The secret to an efficient purchasing office? Easy! 4buyer
This is a piece of supplier management software developed by Comedata, which aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of purchasing processes, while guaranteeing maximum traceability and transparency. 4buyer automatically records suppliers onto the register, assesses their performance and qualifies them for goods categories; it creates and manages negotiations, and also manages the documentation and expiration of qualification requirements. It consists of the separate modules described below and can be integrated with corporate ERP and documentation systems.
4buyer consists of four main modules
Suppliers register
A module for surveying, assessing and certifying new suppliers.
This register helps to establish lists of qualified suppliers which the purchasing office will be able to use, to determine which companies to invite to individual procedures, for assigning services and/or the provision of goods.
Suppliers can submit a qualification application, independently and at any time, through the registration process by entering their personal details, along with the goods categories, they wish to qualify for; also specifying which company register they wish to be registered on.
You can manage suppliers registers for several companies belonging to the same group so that you have different lists depending on the needs of each individual company.
The purchasing office’s task is to assess the applications and process the qualification of suppliers, delegating which suppliers should update their details and documents.
The suppliers register contains the documents timetable, which lets you verify the validity of documents attached by suppliers that need to be renewed regularly. It is integrated with an automatic notification system which indicates the impending expiry date to the qualified company.
This way, you will have a single archive containing all the information on prospective or active suppliers, catalogued according to their goods categories.
Online Tender
This module allows you to manage a key phase of the entire purchasing process: negotiation.
With the online tender module, 4buyer provides an area for collaboration with suppliers, offering fast communication and helping to save time and costs thanks to its standardised procedure.
Inside the 4buyer special web section, suppliers will be able to view information on taking part in the tenders that have been published by the acquiring company.
Suppliers will only be able to take part in the online tender if they are already accredited to the Suppliers Register and meet the selection requirements.
In their own private area, each supplier can view the tenders they are invited to participate in, interact with their client company and monitor the state of negotiations.
Suppliers can take part by entering their offer into the Portal by the deadline.
Once the submitted offers have been analysed, the Purchasing Office will announce the winning supplier based on the selected tender criteria.
The tender will only finally be awarded once the economic adequacy and tender requirements have been checked for the successful contractor.
The company therefore has a single archive containing all the online tender information, which helps to enhance and share the information assets built up over time.
Vendor Rating
Module for analysing supplier e-procurement performance
The vendor rating assesses suppliers on set parameters, thereby developing and offering continuously updated information.
The objectives are:
- To prioritise suppliers that can guarantee the best performances;
- To make the relationship with the supplier clear and collaborative;
- To regularly assess the performances and non-compliance of active suppliers.
4buyer is based on a qualitative and quantitative method organised into:
Phase 1
Identification of assessment criteria for supplier performances;
Creation of questionnaires on suppliers’ goods categories;
Writing of answers and possible responses in the questionnaires;
Allocation of partial scores to each response.
Phase 2
Responding to questions on the supplier questionnaire;
Automatic calculation of individual vendor ratings once all supplier questionnaires are completed.
Reports
This module provides reports that assess the workload, the qualification applications and their processing status, the registered suppliers and the online tenders.
The reports help to analyse performances and assess results.
4buyer gives you:
- Reports with data calculated in real time;
- Checks and assessments of the results from online tenders;
- Exportable information in various formats.
Why purchase 4buyer?
Choosing 4buyer will give you financial and organisational benefits.
It could reduce your costs by:
Fully managing suppliers’ details;
Providing the option of choosing from a greater, better qualified number of suppliers;
Reducing the ratio between resource numbers and the processing time of supplier qualification applications or online tenders and vendor ratings.
By automating critical processes, you can make a considerable cost saving and avoid any useless waste from not being able to plan purchases.
Another essential element is all of the qualitative advantages resulting from the simplification of the entire purchasing process, which can all be done online with 4buyer: management times are considerably reduced and work is done transparently and in accordance with company procedures. Furthermore, the traceability of all processes helps to simplify audits.
