Because business users are people too – soft implementation of e-procurement

When it comes to their work life, most people are creatures of habit. A sudden or poorly implemented new software system for instance, will always encounter resistance. Change is perceived as a threat or an additional workload. This is a phenomenon that is particularly well documented in the e-procurement sphere – 28% of respondents to this Aberdeen Group survey indicated that employee reluctance to use the system was the number one pressure on their e-procurement activity.

Any implementation of e-procurement should make an inviolable financial case in the planning stage. Employees need to be convinced that lower transaction costs, reduced supplier pricing and greater spend management are achievable, and by how much. But hard numbers will not win everyone over. Users need to warm to the new procurement system, and here are a few suggestions on how to achieve this:

Consultation: Involve users in the planning stage by inviting discussion. This is an excellent way to generate goodwill and ideas regarding implementation. For instance, participants might be invited to suggest the strategic activities that they want to implement with the time saved from reduced paperwork.

Be a champion: As a team leader or manager, there’s no better way to inspire enthusiasm than to engage with the system. You can also ensure immediate participation by assigning roles and responsibilities – SourceDogg training will have you up and running in hours.

Emphasise the usability: e-Procurement should make life easier. It sounds obvious but too often this message is forgotten by developers and users of software. Here at SourceDogg we always strive to develop an application that is highly intuitive and easy-to-use, with no concession of capacity to run complex sourcing projects.

Monitor performance: The success of e-procurement or any software implementation depends upon on-going monitoring until adoption is fully achieved. How much time is saved on sourcing tasks, how much costs are saved, etc. SourceDogg Support is always on hand if you are unsure about any aspect of the application.

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