e-procurement

Bedfordshire County Council is implementing an e-procurement system, SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) and an electronic market place to trade electronically with our suppliers and service providers using the internet. e-procurement is being developed to automate and streamline the procurement activities to obtain greater efficiencies. Suppliers to the Council will not be required to implement new or expensive systems to continue to supply the council.

What is e-procurement?

Put simply, e-procurement is the electronic purchasing of goods and services online.

The SAP SRM and e-marketplace project will automate the P2P (Purchase to Pay) process. The following e-procurement tools will be implemented:

e-procurement 

Tools such as the IDeA (EGS) marketplace for hosted supplier’s catalogues and puchouts and internal catalogues for routine transactional procurement.

e-sourcing 

SAP SRM for eTendering, eRFQs (Request for quotations) and e-auctions.

e-payment

Includes electronic invoicing, self billing and electronic payment.

The Benefits of e-procurement

Bedfordshire County Council is committed to improving performance and efficiency and reducing costs associated with the procurement process that will benefit both the Council and the suppliers.

• Reduced administration costs – simplifying the order process and reducing paper flow and the cost of paper and postage.
• Reduced payment times – via electronic payment of invoices.
• Improved financial and purchasing control – the Council will have a better visibility of expenditure with its suppliers.
• A level playing field for suppliers – ability to compete with any other supplier, regardless of their size.

How will it work?

The Council will implement SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) which is a fully integrated electronic purchase to pay system. This SRM system will fulfil two functions within the procurement arena, firstly e-purchasing the buying of goods and services, and secondly e-sourcing which will speed up the tender and contract management processes.

Bedfordshire County Council will also be using the IDEA marketplace, which enables its staff to place orders, using catalogues provided by its suppliers, or by a punch out, a direct link into a suppliers website similar to the Amazon website.

Suppliers

Bedfordshire County Council will be contacting our current suppliers as part of our supplier adoption strategy and informing them about this project and requesting some simple information such as a main contact within the organisation, an email address, an invoice email address and a website address and catalogue.