Analyzing & Evaluating Impact of E-Procurement and Information Sharing on Managing Effective Supplier Relationships

Abstract

SCM is managing efficient flow of goods and services from point of production till point of consumption. E-procurement is the B-2-B or B-2-C or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work, and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as electronic data interchange and enterprise resource planning. The eprocurement value chain consists of indent management, e-Informing, e-Tendering, e- Auctioning, vendor management, catalogue management, Purchase Order Integration, Order Status, Ship Notice, e-invoicing, e-payment, and contract management. Indent management is the workflow involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual procuring departments defining their indenting process. In works procurement, administrative approval and technical sanction are obtained in electronic format. In goods procurement, indent generation activity is done online. This research paper elaborates the impact of information sharing and e-procurement on managing effective supplier relationships. Cement industry of Pakistan has adopted eprocurement practices to lower their paper work cost. E-procurement practices are enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness in respective arear of supply network.Information flow, information quality, and e-procurement shows strong positive impact on building and sustaining long-term supplier relationships to integrate and speedup value chain activities. All activities in eprocurement including e-design, e-sourcing, e-negotiation, and e-evaluation are exhibiting strong positive relationship on suppliers. In SC networks all upstream and downstream activities should be integrated and agile to meet rapid responses from both the supplier side as well as from consumer side. This leads towards organizational growth, profit maximization as well as building long-term customer relationships.