How can B2B tools help the purchasing team? Well to begin with, B2B tools simply cut down on the time that the purchasing team have to spend sourcing items. This can now be done electronically which will ensure that there is a significant reduction in the time taken to process the whole purchasing transaction.
In a way the B2B tools offer businesses the opportunity to have an electronic marketplace. They can have a list of suppliers, a list of requirements and the two can be matched as and when required, without having to go through a long process of procurement. Obviously suppliers have to be approved and have to qualify to be on the list of suppliers, but once suppliers are then the whole process of procurement becomes more automated and therefore less time consuming.
This may not sound like a massive saving in terms of time, but when you consider that historically this had to be done by telephone, letter and emails, it ate up significant amounts of time, that had to be added to the finished product in terms of cost. Now the time saved results in more time for the purchasing team to be able to source goods at a really competitive price, so costs are constantly driven low.
Currently, the process is automated to a large extent and the supply chain becomes much more responsive to the needs of the purchasing team. This is important because the overall needs of the purchasing team need to be taken into account. It is not generally enough to have 100 items delivered on a specific date; the 100 items have to meet all quality control requirements.
Utilising B2B systems can ensure that these quality control requirements are built in to the procurement process, so the whole process of purchasing has quality built in as an integral part, therefore reducing the number of defects and returns.
Over the last 10 years B2B tools have become more sophisticated (and expensive to deploy). Any implementation requires close collaboration with existing supplier base – This obviously requires a great deal of trust between the supplier and the customer. With more and more businesses adopting standards based tools to do business and with the growth of industry portals to support trading (Exostar for example in the Defence and aerospace sector) B2B is no longer merely a tool for larger organizations. Indeed various tools and techniques (such as of strategic use of purchasing cards) offer a low risk, low cost introduction to B2B.
Collaboration with the supply chain has extended from the execution of orders into various aspects from forecasting through to VMI and inventory management – whilst businesses of all sizes see the benefits the growth in this sector will continue for years to come.