app that serves spend management assistance to industries
relating to health care, retail, technology, automotive and more. It helps control finances and
maximizes profits while providing real-time visibility of the entire P2P process.

From budget management to optimizing expenditure plans, it also streamlines orders and ensures a
flexible transaction model.
Benefits
Improved Visibility: Optimize and maximize pre-approved expenses by controlling finances.
Increase savings, ensure compliance and gain complete visibility of the purchase-to-pay
process.

Maximize Spend Under Management: Access and track a simplified purchase order
requisitions process for increased pre-approved spend usage.

Simplify Adoption: Access a pre-integrated, contemporary design easy for user adoption and
driving values.

Accelerate Approval: Use any device to speed up the process of approval for quicker
management.

2. Oracle Services Procurement- Oracle Services Procurement is an enterprise application that

primarily serves businesses relating to sales and purchasing. It helps automate, control and
collaborate with the complete P2P process while granting real-time visibility.

Benefits
Control Spend: Save money on simple categories like contingent labor to complex ones like
business services. Enable insight and control on service expenses.

Improve Visibility: Gain complete visibility on supplier performances and costs.

Simplify Processes: Access spend data and transaction analysis within one intuitive centralized
database.

Automate Tasks: Eliminate the use of paperwork and instead automate processes to streamline
workflows.

Features
Purchasing: Access an easy-to-adapt, open-architecture application with configurable
purchasing policies that integrates with both legacy and supplier systems.

Procure To Pay: Track and automate the complete P2P process from purchase to order
settlement.
Supplier Base Management: Seamlessly integrate supplier information using advanced
supplier base management functionalities.

Sourcing: Maximize savings with a guided online process to source and manage suppliers in a
systematic way.

3. SAP Ariba- SAP Ariba is a cloud-based, B2B solution that connects suppliers and buyers
without a broker within one single platform. It provides e-Procurement support and supply chain
management to businesses of all sizes. Some of its key features include supplier management,
procurement catalogs, P2P solutions and more.

Benefits
Real-Time Reporting: Collaborate with suppliers and access detailed financial reports and
stats in real time.

Minimize Costs: Invest in scalable monthly or annual subscriptions to drive revenue at

different levels.

User-Friendly Interface: Edit, export and optimize supplier information, coordinate tasks, and
access revenue details using a scalable, user-friendly interface.

Streamline Invoicing: Automate processes from sending purchase order requests to generating
invoices to boosting productivity and minimizing errors.

Features
Sourcing: Create sourcing strategies to discover suppliers, automate tasks and drive faster
project collaborations in reduced time.

Contracts: Access direct contact between suppliers and buyers without brokers to generate,
negotiate, execute and manage contracts.

Guided Buying: Access an intuitive, compliant interface to prioritize preferred suppliers and
items within one centralized space.

Supply Chain Collaboration: Maximize productivity by automating the procurement life

cycle, from data processing to simplified transactions and flexible supply chain models.
4. Basware- Basware is a cloud-based, electronic invoicing and P2P provider that serves all
industries from health care to manufacturing and the public sector. It automates the procurement
process by reducing time spent on tasks and paperwork. It supports multi-format electronic
invoices and uses AP automation to make insightful decisions based on policy approvals and
invoice information.

Benefits
Seamless Integration: Directly integrate with sales and finance solutions with real-time order
fulfillment.

Touchless Processing: Automate tasks in order to eliminate paperwork and labor spent on
manual tasks like data entry.

Insight Driven Analytics: Gain visibility across all levels to make informed decisions when it
comes to supply chain operations.

Improved Cash flow: Automated purchase orders and invoice reconciliation processes enable
quick payment for suppliers.

Workday Spend Management- Workday Spend Management is a cloud-based solution that

strategically manages spend in all industries. It automates tasks, collaborates with suppliers and
helps optimize the internal supply chain.

Benefits
Automate Tasks: Eliminate the manual process of managing financial expenses and supplier
invoice data. Automate tasks for increased efficiency.

Simplify Workflows: Access a flexible workflow model that allows seamless requisition
approval edits, sets specific expense thresholds and more.

Benefits of e-procurement software

With an e-procurement platform, organizations can enhance the efficiency of their purchasing
process, solve inherent maverick spend issues, and deliver savings to the bottom line. The
right procurement management software can offer many indispensable benefits to any
organization.

1. Pay-as-you-go- Unlike on-premise procurement tools, e-procurement software neither

demands a huge upfront investment nor requires constant upgrades and frequent maintenance.
Today nearly all e-procurement software systems offer a subscription-based pricing model
that covers everything.

2. Accurate budgets- Maintaining accurate budgets is always a challenge in the manual

procurement process. With e-procurement software, a centralized procurement database
coupled with insightful dashboards and rule-based workflows keeps procurement spend in
check and highlights any off-budget spends instantly.

3. No paperwork- E-procurement software solutions store all purchasing records in a

centralized database, making it easy to quickly retrieve and compare information.

4. Better supplier relationships- E-procurement systems, on the other hand, place high
importance on supplier relationship management with supplier engagement initiatives like
supplier networks and self-service portals.

5. Streamlined workflows - With E-procurement software, automated approval workflows

will send timely notifications to stakeholders, keeping them informed of events like contract
expiration, three-way matching failure, and more. As a result, there will be no more missed
renewals or lost early discounts.

6. Transparent business processes- When the purchasing process depends on outdated tools
like spreadsheets and paperwork, stakeholders have no visibility into the procurement
process.

7. Actionable insights - E-procurement systems have a built-in analytics module that

leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to turn raw data into actionable insights.

Conclusion
It’s important to include that your eProcurement solution should take complexity out of your
processes, not add it. Ensure that the system you are choosing contains the features you need to
succeed without superfluous features to trip you up and cost you valuable time. A successful
eProcurement software integration can positively impact a supply chain in numerous ways, make
sure that you choose the system that is right for you. If you’d like to take a look at the
procurement market yourself, be sure to check out our comparison report of the top performers
available.