E-PROCUREMENT AT WORK : A CASE STUDY *

The Internet has had revolutionary effects on corporate purchasing practices. It recently became a major enabler of significant productivity improvements in various businesses. The companies offering so-called e-procurement solutions are positioning themselves as generators of considerable cost savings for those manufacturers consuming the largest share of the economy’s tangible inputs. The overall productivity of the manufacturers often depends on their efficiency in purchasing those inputs. E-procurement sites, also known as business-tobusiness (B2B) marketplaces, electronic supply chains, trading hubs, or trading communities, are essentially Web-based procurement networks in which one or more companies try to source their suppliers at the lowest costs possible [14]. From a conceptual standpoint, e-procurement does what tendering, its pre– Internet world analogy, has been doing—it helps companies source input products and services at the lowest cost, while ensuring that those inputs meet technical and other (tender) specifications [14]. By making this process Web-based, e-procurement solution providers are changing the process in ways that go far beyond its mere computerization and automation.