aka Procure-to-Pay

What’s e-procurement?

Companies implement e-procurement systems (Ariba, Coupa, iValua, Jaggaer, Oracle, etc.) to automate their online purchasing processes, which allow their employees to feel empowered to place orders directly with suppliers on behalf of the company.With an e-procurement system’s configurable “approval workflow” engine, it ensures orders are within the companies purchasing policies, budgets, contracts and best practices – basically replacing the purchasing departments of yesteryear.

In addition to that, there are multiple benefits to using an e-procurement system, including:

- lower costs,
- better data analysis,
- fewer errors and exceptions,
- less inventory
- and better pricing.

But for an e-procurement system to pay off, for both the buying organization and the suppliers, both need to be involved. More specifically, they need to be integrated into the e-procurement system and processes. That’s where PunchOut fits in – it basically puts supplier’s online web stores directly onto the e-procurement system user’s desktop.