E-Sourcing Gains in Popularity as a RFx Tool
E-Sourcing Gains in Popularity as a RFx Tool
Among the multiple systems companies throughout the world use to procure products, e-sourcing showed the largest gains as an area where companies are making technology investments for a new RFx tool.
Companies worldwide are increasing their use of Internet-based technology systems to find the best suppliers, products and prices, according to a new report from Zycus Inc., a provider of e-procurement and related software. Among those systems, e-sourcing is showing the most significant increase in popularity as a RFx tool.
“Looking at investment interest by major procurement technology category, e-sourcing shows the largest increase from 2012 with the percentage [of companies] already using the technology or planning to invest” in it, Zycus says in the report, “Pulse of Procurement 2014.” The report was based on a January survey of more than 300 procurement executives and professionals worldwide, at companies ranging in annual revenue from less than $500 million to more than $5 billion.
The report notes that more than 75% of respondents in January 2014 were either already using e-sourcing or planning to use it in the future, up from 65% in 2012.
But there are still many companies that have no intention of implementing e-sourcing, the report says. More than a fifth of respondents, in fact, say they have no plans to deploy e-sourcing, procure-to-pay or procurement management systems as a form of a RFx tool.
The report cites the most widely used systems as spend analysis, which is used to ensure accuracy in product pricing and payment data and compliance with spending plans; and contract management, which monitors supplier performance and is used to check that contracts are handled according to terms agreed to by buyers and sellers.
