On the show floor: Buying tools that enable strategy
By Staff -- Purchasing, 6/4/1998 2:00:00 AM
At napm's 83rd Annual International Purchasing Conference & Educational Exhibit in Dallas, Texas, there were more than 100 suppliers on the show floor exhibiting a host of tools to help reduce costs of MRO (maintenance, repair, and operating) buying--procurement cards, electronic catalog ordering systems, purchasing software, and national account programs (for office and general industrial supplies).
Developed to help free up resources so that buyers can do what they do best--negotiate agreements and manage supplier performance--these tools have applications at small as well as large companies. Suppliers have tailored their offerings to buyers with responsibility for single plant sites or multinational companies.
At its booth, for instance, American Express announced that it is now making its procurement-card product available to the "middle market," plant locations with about $100 million in annual sales. In the past, AmEx had been targeting companies with annual sales of more than $1 billion.
In meetings with attendees, representatives of Visa detailed success of an internal program piloting use of its procurement card to pay for the MRO items that internal customers buy through Ariba Technologies' Operating Resource Management System. Results of the pilot show that purchases of computer hardware that once took three business days to complete can now be accomplished in about 32 seconds, while administrative costs are reduced by 50%. On the payment end, the cards enable Visa to eliminate five steps associated with processing invoices and related payments. Based on this success, Visa has expanded its program to all employees company-wide.
MasterCard released results of a survey it conducted with First Chicago that show 64% of respondents find value in having one card combining the functions of purchasing, fleet, and T&E cards. Respondents list utilities and services as the expenses they would most like to pay for with their cards. MasterCard corporate programs are designed to provide customers with flexibility of having a separate purchasing, fleet, and T&E card, or all three in one card product. Fifty-seven percent of respondents say cards are a key part of their daily operation. More than half say they've restructured their purchasing departments as a result of a card program, yet just 45% have a process in place to measure savings from card use.
Intelisys announced that Boise Cascade Office Products will provide Chase Manhattan Bank with OBI (Open Buying on the Internet) enabled access to its Web-based electronic catalog, IEC-Enterprise. IEC-Enterprise is an intranet-based MRO buying system. Using IEC-Enterprise, users can order supplies directly from the catalogs of contracted suppliers, without the purchasing operation having to maintain catalog data. Completed purchase requisitions are sent through the company intranet and approved, then sent securely over the Internet to designated suppliers. IEC-Enterprise includes online order tracking, administrative controls, management reporting, and multiple payment options.
American Tech has made available version 1.5 of its PurchasingNet-SQL software. PurchasingNet-SQL is an enterprise purchasing and requisitioning system deployable with a browser or Windows interface. Requisitioning software allows employees to generate reqs from a corporate catalog or in free-form mode. A catalog can be established using the company's "Catalog Junction" software which allows connectivity to an unlimited number of supplier catalogs with differing data formats. Once created, reqs are routed through the organization for the appropriate approvals using the PurchasingNet-SQL workflow engine. Through pre-built database queries, end users can determine the status of reqs, approvals, and POs. Advanced features include direct ordering which allows designated people outside purchasing to place orders directly with suppliers via their browsers.
Elkom Systems demonstrated version 2.0 of its pecos Procurement Manager, an Internet-based automated procurement software system (PUR: Oct. 23, '97, pp. 79-81). The company has improved the navigation features of the browser-based user interface and added such capabilities as catalog access controls, multiple line item account splitting, on-screen savings calculations, and enhancements to the administrative system.
Paymentech used the show to launch its Internet reporting system for its purchasing, corporate, and fleet card customers. Called PaymentNet, the new service provides password protected secure access to card activity data. With PaymentNet, purchasing can establish parameters for data access, including different query definitions, multiple simultaneous users, and cost allocation interfaces to their accounting systems. System's reporting speeds data delivery compared to downloading complex file formats that slow internal systems and require programming to edit.
Modeled in look and feel after the nearly 100-year-old Thomas Register print edition, Thomas Register on the Internet was the focus of the publishing company's booth, which had demonstrations of a CD-ROM version as well. New design helps users navigate through the site, which lists more than 155,000 U.S. and Canadian manufacturers. New searching mechanisms provide quicker access to company listing features, such as online catalogs, literature by fax, e-mail address, and Web sites. Redesign of the search function also provides an improved comparative display of search results, including descriptions of the products and services offered by particular suppliers. In addition, users may modify their search results by multiple U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
Dun & Bradstreet released at the show D&B Supplier MarketPlace, a new software package that allows purchasing professionals to locate new suppliers, including minority, women-, 8A, and veteran-owned businesses, from among D&B's database of more than 10 million U.S. suppliers. Updated quarterly, the software lets users customize a sourcing search right from their desktops. Suppliers can be targeted using such criteria as type and size of business, location, socioeconomic status, number of years in business, annual sales, ownership type, whether the company is involved in import/export, and legal status. In addition, the software has capability to screen suppliers, create lists of prospects, produce counts, and print mailing labels based on specified criteria.
The National Energy Team (NET), a peco energy company, highlighted its energy consulting and procurement capabilities, which it provides to purchasing managers in both regulated and unregulated markets for electrici-ty, natural gas, and fuels. These include: energy procurement & management; energy supply consulting services; and consolidated billing and reporting services. The largest buying agent for competitive retail electricity and energy services in Pa., the NET also provides procurement services for facilities located throughout the U.S.
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