An e-Procurement solution offers a path to productivity improvements and cost savings with regard to the procure-to-pay (P2P) process, approval workflow and transactions processing, said Hills.

“Such an approach can yield a cost effective result because an organisation can deploy solutions in line with its analysis and support requirements with minimal burden to its internal IT and supplier management processes,” she added.

A fully enabled e-Procurement solution provides access to up-to-date supplier profile information. Suppliers are adopted through a centralised supplier database, and are converted from fax to electronic trading in order of priority, based on their purchase order volume. The solution will connect to thousands of suppliers hosted in a Supplier Network located in metropolitan, rural and developing environments around the globe.

Such a programme could very quickly have an organisation transacting with a large percentage of their vendor base via the “marketplace” and offers visibility of the best negotiated items and pricing across the organisation.

Suppliers are continuously added to this network, thereby increasing an organisation’s options and aiding its expansion in the market.

The value of e-Procurement supplier networks is being acknowledged by the industry. Quadrem was highlighted in Inc. Magazine and Red Herring Magazine for its work with small suppliers in Africa and its support of local buyers who are meeting Black Economic Empowerment requirements. “Quadrem has also implemented supplier programmes that have successfully engaged thousands of suppliers in Asia and South America,” said Hills.

An organisation’s objectives can be served by supporting the establishment of a single channel to its suppliers through Quadrem’s Procure-to-Pay electronic transaction solution, ‘SupplyCentre™.’

Quadrem is positioned to automate, standardise and manage the connection between buyers and suppliers, and enables a buyer’s ERP to integrate directly with a supplier’s ERP where large suppliers handle greater than 100 transactions per month.

Quadrem hosted supplier portals offer electronic enablement of suppliers that handle less than 100 transactions a month. SupplyCentre™ is a Quadrem-hosted web enabled application used by 80 to 90 percent of Quadrem’s supplier membership population to process their procurement transaction documents. Suppliers can view purchase orders in the supplier portal, send order responses and receive Goods Receipt Notes from buyers. They can also “flip” fulfilled purchase orders into electronic invoices and send them to the buying organisation.