S&DCE eBook Technology :: Purchasing Software, Procurement Solutions, Self-Service Procurement Solutions

Global Procurement Features

Puridiom allows individual business units to procure in their own languages, currencies, taxes, budgets, approval structures, etc., by Puridiom's power to rollup global procurement activities. The entire procurement activities of the organization, ie, spend and savings, (to drive accountability) is captured and reportable at the global level, but leaving autonomy at the ‘local’ or ‘business unit’ level, allowing these units to conduct their own procurement strategies.

Procurement Workload Activity Center

One of the biggest criticisms about other procurement systems is that creating a requisition is tedious and time-consuming. Puridiom’s requisitioning command center (Procurement Workload Activity Center) simplifies creating requests with minimal clicks of the mouse. It gives the end-user one place to reference all activity for the user, ie, status of requisitions, 10 most frequently ordered items, last 10 requisitions, etc. The Procurement Workload Activity Center features options to create ‘Quick Reqs’ – Users click the item(s) check box, then the ‘request items’ button and the requisition is complete and ready for approval. The flexibility of the Procurement Workload Activity Center is that it is customized for all users of Puridiom, not just end-users. Approvers, Buyers and Management access the same tool, but the content of the tool is customized for the user’s role in the procurement process.

Requisitions

Get your end-users, branch offices and approvers on-line to take advantage of self-service procurement. Puridiom’s simplicity and intuitive tools empower your end-users to take advantage of on-line requisitioning. Whether it is requesting forms from the warehouse, office supplies from your supplier’s web catalog or simply requesting prices for new equipment, Puridiom allows users to process any requests, at any time, from anywhere that they have access to the Internet.

Web Catalog Punchout

Puridiom features web catalog punch out to empower end users to access supplier web sites directly and order from their online catalogs, which automatically create requisitions in Puridiom. Our catalog punch out streamlines the purchasing process while providing a cost-effective way to contain maverick purchases. You control which items are restricted and which items are approved for end-users to request. Many of our large clients negotiate substantial discount savings with suppliers based upon item and volume, and minimizing the catalog to specific items drives savings.

Approvals

The Requisition Routing and Approvals module allows for Purchase Requests to be routed for approval based on the company’s departmental hierarchical structure and approval dollar level or a series of rules to govern who needs to approve a Requisition. These rules include testing values of data elements on a Requisition, such as commodity code, to determine the approvers to be included on the routing list. For example, if the commodity identifies computer equipment, an approval rule can automatically add IT personnel to the approval routing list. Also included are approval pools, which are groups of people who may need to approve a Requisition, exception rules and special handling criteria. With HTML Email Approvals, users no longer need to log into Puridiom to approve/reject Requisitions. This option sends an interactive email copy of a Requisition to the approver.

Solicitations

Puridiom has the 4 main types of solicitations built into the system: Request for Quote, Invitation to Bid, Request for Information and Request for Proposal. All of the forms can be printed and mailed, faxed or emailed to suppliers for their bids. Or, they can be posted to the Web Bid Board. From the bid board, registered suppliers can bid on your solicitation directly.

Bid Board and Auctions

Automatically post your RFQ's to a bid board hosted by your company web site. Include items, comments, instructions, and attach documents as needed. A single click makes your RFQ's immediately available to all registered suppliers, or only the suppliers you designate. Amended RFQ's may also be posted. Reach more suppliers with your RFQs, register and pre-qualify prospective suppliers and significantly reduce RFQ costs.

Purchase Orders

Order Processing is a must for global or remote procurement operations. This module allows for processing many types of orders, including blanket agreements, submitting solicitations and tracking responses, and recording receipt transactions for goods/services delivered, all through the internet. The order processing meets the requirements of an enterprise and distributed organization with various buying groups. This module is only available for the Puridiom Gateway and Enterprise Editions.

Invoicing

Supplier invoices, quantities and costs, are matched to the Purchase Order values and Receiving records to create an approved payment voucher for Accounts Payable. The system displays the Purchase Order and Receipt details while the user enters the invoice details with the option to perform an automatic 3-way match with exception error processing. Both full and partial payments are permitted. In addition, approved voucher payments may be electronically transferred to your Accounts Payable System, eliminating the re-keying of A/P information and data entry errors. This may be done using our Standard A/P Interface Utility to allow for the extraction of basic Purchase Order, Receipt, or Voucher data. Custom A/P interfaces can also be designed and programmed to meet specific requirements.

Mail Room and End-User Receiving

When creating your requisitions or orders, you have a few choices on how to receive these items. The main choice is to set the items up for central receiving or for end-user receipts. Centrally received items must be received through the Puridiom Receiving module. For end-user receipts, the buyer can receive those items through another Puridiom module called "Workload." The buyer can do this from his workstation. You control this option at the line item level. That is to say if you have four items on an order and you want three of the items to go through central receiving and have one item that will be received by the buyer. The item to be end-user received can be flagged as such at the line item level. In receiving, only the three items from this order will appear. The other item will appear in the workload of the buyer.

Suppliers

Puridiom's Supplier Management module is rich in features. You can track your suppliers' performance and look at their order history from within the Supplier module. You can set up multiple locations for each supplier. For each location, multiple contacts can also be loaded.

Inventory

The Inventory Module manages the details of items stored in companies’ warehouses or supply rooms. It includes on-line supply request processing, transfer requests, production of picking tickets, disbursement of inventory items, and a physical inventory process. This module is linked to the purchasing processes for automatic updating of on-order items and receipt of items. An automatic replenishment process creates Requisitions for materials that are below minimum on-hand quantities. The Extended Inventory module adds the capability to manage and track inventory items by aisle-row-tier-bin location within the warehouse. In addition, it allows for processing backorders that were generated from Supply Requests.

Forms Management

Specially tailored for procurement and Banking companies, this may be added to the Extended Inventory Module to automate the management of form specifications, usages and controls. Complete printing specifications are captured and may be included as an attachment to Request for Quotations and Purchase Orders. This option is only available with the Extended Inventory module.

Asset Management

This module provides the detail tracking functions for managing asset/property items. It includes item details, custodial records and asset service records. It is linked to both purchasing and receiving. Bar code tags can be produced to further automate asset management.

Budget Controls

This module automatically checks the availability of funds throughout each step of the procurement process. Budgets are managed for any combination of the account data elements (i.e. cost center, general ledger, project, job, etc). Authority to charge against budgets is defined by fiscal year at either the individual user or department levels. Budget balances are maintained for pre-encumbrance amounts, encumbrance amounts and expensed amounts. The available balance for any budget can be viewed at any time.

Action Alerts

This internal messaging option provides an easy means of communicating with other Puridiom users. Messages may be created in any of the system function areas and addressed to any system user. Users are notified when they log into the system of any messages waiting for them. Messages can also be made to repeat at regular intervals to serve as reminders of actions needed. Some uses for the Action Alerts Module include order expiration notices, reminders to enter receipts, issuing cancellation notices, and many more!