E-procurement adoptions progress slowly and steadily
David Hannon -- Purchasing, 6/20/2002
The results of PURCHASING's 2002 Benchmark E-procurement Survey show buyers creeping along in e-procurement plans, compared to the plans revealed in a 2000 survey. E-procurement software providers are still touting new customers with great fanfare, but there are no major leaps revealed in this year's poll, likely due to the change in economic conditions between 2000 and 2002. But buyers are showing increased interest in specific tools such as online reverse auction technology, online design/collaboration systems and good old EDI.
The number of buyers using the Internet in their jobs has yet to crack the 90% barrier, increasing from 87% in 2000 to 89% in 2002. Today 96% of purchasing professionals have access to the Internet at work.
The use of e-sourcing tools is slowly creeping up, but not to the levels that most sourcing technology providers would likely prefer. Use of online collaboration with suppliers is growing most rapidly, jumping from 10% to 21% in under two years. Big jumps come also in the areas of buyer-controlled reverse auctions where the percent of users jumps from 6% to 15%. Use of extranets seems to be on the declines according to the survey.
| % Using Today | 2000 | |
| Tools for supply base/strategic sourcing research | 60% | 66% |
| Supplier directories/databases | 74% | 73% |
| Commerce-enabled extranets with select suppliers | 23% | 25% |
| Demand aggregation with other companies | 9% | 6% |
| E-RFQs | 34% | 30% |
| EDI | 38% | 32% |
| E-matching (nasdaq-style) | 8% | 4% |
| E-auction (reverse, buyer controls) | 15% | 6% |
| E-auction (forward, seller controls) | 8% | 6% |
| E-auction (real time) | 11% | 9% |
| E-auction (not real time) | 6% | 4% |
| E-collaboration with suppliers | 21% | 10% |
| Supplier-hosted Web storefronts | 57% | 56% |
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or will use tools outside the firewall for both critical and noncritical buys, while 37%-38% said they would not use tools outside the firewall. The 2002 survey showed a decline in the percent in favor of hosted tools, with 38% of buyers saying they are in favor of using hosted procurement tools for nonproduction buying, while 33% use or will use them in procurement of production materials. The shift is a sign that private trading networks are taking hold, which corresponds with what market watchers are seeing as well as some of the new product and service offerings from providers.
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