Electronic procurement, usually simply referred to as “e-procurement”, is a term used in professional purchasing and e-commerce for B2B transactions – that is to say business to business. It isn’t about ordering goods from individual customers, but rather communication between businesses. E-procurement isn’t targeted at private customers shopping in a web shop, but instead at companies using a digital solution to regulate purchases between one another. There are several advantages to using this modern purchasing solution, with the automation of several parts of the process saving a considerable amount of time for the companies involved.
In the course of digitization, many areas within companies have changed. Back office processes in particular can be carried out more efficiently with digital solutions. This also includes purchasing. The fact that e-procurement plays an increasingly important role is also because some goods and services, such as software or web services, can only be purchased digitally anyway.
In most cases, electronic procurement is based on so-called ERP systems. Enterprise resource planning systems are software solutions specially designed for companies, which support business processes and simplify merchandise management.