Introduction to Zoho Creator Procurement
Procurement is a constructive method used to streamline an organization’s procurement process in and out to achieve desired results while saving money, managing time, and establishing collaborative supplier relationships.
The purpose of procurement is to ensure that required supplies are available at the right time, at the right price and meets the needs of the company.
Role of Procurement in Supply Chain Management:
In simple terms, Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a practice to manage the flow of goods, data, and finances related to a product or service, from the procurement of raw materials to the delivery of the product at its final destination.
Procurement is an important part of supply chain management. The role of procurement in supply chain management function involves the identification and acquisition of goods and services needed to support business operations. It helps to ensure that the right products are available at the right time and in the correct quantity.
Although procuring and purchasing are similar, it's important to know the difference between them when it comes to the SCM sphere
Steps involved in Procurement Process
This is the process of managing all stages involved in a procurement lifecycle—acquiring products, reviewing requests, creating purchase orders, bidding vendors, raising invoices, and managing contracts.
It involves a few stages depending upon the organization's unique processes. Generally, there are eight stages:
➤ Requirement gathering
➤ Creating a purchase request
➤ Choosing vendors based on bidding
➤ Creating purchase orders
➤ Validating received orders
➤ Approving the invoice
➤ Making payments
➤ Managing contracts and records
Traditionally, the approach to handle the entire procurement process involved manual functions, heavy paperwork, phone calls, and other difficulties. However, looking at the digital transformation the world has undergone has its own impact on procurement. Choosing to deal with procurement digitally enables you to look at it in a more strategic and effective way.
Challenges in procurement process
Below are some of the common challenges faced in the procurement sector and how our procurement solution can help solve them.
Supplier Communication:
Unstructured supplier communication is one of the main issues that companies face due to having to deal with multiple suppliers for quotations. A centralized place for buyers and suppliers to engage in productive communication can establish them to collaborate better.
Unnecessary Spending:
Procurement on the whole may involve multiple stakeholders to procure as per their requirements. To facilitate this without unnecessary spending, approval processes are established that sometimes may be bypassed by the employees resulting in higher costs, inconsistent quality, and missed savings opportunities.
Manual Process:
Manually handling procurement requests, approvals and invoices can be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to errors, impacting productivity and increasing the chances of inaccuracies.
Minimal visibility:
Limited or no visibility on supplier tracking, procurement spending, and analyzing expenses can lead to a dead end during cost-cutting and strategic-decision-making.
Compliance:
Compliance maintenance is critical as it involves integral aspects of procurement such as compliance with internal policies, legal requirements and supplier agreements. This has to be managed well in order to mitigate high risks, supplier non-compliance and data breaches, which can be challenging and time-sensitive at times.
Using technology to optimize and automate processes and workflows helps an organization to improve the way they do things. Many prefer Software as a Service (SaaS) models as a digital solution, as it makes their life easier because it do not need significant preparation of data or systems, requires no or light integration, and can still produce results within days or weeks.
When it comes to procurement, having procurement software can be a boon to your business, as it aids with systematizing purchasing functions and the overall procurement process. By automating tasks like data entry, purchase order generation, and invoice processing, businesses can save time and money, and reduce errors.
Introducing Procurement by Zoho Creator
Overview
Procurement by Zoho Creator is a unified solution developed to fulfill procurement management needs seamlessly. It helps to digitize unique processes from requisition to tracking, and to manage every step of the procurement lifecycle, all under one roof.
By automating tasks like data entry, purchase order generation, and invoice processing, businesses can save time and money, and reduce errors.
Rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, you can customize your procurement solution to suit the needs of your customers as well as your organization. Zoho Creator comes equipped to deliver you that bespoke customer experience solution.
Benefits
This comprehensive solution for your business needs comes with the following benefits to overcome the challenges discussed above:
Centralize: Streamline your entire procurement process, from requisition to payment, on one integrated platform.
- Centralized repository - With all stakeholder information stored in the cloud, you no longer have to rummage through hoards of spreadsheets to search manually and enter data. Store and organize vendor profiles, contracts, and documents in a unified location, enabling streamlined access and collaboration.
Automate: Automate repetitive tasks, such as creating purchase orders and sending out purchase order emails, saving you time and reducing errors.
- Digitized POs - With just a single click, effortlessly generate purchase orders and order confirmations from PRs, or create them from scratch in minutes.
- Simplified PRs - Easily create procurement requests and automate routing of PR for required approval.
Secure: Implement a robust approval workflow, ensuring that all purchases are approved by the right people before they're made.
- Multilevel approvals - You can route requests to the relevant stakeholders based on predefined criteria. Gain transparency and visibility into the approval process, track progress, identify bottlenecks, and take timely action.
Oversee: Manage your vendors and contracts more effectively, giving you greater visibility and control over your procurement.
- Vendor portals - Select, onboard, and evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, and monitor performance within a centralized platform.
Control: Track your spending in real time, giving you a clear picture of your procurement budget and allowing you to make informed decisions.
- GRNs - Easily verify the quality and quantity of supplies, making sure they meet the requirements and avoiding any potential disagreements.
- Accelerate payments - Track invoices and supplier payments, enabling better visibility.
- Deep analytics - Gain valuable insights into your procurement lifecycle, optimize strategies, and make informed decisions.
Use Cases
Manufacturing Company:
A manufacturing company procures raw materials, components, and the equipment necessary for production. For example, an automobile manufacturer procures steel, tires, and electronic components.
Transportation Company:
Transportation companies, such as airlines or shipping companies, procure vehicles, fuel, maintenance services, and logistical support.
Healthcare Facility:
Hospitals and healthcare facilities procure medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and supplies. For instance, they might source MRI machines, surgical instruments, and bandages.
Flow
Highlights
More than just procurement software, it’s an end-to-end digitization platform.
➤ Customizable modules:
There may be times when you have a new process implemented, and it might require a unique module. You can leverage Creator’s capabilities to create specific fields and workflows, modify user controls, customize extensions, and utilize APIs for individual modules—all on top of the existing app, without any hassle.
➤ Seamless data migration:
Zoho Creator’s enterprise-grade data management capabilities assure easy data import, transformation, maintenance. Secured with encryption, cloud-based backups, and easy integrations, data migration from legacy applications is a breeze, keeping your data quality intact.
➤ Cloud-based:
A cloud-based procurement offers fast implementation, better collaboration, and increased uptime at significantly lower costs and zero fixed capital. This lets you focus better on your key competencies, leaving behind maintenance and security woes to our experts. Our fully owned, fully encrypted data centers offer 99.9% uptime and complete protection from data risks.
➤ Budget management:
Take control of your budget and make smarter decisions. Streamline your procurement process with dynamic approval workflows and clearly defined spending authority, ensuring efficient purchasing. Benefit from automated spend monitoring and proactive alerts to detect potential financial risks in advance and take timely actions. Customize your approvals and gain transparent insights into spending, enabling proactive decision-making.
FAQs
What is Procurement by Zoho Creator?
Procurement by Zoho Creator is a custom e-procurement management software to help streamline your unique processes. From requisition to tracking, you can manage every step of your procurement lifecycle with us seamlessly.
How will Procurement by Zoho Creator help my organization save time and money?
By automating tasks such as data entry, purchase order generation, and invoice processing, businesses can save time and money, and reduce errors. Rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, you can customize your procurement solution to suit the needs of your customers as well as your organization. Procurement comes equipped to deliver you that bespoke customer experience solution.
What is procurement management?
The process of managing all the stages involved in a procurement lifecycle—acquiring products, reviewing requests, creating purchase orders, bidding vendors, raising invoices, and managing contracts—is called procurement management.
What is an ERP system in procurement?
ERP is a part of the procurement process. It constitutes the management of all business processes and information, across functions and services, in a centralized and integrated manner. Though initially conceived for managing material procurement and inventory in the manufacturing sector of the 1960s, ERP systems have evolved rapidly to be integral to business operations, across all industries and sectors.
Can I get a free trial of the product?
Yes, we have a 14 day free trial that you can sign up for.
How does the 14 day free trial work?
Once you sign up for the trial, you can access all the procurement process's features free for 14 days. Once the 14-day fully featured trial expires, you may reach out to us to learn more about further payment and subscription options.
Does the free trial have a default plan?
With the trial plan, you can access all the procurement process's features. This will help you understand the ins and outs of the product before signing up.
What happens after my trial ends?
Once the 14-day fully featured trial expires, you can reach out to us to learn more about further payment and subscription options.
How safe is my data?
Zoho Creator ensures the logical separation of one customer's data from another's. Data retention and backup happens in a secure manner. All customer data is stored in data centers in multiple geographic locations to ensure security and high availability. Zoho is ISO 27001/27017/27018 certified and SOC 2 compliant.
Are you GDPR compliant?
Zoho is ISO 27001/27017/27018 certified and SOC 2 compliant
Is Procurement by Zoho Creator included in Zoho One?
No, it is stand-alone procurement software.
Can I get a demo of Procurement by Zoho Creator?
Yes, you can request a demo by filling out this form.
What are my payment options?
We accept payment via Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and PayPal. We also accept payment via bank transfer or check transfer for yearly subscriptions.
How do I reach your support team?
You can write to us at procurement-support@zohocreator.com.
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