Software as a service (SaaS) is revolutionising how businesses go about sourcing goods and services.

An e-Request for Proposal invites detailed responses from suppliers, allowing them to propose their own solutions to meet a buyer’s needs.

Central to seamless and successful implementation of e-procurement software are two groups of users: employees and suppliers.

An e-Request for Tender is commonly used to run a formal procurement tender in the public sphere, but can be used in the private sector too.

Most of the time, an e-Request for Information is used at the start of the procurement cycle, to conduct pre-tender market research or set up continual innovation capture.

A clear financial rationale should be in place before the decision is taken to automate the procurement function. Establishing this helps to allay doubts that employees may be having, and allows decision makers to view the projected cost savings of an e-procurement solution when set against its cost.

An e-Request for Quotation is used to gather prices from suppliers, based on a buyer’s precise idea of what they’d like the market to provide.