Record attendance at the 10th BME eSolution Days 2019 in Düsseldorf: From March 12 to 13, around 1,400 participants discussed the latest IT trends at the largest German-language trade fair for eSourcing and eProcurement. The conclusion: Purchasing can no longer avoid the topic of digitalization.

SoftconCIS was once again an exhibitor at this year’s event. Interested parties and customers had the opportunity to talk to our specialists in person about the latest IT trends and find out what SoftconCIS’s WebCIS 4.0 purchasing control software already offers and how it can significantly support purchasing.

Read the SoftconCIS technical article on the eSolutions Report 2019 below:

The digital transformation of purchasing is unstoppable. As a value driver for the company, purchasing must proactively address digitalization and develop an awareness of training and continuing education.
Because: Those who don’t learn quickly and continue their education will soon be left behind.

Globalization and the Internet have already had a major impact on the way purchasing works and the skills required, but digitalization poses an even greater challenge for companies and their purchasing organizations. Whatever you think of the buzzwords that are so popular right now – big data, artificial intelligence, augmented analytics, activity bots – one thing is certain: purchasing, as a necessary value driver in companies, will experience a continuing digital transformation in both the operational and strategic environments.

The results of various studies vary between the disappearance of purchasing as an independent organizational unit and the powerful role of a “trusted business partner.” To support an efficient digital roadmap for your own company, the core purchasing function, i.e., the provision of external goods and services in line with requirements along the entire value chain, must be guaranteed. This results in the following areas of action: necessary task-specific training and further education for all employees involved in purchasing-related activities in the company in handling the raw material “data” in order to derive the information sought, the knowledge required, and goal-oriented proposals for action. In agile, cross-functional project teams, the topic of exploiting value creation potential from procurement activities must be addressed from the outset. In some cases, suppliers and customers should also be involved at the earliest possible stage.

Highly qualified purchasers and intelligent purchasing control software are guarantees of success.

In addition to the intensive, system-supported integration of suppliers to ensure efficient communication, supplier development is a critical area for success. To this end, software-supported analyses of external and internal data must be bundled into useful information and presented in a precise manner so that both operational and strategic purchasers have real support in their daily work. The information provided must not serve the sole purpose of facilitating or automating reporting, but must first and foremost support the search for and evaluation of suppliers and complement the creative and innovative implementation of the recommendations developed by the procurement teams in the best possible way. This involves asking the right questions, interpreting the available information in a targeted manner, and translating it into success-oriented measures.

Increase value contribution.

What is so easily formulated as a question is extremely challenging to measure and is accompanied by endless discussions. Defining value contribution solely on the basis of income statement results, or “bottom line savings,” falls far short of the mark and does not do justice to the overall performance of all employees involved in purchasing-related activities. Other services such as avoided expenses, process reengineering, supply security through risk management, or innovation scouting among suppliers must be recorded, evaluated, and communicated.

When both come together—intelligent purchasing control software that understands and supports the purchasing environment, and highly qualified purchasers who can act proactively with the data and information provided—purchasing has a good chance of developing into what is expected of it: to be a “value driver in the company.”

The web-based purchasing control system WebCIS 4.0 offers a wide range of services, the use of specialized algorithms and artificial intelligence, both stationary and mobile on a wide variety of end devices such as laptops, tablets or smartphones, providing the ideal conditions for qualified purchasing specialists to identify and exploit value creation potential with its support.
(Published in the eSolutions Report 2019)