How to get internal support for a full Purchasing Software System

We’re positioning the Free-Procurement Project as free “Purchase Order software” for a bunch of reasons that I won’t go into here but the free version of SpendMap actually includes all 12 modules, including requisitioning, receiving, supplier invoice approval, even inventory control and asset management.

If all you want to do is automate your Purchase Orders, that’s fine – just stick with the Purchasing Module.  The functionality is compartmentalized, so you don’t need to use all features/modules if you don’t want to.

But if you’re up for it, you can use SpendMap to automate everything from initial requisition all the way through to the approval of the supplier’s invoice and integration with your Accounts Payable system.  This is commonly referred to as “req-to-check” or “purchase-to-pay” (P2P for short).

If you intend to branch out into these other optional areas, however, you should be prepared to present a business case to decision makers and other departments that will be affected, such as the folks in Accounts Payable, department managers who will be approving orders online, perhaps even end-user staff members (requisitioners).

To help you get started building a business case, here’s a list of how e-procurement software can improve your business results at each step of the procurement process…

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Alternatives to using item catalogs

When our customers first see what can be done with the Item Master File (item catalog) in SpendMap, their first reaction is usually elation.  They love that they can put a list of approved items in front of their Requisitioners and Buyers, they love how most of the data entry goes away (item descriptions, pricing, account coding, etc. will default on new orders based on the selected item), and they love how they can run reports to get accurate spending history by part number.

But at some point the reality sets in and then comes the inevitable “You mean I have to set up all that item information?”.

So this post outlines some options for (and alternatives to) maintaining item catalogs in SpendMap.

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Requisitions vs. Purchase Orders

Week #2.

We’ve had a few questions about how to route Purchase Orders for approval.  In SpendMap, you don’t route POs for approval, you route Requisitions for approval.

But requisitions can then be converted into Purchase Orders automatically once they’re approved, so for all intents and purposes it’s the same thing. We just use the term “Requisition” to refer to the internal transaction that’s circulated for approval, while “Purchase Order” refers to the official order that goes to the supplier.

Many of you are coming from manual, paper-based environments, so you might be using the same piece if paper for both the internal approval process as well as placing the order with the supplier.  (more…)

First Things First

Launching the world’s first free e-procurement system got me thinking about “firsts”. Where does it all go?

If you’re going to automate your company’s purchasing and control your spending, you need a place to start. So for my first “real” blog post (so far, they’ve mostly been about the status of the project), I thought I’d point you in the right direction with a little piece of Purchasing 101.

Managing your company’s spending is just like managing your personal finances.  If you want to cut the waste and spend less, the best place to start is by just keeping track of your expenditures.

Even before you set yourself a budget or try to change your spending habits (that comes later), if all you do is keep track of where the money is going, somehow magically you will spend less. (this is well documented – I didn’t make it up)

In the business world, that means using Purchase Orders.  If you don’t start recording it, if you don’t have one place that everyone has to go before pulling out the check book or that corporate P-Card, there’s no way you will ever get to Step 2.

So if you’re not using Purchase Orders to track your spending, forget everything else for now and do just that.

Even something as basic as a Purchase Order form or an Excel template is better than nothing.  Better yet, download a free copy of SpendMap.  It’s way easier and you’ll get much better reporting so you’ll have the information you need to get to Step 2, whatever that may be.

Do you have any other tips or tricks that you can share with our readers?  If so, please add a comment, below.

Your Free Purchase Order Software is Here

Did you hear the “pop”?  That was us celebrating the arrival of the world’s first free e-procurement system.

You can download your copy here.

We’ve tried to predict your questions and we put that knowledge into the online help system and the first round of tutorial videos.  But we aren’t expecting to hit a home run right out of the gate, so please send us your feedback and let us know what else we can do to help.

And don’t forget to sign up for this Blog.  As we add to the software and our library of tutorials or other resources, we’ll be making blog posts to let you know that there’s something new to help.  If you don’t follow the blog, you won’t find out about the new stuff.

Thanks again for trying the free version of SpendMap!

Support System Now Online

The new support system is now online, so you can get free support for your free software.

I know, I know, you need the software before you need support.  We’re almost there.  Just working through a couple issues with the installer program, to make it as easy as possible for everyone to get the system up and running.

So in the meantime, while our developers are putting the bow on the package, the rest of us have had an opportunity to tie up some loose ends, like the new support system, finishing up a couple sections of the Online Help, and so on.

So the whole package will be a bit more polished, which I think you’ll all appreciate.

Hang in there everyone…we’re very close.

Starting to get the word out on free Purchase Order software

Reaching out to a handful of people who showed interest in our web-based product but who didn’t have an appetite for our enterprise pricing.  Hoping some will sign up for the blog, as a sort of preregistration list for when the software is ready to download in the next week or two.

Sure feels nice to be the bearer of good news!

 

In the Home Stretch

Getting ready to make the “friends and family” announcement to get an early set of eyes on the website before the official launch.

After that we’ll open up the site and start taking preregistrations as we complete our final software testing.  Very exciting.

Had a bit of disappointing news though.  Due to licensing issues with the third party software that we use in our Faxing and Barcode Modules, we won’t be able to include those in the first release of the free version. 

Good thing we engineered that auto-update feature for patches…once the issue is resolved, we will push out an update to enable the modules automatically behind the scenes.

I guess one can’t expect perfection in a big, innovative project like this.

Lifted the Veil Today

Had a team meeting today to unveil the project.  Lots of great questions and pretty much unanimously positive feedback.

Should make faster progress now that the rest of the team is involved.

Suzanne in Client Services thinks that her daycare could use some free Purchasing Software…the admin person spends a half day a week managing Purchase Orders.  You got it Sue, now anyone can slash paperwork and save time.

E-procurement for everyone…let the saving begin!

Free Software Rocks

Just finished setting up the blog/website for the project (this blog/website I mean). 

I say “blog/website” because the lines are pretty blurry.  It’s amazing how much you can do with this free WordPress software.

Hopefully our Free-Procurement customers will be equally as impressed with what they can accomplish with the free Purchasing Software.