The increase in B2B trade in recent years and the vital role of the procurement area in business strategy convinced leaders from businesses of different segments and sizes to seek a procurement platform dedicated to transaction management.

Having a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for procurement management allows higher agility, cost reduction, transparency in negotiations and even energy efficiency, as the platform doesn’t require a physical IT infrastructure.

In this post, learn what are the most important attributes for a SaaS procurement platform and how to implement the solution in your department successfully.

Keep on reading!

Migration to the cloud is a global movement

The adoption of a SaaS procurement platform significantly reduces the efforts of technology teams. After all, there’s no need to carry out system installation, maintenance and updates, since all this is done by the solution provider, without any service interruptions.

To make it even easier to understand the simplicity and productivity gains with SaaS, let’s go back to the eighties. In the past, you had to buy CDs from your favorite artists, as well as a specific stereo sound system. Today, with music streaming platforms, all such equipment is expendable, and you can have access to your favorite songs anywhere.

Migration to the cloud is a global movement. According to data released by Gartner, more than US$ 1.3 trillion will be invested in the sector, in 2022 alone. However, as change advances, so do the challenges and competitiveness of businesses.

Therefore, we give you some tips in this post, so you can avoid making mistakes when choosing partners for your business.

10 key points to consider when choosing a procurement platform

Before choosing a procurement platform, check if the solution offers:

1. Availability

To be effective, a procurement tool and its features must be available on a 24×7 basis. Any unavailability can impact the procurement processes considerably, causing delays not only for the department, but for the whole company.

2. Scalability

A dynamic market requires solutions that match the most diverse scenarios in corporate procurement. Having a flexible and scalable solution to meet changing demands is crucial to keep operations running efficiently.

3. Integration

Look for a platform that enables easy integration with all the key programs for your business. In fact, integration between platforms optimizes work and increases the performance of teams by up to 25%, according to research by McKinsey consultancy.

4. Communication and collaboration

In procurement, communication and collaboration between buyers and suppliers are key to making processes more efficient and transparent. Therefore, a good procurement platform must offer features to promote an assertive interaction between all parties.

5. UX and usability

UX is the acronym for User Experience, and its goal is to provide a positive experience to users, every time they will browse the platform. Usability is one of the attributes of UX, as it makes system use more intuitive, friendly and simple – so the users can spend as little time as possible to conduct their activities and aren’t impacted by errors.

6. Information security

Information security is an increasingly important demand for organizations, as a protection for their data and the company as a whole. Therefore, in addition to having good functions and being intuitive, a procurement platform must also offer robust security, with ISO certifications regarding the Information Security Management.

8. Visibility

In order to make agile and assertive decisions, the procurement area must have access to updated data, in real time. The visibility of information on the procurement platform will contribute also to issues related to transparency and compliance.

8. Ease of implementation

As it stores information in the cloud, a procurement platform is easier and faster to implement. The storage period varies according to the business needs, as most businesses choose to customize services.

9. Customization

As we said above, each business has its particularities and, to be more successful in choosing a procurement platform, the solution must meet the specific needs of your company

10. Support

Having a hard time solving problems or getting service quickly can significantly impact your department’s bottom line. For this reason, it’s vital that the procurement platform provider can offer customized service and support.

How to succeed in deploying a procurement platform

Once you’ve selected the procurement platform that best meets your business goals, deployment is one of the most important steps.

To increase the chances of success, planning is the keyword. It’s at this step that your company and the procurement platform provider can evaluate any change issues – such as, for instance, if deployment will occur gradually or not, and if training should be provided to all employees, among other important issues.

It’s also essential that suppliers could be involved in this process, and receive the proper training, so they can be positively impacted by the platform.

Is everybody lined up? Now it’s time to run tests, to see if everything is going as expected. If the results are satisfactory, your procurement department and partners will be ready to go!

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