Every purchase starts with a need. For an organization, the procurement process is a measurable series of steps involving the identification of said needs to obtain goods that match specific goals and objectives.
Along this purchase journey are areas of optimization and cost savings that should be carefully evaluated for opportunities. However, for those unequipped, the steps to procurement can often be disjointed from one another, resulting in information silos and lost benefits to operators and cost managers.
To effectively deal with the struggles that procurement departments face, such as finding value in shrinking budgets or falling headcounts, your facility will need a streamlined process that can include major stakeholders in every step for maximized economic benefits.
Tofino can help you there.
Cohesive Requisitions to Final Orders
With any successful business, there needs to be a quest for insight and evaluation on every item sourced through a procurement team. This includes the process of tendering potential suppliers, negotiations of RFQ’s, adaption for increased inventory use, and data collection of costs for sourcing parts and material. However, despite the knowledge of these best practices, only 29% of companies say their analytics result in action.
A reason why data is praised so highly but infrequently actionable is the distance found between procurement steps. Without the chance to see how each point or decision within the procurement lifecycle affects each other, businesses will be left in the dark on how to save their time or money.
The solution is then simple. Your business needs visibility, fluidity, and a tool to bring it all together.
Visibility is the Key to Optimization
Tofino’s Smart Procurement is optimized so that information can be found and stored through the entire sourcing lifecycle. Beginning with inviting quotes from your suppliers and ending with complete, approved purchase orders (PO) and receiving history, your team can construct enforceable practices with ease.
Verbal and paper requests for quotes lack traceability. Using an e-procurement system provides efficiency in distributing the RFQ while also ensuring responses are tracked. The supplier with the successful bid can be associated in the system with the material(s) and any replenishment orders can automatically be sent to this supplier. When material is received they are logged in the same system. Integrating e-procurement with the system used for inventory management makes for easy “one-stop-shopping” for all users, eliminating information silos and enhancing visibility throughout the organization.
Yet another challenge to optimized procurement is the “spot buy”: when there is a need for an item which is typically not kept in inventory. This is typically the case for a repair or when a pandemic arises and you don’t typically stock Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Individual users will generally just visit a familiar store to make the purchase with a Purchasing Card (P-Card) or even use a personal credit card. This poses problems for the Procurement Office on multiple fronts. First, these purchases are not made with a preferred supplier. Second, there are potential lapses in accounting for these purchases correctly such as charging the purchase to “Miscellaneous”. Deploying software to manage spot-buys empowers staff to buy what they need to get the job done while buying from the correct supplier, securing management approval, and correctly accounting for the purchase.
Efficient Processes to Save Time
Having a clearly identified and defined procurement process will help with efficiency and data visibility. Digitizing this process ensures compliance, ease of use (which drives adoption), and traceability. This eventually leads to measurable cost savings in administrative expenses and purchasing expenses as maverick spend is reined in. With the right data available in an easy-to-use format your company can learn from continuous discovery and optimization.
With Tofino Software, you can be sure you’re receiving the right data and insights. Even more so, you can be certain that all the material is available to all parties at the same time, keeping all key stakeholders up to date and operational.
Ask for a Tofino demonstration today to find out what your procurement lifecycle has been missing and enter the world of informed spending.