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At C1, we strongly believe in the power of knowledge and are committed to keeping our readers well-informed about the latest procurement updates. Our goal is to provide comprehensive coverage of technological trends, advancements, and enhancements in the e-procurement sector. For any media-related inquiries, feel free to reach out to us at enquiry@c1india.com.
In procurement, technologies’ true purpose is to augment human capabilities by driving workforce capable and enable to interact and work with machines flawlessly and allowing them to grow professionally and focus on more valuable work who were driving their energy in time-consuming tasks – like data classification and cleansing – Digitization has given them opportunity to shift the focus and output from tactical to strategic.
In procurement, technologies’ true purpose is to augment human capabilities by driving workforce capable and enable to interact and work with machines flawlessly and allowing them to grow professionally and focus on more valuable work who were driving their energy in time-consuming tasks – like data classification and cleansing – Digitization has given them opportunity to shift the focus and output from tactical to strategic.
Regardless of Industry category, enterprise size, or the maturity of procurement practice and discipline, evaluating cost savings remains the top priority of the procurement function. As a fact, the percentage of revenue expenditure in recent times for most enterprises has increased to 50-70% on procurement function concerning the type of business. This upward trend originated due to continually outsourcing of in-house tasks and increased responsibility of managing a greater spectrum of tasks/commodities such as insurances, contracts, business travels, professional services, marketing, and communications, etc.
In our previous blog, we explored the various types of savings. To further continue, our next topic for discussion brings us to exploring the numerous complexities that surround procurement savings
As per the last blog “Complexity Surrounding Procurement Function”, some may be confused over how to exactly register savings appropriately. To comprehend there isn't any specific way to report savings but does require a proper approach and clear choices. The following approach involves three parts which can help you determine procurement savings -
Government of India has announced an interesting policy update. In its endeavor to transform India into a Digital empowered nation, government has taken a major step towards promoting the use of Open Source Software to ensure cost affordability. The policy will push Open Source Software acceptance & implementation in government setups.
The Digital India programme was launched last year by the Modi Government. The thrust of the programme is on 3 key areas – providing digital infrastructure to every citizen of the country through high speed data internet connection, using e-governance for promoting ease of doing business and digital empowerment of citizens.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the ‘Digital India Week’ on 1st July at Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi to endorse the government’s ambitious Digital India programme which aims to transform India into a digitally empowered economy. The week long celebrations would witness participation of the who’s who of the industry such as Azim Premzi (Wipro Chairman), Sunil Mittal (Bharti Group Chairman), Gautam Adani (Adani Group Chairman), Cyrus Mistry (Tata Group Chairman), Mukesh Ambani (RIL Chairman) among others. Industrialists have showed their support by pledging about Rs. 4.5 lakh crore as investment for various projects related to Digital India programme.
Procurement is no more a personality-centric function. The changing expectations and the advent of digitization has given birth to a growing vision of ‘end-to-end’ procurement. Considering fast changing scenarios in procurement systems and need of end to end procurement management, in future:
Small and mid-sized companies are generally late to the procurement technologies as they cart a multitude of demands like staffing, financing, inventory management, marketing and customer service which consume maximum of their time and focus and impact their daily operations. As a result, procurement tends to be an additional obligation - when it should be approached strategically.
In today’s competitive market, e-tendering is a powerful solution for procurement teams aiming to streamline vendor selection, ensure transparency, and secure the best value for their organizations. But while e-tendering brings efficiency, it also comes with challenges that can derail even the most well-planned bids. Many procurement professionals encounter common mistakes in the e-tendering process that could cost time, money, and credibility if not handled carefully. Here are some practical tips to help procurement teams steer clear of these typical e-tendering mistakes and create successful, effective tendering procedures.
India’s Internet users base has reached 354 million, registering 17% growth in first 6 months of 2015. This increase in the number of internet users has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the accountability of the government towards citizens.
Digital procurement transformation is an indispensable approach to procurement process engineering that seeks to harness the full transformative power of digital technologies to drive true step changes in outcomes. In other words, Digital procurement helps to accelerate the pace of procurement transformation and significantly reduces the friction of change management.
Digital transformation is a buzz word on everyone’s lips these days, and it is closely associated with words like block chain, internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data. But digital transformation is about having a clear vision. It is designing new ways of doing things that will generate new sources of value. It is for all the company and not just for a specific process or function.
Digital procurement gives decision makers better discernibility, reduces risk, and boosts compliance—ultimately increases spend under management and drives more value for the business. But adopting digital procurement is a big order. It requires “integrated system of knowledge” which focuses on five key elements that most procurement organizations should consider to fully implement.
In layman's language, procurement is the management of purchasing and everything involved with acquiring third-party goods and services. It deals with the brokering of trade agreements. It looks for ways to attain products at the lowest price. It makes sure purchased goods are delivered safely to the premises. It counts the cash. Procurement is an important aspect of a business as without a dedicated department for acquiring goods, operations would stall. Hence failing to secure goods, would lead to making last moment arrangements and it invites errors, losses, and delays. To minimize the risks associated, the digitalization of procurement comes into the picture.
In today’s world, disruptive technologies are swiftly reshaping businesses to strategize based-on granular level insights, improve growth prospects by heavy automation of operations, and are improving their value-creation opportunities. Similarly, the Dominic effect of these new-age technologies has been observed in the procurement field and has helped procurement function to mature astronomically.
In our last blog, we discussed cognitive procurement and various new-age technologies involved. Today, we’ll explore how cognitive procurement can impact enterprises to maximize savings and reduce associated risks.
In our last blog, we discussed cognitive procurement’s impact on enterprises and today we’ll explore the potential roadblocks for designing/developing an effective cognitive procurement system.
Digital transformation is a buzz word on everyone’s lips these days, and it is closely associated with words like block chain, internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data. But digital transformation is about having a clear vision. It is designing new ways of doing things that will generate new sources of value. It is for all the company and not just for a specific process or function
Rapid innovations and technological advancements are reshaping the procurement industry and its functions. These market disruptive developments are gradually becoming the need of the hour in these unprecedented times. Along with rapid developments, there is a steep increase in demand for the digital transformation of procurement functions as business needs are becoming complex day by day. The advent of advanced computing techniques is on the verge of blurring the separating line between machine and human intelligence. The end goal of advanced technologies is to help organizations shift their focus to the strategic side of the procurement process and increase efficiency throughout SCM.
Cloud computing is a form of internet-based computing that provides ability and access to store data and programs via device-on-demand with an internet connection. Its ubiquitous nature and on-demand access to shared processing resources and data (devices ranging from a PC to mobile with an internet connection), makes it remotely accessible at all times. It allows users and enterprises to avoid upfront infrastructure costs and store and process their data in third-party data centers. Cloud computing can majorly be divided into 3 general categories.
Enterprises around the globe generate an umpteen amount of data. The raw data when filtered using advanced computing systems to derive meaningful insights is referred to as big data analytics. Today, data sources have evolved to include a far more diverse collection of both internal and external, structured and unstructured data gathered through automated processes and often executed in real-time.
Earlier we learned about Big-Data Analytics and its usage to detect unpredictable patterns, trends, and perform predictive analysis. Data mining refers to extracting knowledge from a large amount of data i.e. Big Data and is used for strategic decision making. It's generally used in statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
As we learned about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the last blog, it’s time to unravel the Machine learning and its effect on the procurement process. First and foremost it’s imperative to understand that ML is a subset of AI and both differ by certain margins since people often use one another interchangeably. ML and AI’s usage differ from one another when it comes to procurement and both are at different stages of development. Machine learning is a part of artificial intelligence designed to help the computer identify the steps needed to accomplish a specific goal without requiring step-by-step instructions. ML learns and adapts to our usage gradually and starts suggesting and implementing repetitive functions on its own with minimal human intervention.
In our last blog, we learned about Machine Learning and its integration with the procurement process. To further explore the upcoming advancements in procurement, our today’s topic is Blockchain. Let’s begin with understanding what is blockchain before we dive into how it can revolutionize procurement.
In our previous blog, we explored blockchain and how it can transform the procurement industry. Today, we will explore about one of the most actively used technology that has helped to scale-up the procurement industry by leaps and bounds - robotic process automation.
In our last blog, we explored and learned about Robotic process automation and its applicability in the procurement process. Our today’s topic is Internet-of-things (IoT), lets learn more about this technology which has ushered a second age of the internet and how it will impact procurement.
e-Governance is the new buzzword. ‘e-Governance in India’ as on today, throws more than 33 million searches. At a time when India is positioning ‘Make in India’ campaign strongly, successful e-Governance execution can help position India on a global arena. It will not only help in smooth governance but will also eradicate maverick costs incurred over channels that don’t add value. It has the power to reduce the time span and raise effectiveness of the projects that the government has undertaken.
For those working in government enterprises, a comprehensive appreciation of the e-Procurement process is of utmost importance because the government has been pressing on e-Governance initiatives more than ever before. Procurement professionals working at different levels in private companies often find this migration overwhelming to start with. And, with growing participation of private sector employees in public procurement, it is need of the hour to shun all the myths around e-Procurement and champion it to address modern day procurement challenges.
Government of India has launched the initiative 'Make in India' to facilitate investment and build manufacturing infrastructure in India. The various sectors being targeted are - automobiles, automobile components, aviation, biotechnology, chemicals, construction, defence manufacturing, electrical machinery, electronic systems, food processing, IT, leather, media and entertainment, mining, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, ports, railways, renewable energy, roads & highways, space, textile and garments, thermal power, tourism & hospitality and wellness.
Public procurement in India accounts for close to 30% of India’s GDP. This is a whopping figure and hence a major area that went ignored for too long. The government has rightly taken a call to give it a strategic importance rather than considering it as an administrative process. Hence, today we witness non-traditional methods of procurement, focus on e-governance and e-Procurement increasingly being adopted by government.
The Jamaican Government launched its nationwide e-Procurement system on July 31st according to the reports of the Jamaican Observer. Ministry of Finance and Planning has implemented this platform under the theme “Faster, Easier and More Efficient Way of Doing Business”.
In this Digital Age, every business is trying to reap the benefits of Information Technology to the fullest. The Internet has enabled businesses to stay connected with suppliers from around the globe. This has helped organizations overcome the dearth of suppliers, especially the industry specific ones. The enhanced competition due to the integration of the global market has helped organizations procure services and goods at extremely competitive prices.
SaaS stands for Software-as-a-Service. In this model, any particular application is delivered as a service over the internet. It eliminates the need to maintain and install software. It also rids the user of hardware limitations that are there in case of conventional software. The service provider has the power to manage access and security of the application.
Here at C1 India, it has been our commitment to deliver safe, secure and reliable tendering and auction solutions. Every portal developed by us complies with the highest standards of security and adheres to all the government guidelines like STQC and CVC among others. We understand the relevance of a secure tendering or auction portal, as the transactions carried out on these portals are enormous and the data is highly confidential.
e-Procurement is a way to manage purchasing in an organisation electronically. This opportunity offered by digital technologies to make deep rationalization in purchase of supplies is becoming essential in competition between enterprises.
When we think about procurement, we all follow traditional methods. But the era of e-procurement is here and gaining importance these days, question arise that does shifting to e-Procurement makes sense??
If the thought of moving to an e-Procurement process gives you chills, you’re not alone. Everyone that is in the industry will tell you that it is a hard thing to handle as well as master. However, as the times have changed, the way procurement managers work with the procurement of services have also evolved alongside technology. e-Procurement has been around for years now and it can help your business immensely if you figure out the right way to get it done!
e-Procurement software is a strategic and beneficial choice for almost any organization, one that is sure to increase efficiency in procurement processes and improve control over spending. The first step for an organization automating procurement is to evaluate its current processes and identify areas for improvement. Once an organization has decided that it is ready to invest in automation, it then has to learn how to purchase the software.
Electronic procurement is a business to business (B2B) process of purchasing and selling goods or services over the internet. It offers a highly customizable digital platform that is way more transparent, secure, standardized and efficient when compared to traditional methods of procurement. It eliminates the paperwork, minimizes risks substantially, works within the legal boundaries, improves transparency and enhances user experience.
As we move forward, the role of negotiation in procurement will only grow in importance. With the integration of AI and machine learning, negotiation will become more data-driven, allowing for predictive analytics and real-time insights. However, the human element—empathy, creativity, and strategic thinking—will remain irreplaceable.
In the dynamic landscape of modern business, agility and adaptability are paramount. As companies strive to thrive and remain competitive, ensuring a streamlined and efficient contract management process has become a critical component of success. This is where Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software enters the stage, a technology that's more crucial than ever for businesses in today's world.