Commerce One-Procurement / Romuel Waquiz Tan

Year : 2008

Number of Pages : 55 leaves

Executive Summary

In the late 1990s, greater emphasis was put upon electronic purchasing, such as E-procurement, E-payment, catalog systems and reverse auctions as an approach to reducing cost and to improving purchasing a performance. The development of new software systems is creating significant interest in many purchasing groups. The real challenge is on how to take advantage of these evolving technologies as a competitive strategy. Project Commerce-One Procurement describes the developmental process of Procurement from traditional face-to-face negotiation, processing and sealed-bid practices of procurement to being an active user of online technology with focus on strategic sourcing programs. URC Supply Management managers are developing a consumer-driven supply network from Business strategy to Sourcing and Procurement strategy in an effort to produce a low-cost yet robust supply management from raw materials to delivery of final product. To improve the process, URC realized that it needed a tool that would enable it to embrace and deal with the complexity of Sourcing and Procurement rather than oversimplifying the procurement problems and failing to take advantage of the opportunities created by the uncertainties in the market. The company wanted to leverage the scale of its sourcing volume while maintaining its relationships and offering its suppliers options. Knowledge Management is the key in gathering and analysis of existing data in the current system. Spend Analysis, Supplier Fragmentation, PO Activity Segmentation and Supply Strategies generated from analysis will be used as inputs to the project. The company-wide shift to strategic and global sourcing coincided with a shift to computerized sourcing with the use of a system as a driver which is named Commerce-One Procurement (COP), a browser based application for online procurement that empowers users with a self-service procurement process from end to end. This process has the advantages of speed, savings, structure and transparency, global competition, and simultaneous negotiation with all suppliers (which removes the difficulties associated with speculation about later stages of the negotiation process). It is the reason Universal Robina Corporation has put into practice building sourcing networks and strategies through the implementation of Commerce-One Procurement Project Plan. The programs and projects will be centered on improving and uplifting current operational capabilities, increasing barrier towards potential market entrants, supporting existing and new products, funding the Technology Group, obtaining market and business intelligence all of which makes the company gain competitive advantage.