Procurement Must Be Digitized!

COVID-19 has changed our ways of doing business, it has also affected procurement processes. Several unexpected situations have occurred and all the rules that applied before are now no longer in force.

The current situation in sales is highly volatile and unpredictable, and all this is reflected in the procurement. Purchasing professionals at one of the largest regional food and beverage companies, point out that people are being supplied with food for longer shelf lives, and there is a noticeable increase in the demand for canned food. The manufacturer must adapt to the demand and intensify the production of the more demanded goods. At this point, procurement faces several challenges:

1. Procurement must define adequate supplies for the duration of the demand crisis,
2. Procurement must ensure that the commodity reserves are able to respond quickly if demand returns suddenly and abundantly,
3. Procurement must provide sufficient unforeseen raw materials for enhanced production of certain foods.

These are quite big challenges, especially if one assumes that procurement needs to respond quickly in completely new working conditions. Procurement had to adjust its business overnight. those companies that that have implemented a digital transformation of business processes were at least ten steps ahead. Digital tools enabled them to communicate faster, work remotely without physical contact, access to data and documentation, quickly circulate information.

Cloud solutions make it possible to do the job in a corona crisis

In a series of comments on social networks, we highlight the statement: Today, only those in Cloud can work. And that’s true – when physical contact and freedom of movement are disabled, the fact is that only they can work. Cloud solutions have made it possible to work from anywhere without physical contact and the need for paperwork.

Thanks to Cloud, all Ensolva customers do their job without interruption. Even before measures for reducing spread of corona viruses were taken, the Ensolva team prepared for smooth work from home and helped our users with moving offices to a home environment. For the last two months, Ensolva has been doing all the daily procurement tasks without downtime:

– Purchase requests are collected with all the necessary information and exact specification

– Looking for new suppliers

– Conducts rapid collection of information (on supply options, delivery times, payment delays)

– Tenders are quickly created and implemented

– Conducts auctions

– Offers open in a virtual environment

– Create and send purchase orders

Digitization of procurement is essential

All of the above confirms the fact that it is impossible to perform business tasks properly today if employees do not have the appropriate specialized tools. A survey of WBR Insights and Mintec among 200 heads of procurement found that most companies use digital solutions: 38% had automated systems, while 47% were using self-service portals, and 17% were manual. The most important elements of a digital procurement platform are price forecasts, buyer negotiation aids and analysis/market insights. Many ERP systems have procurement modules that put purchasing professionals in trouble. These are not specialized solutions that support the procurement process.

We expect that the recovery of the world economy will vary by country. Economies that have a poorer digitalization strategy and lower awareness of the importance of business digitalization will develop more slowly.

What about when the crises passes?

This is the right time to plan your business process reorganization, find the solution and take the first steps. Once things are back up, secure your business with the latest technology trends and find trusted partners and the right solutions for your business.

RIS is an example of a technologically well-equipped company that has completely computerized business processes in the Cloud. It is understandable that this is expected of us, but our software solutions, in the ENSOLVA order can be applied and adapted to different profiles of business organizations. All it takes is a goodwill and an IT partner who knows what he’s doing.