Construction Information Technology Blog
Like so many things it depends who you ask. For some it refers to the entire workflow from the moment a need is identified through to the final payment and warranty administration for a service or item. Others describe it as online sourcing and purchasing of items from a catalogue. Wikipedia says: “E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work, and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as electronic data interchange and enterprise resource planning.
Elements of e-procurement include request for information, request for proposal, request for quotation, RFx (the previous three together), and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects).
Purchase-to-pay, often abbreviated to P2P and also called req to cheque, refers to the business processes that cover activities of requesting (requisitioning), purchasing, receiving, paying for and accounting for goods and services. Also commonly referred to as procure-to-pay.”
In this Blog the term e-Procurement is used to describe the workflows that relate to the external (Vendor and Contractor) facing processes required to purchase goods, services or construction over the internet.
In this very simplified description of the procurement process, the externally facing activities (elements 4, 5, 6) and the interface (element 3 and 7) between those and the internally facing activities are the areas that our software and services streamline.