For businesses of all sizes and industries, it’s a tough and time-consuming process to select an efficient cloud-based procurement system. Similar to crossing a minefield, a tiny misstep can translate into a crisis like revenue loss, customer attrition, and legal entanglements.

There are a wide range of solutions and techs, each with unique deployment, customizability, scalability, and price options. With so many elements to consider, there’s one thing to remember foremost when you compare cloud-based procurement platforms: your needs!

The ideal solution is one where functionality matches your requirements and budget. To help you with that search, we’ll list four constituents of the optimal cloud-based procurement system.

1. Unified Platform

With manual procurement, all employees have to maintain standalone records and documents to manage their operation, making it difficult to get a unified and clear view of all operational data.

A unified platform will provide the same data whether you’re on-site or on a business trip. You only need to input information once, and it’s updated throughout, saving significant time, preventing inconsistencies, and improving insight. Suppliers shall also be able to utilize their respective portals to update info and catalogs, saving time/money on both ends.

2. Budget Monitoring

When you select an efficient cloud-based procurement system, you can continuously monitor your budget. That’s a significant advantage since costs directly impact your bottom line. Moreover, dynamic approval workflows will optimize the purchasing process by removing bottlenecks and determining permissions required to make various purchases.

3. Easy Integration

Since a sizable portion of data lies in third-party software such as accounting systems and spreadsheets, an efficient procurement system must easily integrate with those tools to allow staff to import/export data from such sources. In addition to minimizing any redundancy or error, a flexible cloud-based solution will scan data history, eliminate duplications and continuously update to seamlessly sync with other software.

4. Customizability & Cost Analysis

When you compare cloud-based procurement platforms, you require a tool to adjust business rules, modify form fields, design custom workflows, and update roles and permissions. You want to customize extensions, APIs, and portals to improve your capabilities and allow users and vendors to tailor solutions to their preferences.

Plus, an efficient solution allows you to accurately analyze and gain valuable insights from all purchasing data. In addition to displaying customized data on various tables, charts, and visually rich reports, you’ll be able to gather relevant info from thousands of sources using your APIs.

Bottom Line

It’s a vital yet cumbersome process to select an efficient cloud-based procurement system. The above tips will likely help you compare cloud-based procurement platforms and choose one that covers enough ground to meet your needs on every level. Fortunately, with Penny, you have access to a wide range of solutions tailored to your needs. Therefore, please contact our team of experts to figure out what you require toward paving your path to success.