Procurement Tools

Procurement tools help with specific elements of the procurement process. Procurement is the process of finding and acquiring goods and services from an outside source. Specifically, it’s a means of ensuring the buyer gets the best possible price for the goods, services, or work they require. A procurement tool might help you compare various factors of a product you’re looking to purchase, such as quantity, quality, and time. By presenting all the pertinent information on a single interface, procurement tools create a more streamlined purchasing process.

Procurement tools—often referred to as automated purchasing systems—help you manage all the moving pieces involved in the procurement process. The most powerful tools provide more than just real-time price comparisons; they also organize your orders, provide the suppliers’ details, help you manage purchases, and assist in budget management.

Some of the tools designed to help you streamline and improve the efficiency of your procurement process include contract management software, purchase order management software, and vendor management software. Though it’s possible to purchase a separate software solution to help with each of these elements, it’s better to get procurement software that takes care of them all. SolarWinds^® Service Desk comes with all the procurement tools you need to successfully manage your hardware, software, and service products.

Procurement software brings all the important elements of your service management system together in a single location. There, you can keep track of all your obligations, including licensing, maintenance, and subscriptions. The best software includes contract management, vendor management, and purchase order management.

The most important thing procurement software does is automate your procurement process. The best tools should help automate the purchase order and approval receiving processes. They should also provide simple tracking to eliminate the need for manual data entry.

Procurement software also helps with budget oversight and approval tracking. The tool keeps records of your spending so you always know what you’re spending with each supplier. This information is readily available and can help you optimize your costs, saving you money in the long run.

The tool also lets you control who can make purchases. For example, you can set rules saying only a manager or an executive can make purchases. If a regular employee tries to make a purchase, their manager will be notified and will need to give their approval before the purchase is processed.

Most importantly, procurement software provides complete visibility into each stage of the procurement process. This means your managers can easily find any information they need. If a problem arises with a specific software product, for example, you can check the software to see all your licensing information, including your contract and other factors like the maintenance of the product and the length of your subscription.

Contract management software (which is part of a broader procurement system) helps you organize and manage the contract creation and maintenance processes for all your hardware, software, and other service needs. It gives you complete control over the contract process, simplifying collaboration and auditing for the contract’s life cycle.

The importance of managing your contracts cannot be overstated. Whether they’re formal or informal, contracts are at the center of everything an organization does. They’re integral to all the necessary software and hardware purchases an organization must make. They spell out the expectations for each party, explaining the recourse if one party does not fulfill its obligations. Given the importance of contracts, trying to organize them manually using printouts and file folders is a serious issue.

Due to the difficulty and risks of manual contract management, many entities have begun using contract management software to avoid doing it all by hand. With the right tool, you can build customized contracts and align them with the rest of your asset management system. This means you can see all the pertinent information in one place, so you always have the relevant contracts on hand whenever you need them.

A contract management system can help with audits, save you time, reduce your risks, provide future stability, and save you money in the long run.

Purchase order management is an organization’s processes for making sure all the purchases it makes are justified and necessary and for ensuring the costs of each purchase are optimized.

It’s important for every organization to have an established purchase procurement process and for their employees to follow it. By doing so, they can be sure no purchase occurs without the proper approval and can make sure it’s an appropriate use of their funds.

With good purchase order management software, you can simplify the purchase ordering process. Using this software, you can easily initiate the purchasing process with built-in, customized order forms. You can also utilize the tool to create approval processes and make sure purchase orders get their required approval before any purchases are made.

A vendor management system works by creating and maintaining a comprehensive database of all the vendors you work with. This allows you to easily contact your hardware, software, and service providers when you need them.

With clear visualization into your vendors and services from a single dashboard, you can manage your vendors more effectively. Doing so allows you to keep your vendors happy and helps you save time and money.

Vendor management software is designed to streamline the relationship between an organization and its vendors. It can provide deep, tailored analytics related to vendor performance as well as other important information. Additionally, it can make it easier for your business to scale, as you already have a clear database with all the vendors you will need for successful growth.

The best vendor management software is part of a larger IT service management package. SolarWinds Service Desk provides a full suite of procurement tools to ensure your service management is at its most effective.

SolarWinds Service Desk comes with the procurement tools you need to effectively handle common management tasks. Service Desk takes your contract management to the next level by providing vendor management software, purchase order management software, and contract management software. This means you have all the information you need about every purchase made within your organization, the vendors providing your services (whether that’s hardware, software, or something else), and the associated contracts.

When it comes to contract management, Service Desk lets you build customized contracts designed to make it easy to quickly reference your contractual limits and terms. In the Service Desk asset management suite, you can also align contracts to the relevant software licensing and assets they support. This can help ensure you stay fully compliant.

Using SolarWinds Service Desk means you don’t have to rely on manual processes to keep your contracts straight. You can rest easy knowing they’re always available, organized, and ready to use.