E-Procurement

While strategic procurement and supply chain function had evolved to achieve a level of complexity that was deemed favourable for global value chains, much of the complexity was not fashioned to withstand global supply chain disruptions. Long hailed strategic procurement and supply chain practices as effective and cost-efficient collapsed in the face of COVID-19, leaving massive global supply chain disruptions. This paper: (i)identifies strategic supply chain management practices that increased firms' vulnerability to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19; (ii) reports the performance of strategic supply chain management under COVID-19 pandemic; and, (iii) identifies how strategic supply chain management may be refined post-COVID-19. This was achieved through a systematic literature review where two keywords namely supply chain and supply chain resilience, were used to search for empirical studies published between 2020 and 2021. The search was conducted on PubMed Central, Google Scholar, Taylor and Francis. The initial search in all the databases yielded over 200,000 articles, but only 125 articles containing at least the two keywords in the title were selected. Out of 125, only 69 were retained after eliminating duplicates, systematic literature reviews and articles not available in full text to the authors. A thorough review of the title and abstract was done on the 69 retained, and 21 articles were excluded based on title, while 25 on the abstract, leaving 23 articles. The remaining 23 articles were read in full and 21 articles selected due to their ability to answer the predetermined research questions. Four industry reports searched on google were also involved, leading to a total of 25 articles systematically reviewed. The findings indicate that post-COVID-19, firms are likely to embrace supply chain management practices that enhance resiliency over efficiency. As such, just-in-time may be replaced by just-in-case practices such as redundant inventory, extra production capacity, and multiple sourcing among others. Therefore, the study recommends that in the post-COVID-19 pandemic, companies should seek to balance efficiency with resiliency, rather than trading off one over the other.

In today’s highly competitive environment, business entities are forced to enhance efficiency by cutting down wasteful expenditure. This involves manpower and process optimization and cost reduction by realigning business processes to take advantage of technology. A lot of effort has been put in by the industry and government entities to automate/e-enable their processes pertaining to line and staff functions. Procurement is one such area which has seen rapid computerization. Against the backdrop of the prevailing corruption and inordinate delay in public procurements in India, e-procurement implementation becomes important. Shift from manual procurement to e-procurement has inherent benefits such as efficiency, effectiveness and transparency which have been validated in numerous studies. Studies on e-procurement implementation best practices are limited in scope and therefore lack specificity to the Indian context and public procurement policies. Difference in the enabling environment like IT infrastructure, internet penetration and IT literacy are hurdles to implementation of these practices in the Indian context. Therefore, specific e-procurement implementation of best practices specific to the Indian context needs to be evolved. On the basis of India: e-Readiness Report 2008, the e-procurement implementation by the Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were selected as candidates for the qualitative case study. Qualitative and comparative analyses of the selected case studies were carried out using template analysis. The study brings out the impediments to successful implementation of e-procurement solutions specific to the Indian context, and thereafter covers the best practices.

The objective of this study was to enhance the careers of women in Ghanaian Organizations.
The study did indicate that career women face several challenges in the pursuit of their chosen professions, notable among such challenges being discrimination. It seems, we have not totally rid our mindset off the ancient and traditional perception that the woman is best at being a reproductive agent and caretaker of the home. The study further found out that for a career woman to be able to succeed, there is the need to plan their career from the onset and to also look out for an understanding partner. But, not all respondents agreed to this assertion. But 100% of the respondents did indicate that they believe legislative provisions that seek to protect women and for that matter the career women are not adequate. It is therefore recommended that government and stakeholders make an effort to resolve the situation as it stands and for families to appreciate the dynamic role of the woman of the 21st Century.

ABSTRACT
Procurement strategically over time has played a dominant role in the
world’s business structure, and as such should be considered a priority in the
management of every organisation. The competitiveness of the global market has
pressurised most organisations to adopt advanced technologies in minimising
waste to maximise profit in the long run. In the absence of clear procurement
strategies and policies, organisations are not necessarily able to assess the
economic risks involved in any tendering, procurement and contracting processes,
no matter how low the risks that are involved. This paper provides a review of
strategic procurement through focusing on procurement strategies, purchasing,
procurement forms and methods, buyer-supplier relationship, supplier selection,
procurement types, procurement relationship in industry, and the sourcing team.
KEYWORDS: strategic procurement, purchasing, supply-chain management

The 21st century has seen migration of many governance functions and services to Internet. The terms like e-Governance and m-Governance are no more unfamiliar words but are political reality. The adoption of e-procurement by government entities to optimise and economise public procurements has been the buzzword of transparent governance. In fact e-procurement has been touted as panacea for corruption and bureaucratic red-tapism. Literature is replete with studies which underline numerous benefits of migration of procurement functions to Internet. However, e-Government procurement has not taken off in India through it is an Integrated Mission Mode Project as a part of National e-Governance Project (NeGP) launched by Govt of India in 2006. A recent review of the e-procurement implementation by DIT, Ministry of Communication & IT brought out that the progress e-procurement project implementation has been dismal. In this backdrop, we undertook study of contemporary research literature to identify Critical Success Factors for e-procurement project implementation. The research methodology followed included analysis based on an elaborate study of e-procurement literature, pertinent government orders and multinational/ international agreements to identify Critical Success Factors. The study concludes that existing literature indicates flat nature of CSF i.e. there is no relation with the stage of e-GP implementation vs significance of a CSF. Therefore, existing CSFs and their study models do not aid managerial decision making by project managers. Finally, the paper brings out research gaps and suggests direction for future research for making e-GP a success in India.

Tahun 1970-an, perusahaan cenderung menilai bahwa bagian pengadaan memiliki peran pasif dalam organisasi bisnis, dan pada dasarnya adalah kegiatan administratif dan tidak memiliki banyak muatan strategis Dalam Manajemen Pengadaan terdapat sebuah aplikasi pendukung proses administrasi, aplikasi tersebut disebut E –
Procurement. E – Procurement merupakan sebuah aplikasi Internet untuk keperluan proses pengadaan. Dengan Internet perusahaan bisa mengirim Request For Quotation dan Purchase Order ke supplier, melakukan lelang secara elecktronik (online) membagi informasi- informasi yang kritis, dan sebagainya. E-procurement atau disebut juga
sebagai Sistem Pengadaan Secara Elektronik (SPSE) merupakan sistem pengadaan barang atau jasa dengan menggunakan media elektronik seperti internet atau jaringan komputer. Dengan adanya e-procurement, proses pengadaan barang/jasa menjadi lebih efektif, terbuka, bersaing, adil akuntabel, meningkatkan transparansi, juga memberikan efisiensi yaitu dalam hal harga yang lebih rendah, biaya transaksi yang lebih murah, layanan publik yang lebih baik, dan siklus pengadaan yang lebih pendek. Dalam prakteknya, e-procurement mengurangi penggunaan
kertas, menghemat waktu dan mengurangi penggunaan tenaga kerja dalam prosesnya. Memang dibutuhkan investasi untuk menjalankan e-procurement. Akan memberikan profit jika diaplikasikan dengan benar dan menjalankan prinsip-prinsip e-procurement.

Eine weltweite B2B-Handelsplattform, die auch von Produzenten aus Industrienationen eingesetzt wird, hätte enorme Auswirkungen auf den Absatz- und Beschaffungsmarkt deutscher Unternehmen. Die Voraussetzung hierfür, wäre allerdings eine sehr gut lokalisierte und an den Zielmarkt angepasste Version der Plattform für jedes Land. Außerdem müsste eine solche Plattform optimal an vorhandene ERP-Systeme angebunden werden können und das Problem der Sprachbarrieren, insbesondere bei der Verhandlung und Vereinbarung von Konditionen und Lieferverträgen, lösen.
Grundsätzlich ist eine Disintermediation des Beschaffungsmarktes für deutsche Unternehmen zu begrüßen, denn daraus ergeben sich unter anderem Preisvorteile, kürzere Lieferzeiten und flexiblere Bestellzyklen. Allerdings spielt die individuelle Fertigung eine ebenso große Rolle im B2B-Handel, wie der Support und Service bei Fragen und Problemen, welche für eine internationale Plattform eine große Herausforderung darstellt. Wie eine reine Vermittlungsplattform und die ausländischen Unternehmen in Sachen Produkthaftung und Gewährleistung agieren würden, ist ebenfalls als unsicher einzustufen. Allerdings sind diese Effekte ohnehin als Teil der Globalisierung in weiten Bereichen der Wirtschaft angekommen eine Plattform wie Alibaba.com beschleunigt diesen Prozess höchstens noch.
Sehr nachteilig wäre eine derartige Plattform für reine Handelsunternehmen, die bislang davon leben, Waren vom Hersteller zu den Endkunden zu vermitteln. Die Anbieter selbst würden ebenfalls deutlich mehr Wettbewerb, Preistransparenz und Vergleichbarkeit erleben. So könnte beispielsweise ein deutsches Traditionsunternehmen wie Fischer Dübel auf der Plattform als der teuerste Anbieter wenig Aufträge anziehen und seine Stärken in Sachen Produktqualität und Innovationsfähigkeit kaum ausspielen.
Deutschland ist laut dem Wirtschaftswissenschaftler Prof. Dr. Gerrit Heinemann in einem Interview mit dem Handelsblatt nach wie vor ein digitales Entwicklungsland, insbesondere bei der digitalen Infrastruktur, bei der Deutschland auch in einem OECD-Vergleich schlecht abschneide. Wegen der hohen Wettbewerbsdichte und großen Marktmacht von Amazon, Google und Ebay lohne sich der Markteintritt für die Chinesen nicht. „Alibaba geht in die Wachstumsmärkte nach Afrika und Lateinamerika“, erklärt Prof. Dr. Heinemann weiter. Gerade durch das Business-to-Business-Geschäft habe sich Alibaba laut Prof. Dr. Heinemann einen Wettbewerbsvorteil erarbeitet. „Das ist ein Trend, den Amazon und Ebay lange Zeit vernachlässigt haben“.
Scott Kessler, Aktienanalyst bei S&P Capital IQ in New York, hält laut einem Zeit-Artikel eine Expansion in den nächsten Jahren ebenfalls für unrealistisch: „Alibaba ist ein Unternehmen, das sehr in der chinesischen Kultur und den chinesischen Strukturen verwachsen ist.“ Neben enormen Kapital- und Personalaufwendungen würde Alibaba einen langen Atem benötigen, um es mit Amazon oder Ebay, insbesondere in deren Heimat, aufzunehmen. Doch die Chinesen hätten grundsätzlich die nötige Geduld und das Selbstbewusstsein, glaubt S&P-Analyst Kessler: „China war schon einmal Technologieführer – auch wenn das ein paar Tausend Jahre her ist.“