Welcome to the second instalment of our procurement marketplace blog series—a series that will teach your procurement team everything you need to know about procure-to-pay marketplaces and how you can transform your agency and empower your employees with access to a marketplace platform.
Here, we discuss how you can bridge the gap between achieving on-contract spend in your procurement process while mobilizing organization staff to take pressure off your procurement team.
Achieving On-Contract Spend while Mobilizing Staff
With increasing pressure to drive down costs and improve efficiency, public procurement departments are constantly looking for ways to streamline their processes. Enter procurement marketplaces—online platforms that connect shoppers with suppliers, enabling organizations to access a wide range of products and services from multiple vendors in one place.
The benefits of using procurement marketplaces go beyond just convenience and access to a list of all your approved vendors. They can also bridge the gap between conducting on-contract spend and mobilizing staff as shoppers— two important aspects of procurement.
Simplifying the Procurement Process
Procurement marketplaces offer a single, centralized platform for key procurement activities, making it easier for your organization’s staff to purchase from approved contracts. Instead of navigating through multiple supplier punchout sites, sifting through spreadsheets of supplier information, and manually comparing products and prices, employees can simply log into the marketplace and shop everything they need— including physical goods and services. This not only saves time but also helps staff identify contracted suppliers within the system, preventing off-contract spend that even the most well-intentioned shopper can make.
Honest mistakes happen— sometimes from circumstances such as staff bookmarking their favorite supplier’s punchout store. This practice, while convenient, can unintentionally lead to using outdated information. Over time, contracts expire or terms change, but these bookmarks remain static, pointing to documents that no longer reflect active agreements. This can cause staff to unknowingly violate procurement policies by using suppliers outside of the current contracted terms.
Encouraging Employee Participation
By simplifying the purchasing process, marketplaces make it easier for employees to be more self-sufficient in purchasing activities. This is particularly beneficial for procurement teams overwhelmed by purchase requests or that have low visibility into their spend. With a marketplace, employees can browse and purchase items that are compliant with the agency’s procurement regulations within their allocated budgets, without placing unnecessary burden the procurement department. This not only speeds up the buying process but also frees up your procurement staff to focus on more strategic tasks.
Leveraging Data for Better Decision-Making
Procurement marketplaces capture valuable data related to purchasing activities, providing insights into your organization’s spending patterns and supplier performance. Using this data, your procurement team can identify opportunities for contract renegotiation and make more informed decisions around vendor contracts in general. By bridging the gap between on-contract spend and mobilizing staff as shoppers, marketplaces make sure all procurement activities are recorded in one place, creating a complete view of your organization’s purchasing landscape.
Encouraging Collaboration and Compliance
With a centralized platform for all procurement activities, marketplaces help connect departments and ensure compliance with purchasing policies. Organization staff can easily work together without burdening the procurement team or violating contract terms. This not only improves efficiency but also ensures that organizations are getting the best value for their money since all approved suppliers and pre-negotiated prices are a click away.
Specifically in the Euna Procurement marketplace solution, organizations can choose to funnel approvals through your procurement department before checkout to create an extra safeguard while still removing the bulk of the tedious work from your team.
Mobilize Your Staff and Achieve On-Contract Spend Through Euna Procurement
If you want to streamline your procurement processes, look no further than procurement marketplaces. By bridging the gap between on-contract spend and staff mobilization, marketplaces simplify the procurement process—encouraging employee participation, data-driven decision-making, collaboration, and compliance.
Learn how you can achieve these outcomes in your agency by requesting a demo today.