Global business environment
We are immersed in a time of profound changes in all levels, this is the environment that surrounds companies today, although even most companies (especially medium and small), continue to operate largely according to rules that were created at the time of mass production.
Although companies have adapted more or less to these changes, sometimes radical, that occur in business environments, however, the thought process that has made it possible to achieve changes within the company is close to encountering the limits of the feasible, within the criteria to improve the organization. And is that the accelerated change that organizations need to live will require greater speed of adaptation and reconfiguration. That is why new organizational forms are essential.
According to the article The Rise of the Multi-Polar World by the consulting firm Accenture, there are five trends that every executive must know to make the best decisions in this new scenario:
1. The battle of talent
According to Accenture research, about 97 percent of the 438 million people who will join the job market by 2050 will live in developing countries. A good fact when making talent recruitment decisions.
2. Investment in capital flows
Traditionally, developed countries were capital exporters to emerging ones. Today, to a certain extent, the trend is reversing, as capital flows also flow from less developed to more developed countries.
China for example is today one of the largest holders of US treasury bonds.
3. The battle for resources
Many developing economies grow at very high rates and in a sustained way, demanding more and more natural resources of all kinds.
China and India are already among the world's largest consumers of energy and other raw materials.
4. New consumers
In recent decades, the growth of emerging economies was based, fundamentally, on taking advantage of their cheap labor to provide low-cost goods and services to developed countries.
Today many emerging nations have become important consumer markets that attract the eyes of large multinationals. The new emerging economic powers or BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are an example of them.
5. The new map of innovation
For years, innovation processes were developed in European, Japanese and North American laboratories, but the situation has changed, emerging nations are becoming innovation laboratories, thanks to the rapid diffusion of technology and investment in the training of human capital.
New development centers are emerging in places like Beijing, Seoul, and Bangalore.
In conclusion, there are years of turbulent transformations in the business environment, years in which opportunities will abound in almost the entire geography of the planet.
E-procurement as a tool for change and generation of competitive advantages for companies.
In our times one of the main objectives of companies is to achieve the integration and collaboration of their suppliers with them and of themselves with their clients. This is already possible today due to the development of Information Technology (IT).
The E-Procurement (Expression in English that means electronic procurement) is the purchase-sale of supplies, work and services using the Internet as a platform. This purchase-sale can be carried out through some of the electronic commerce modalities, within which the fundamental one is Business-to-Business (B2B).
The volume of commercial operations using the Internet as a platform, already reaches the number of several trillion dollars globally and most of it is developed within the aforementioned modality.
E-Procurement is a technology related to the administration of the supply chain (Supply Chain Management), and its main characteristics include the use of information on requirements, inventories, material in transit, among others, deployed through an Internet page. The information flow is carried out in real time, and allows the data to be known instantly when any change in the variables occurs.
Advantages for E-Procurement companies
- Integration and collaboration between suppliers and customers is achieved. Purchase times are considerably reduced, since they can be carried out from the comfort of your home, your office and even today with mobile e-commerce from anywhere and at any time using wireless technology. The purchasing process is reduced, and therefore the operating expenses decrease, which results in an increase in the operating profits of the company. Better suppliers can be found more easily within the domestic markets or from anywhere in the world. Reduction in the purchase prices of goods and services from 5 to 10% due to the existence of a greater number of suppliers from around the world competing with each other. Reduction of purchase requests outside of contract.Improvements in the negotiation with suppliers. Stocks can be reduced, as there is a greater rapport between suppliers and clients. This reduction also translates into significant operational benefits.
Advantages for providers
- Automation of the reception of orders and reduction of the associated costs. Reduction of errors and returns. The immense added value that represents the creation of a new sales channel through the Internet.
E-Procurement is a technology that facilitates integration, by communicating quickly and reliably the information necessary to anticipate problems, establish corrective and alternative actions that allow the proper functioning of both organizations (supplier-client). Integration requires the exchange of information and mutual support to achieve common goals.
All of the above helps supplier companies and clients to achieve a better position in the industrial sector in which they carry out their activities.
E-Procurement and the development of the new cellular organization of the 21st century.
Cell organization
This metaphor suggests that business organization is like a living being, made up of cells that in its case are self-directed work groups or autonomous units, which can operate both alone and with others, to create superior business mechanisms and thus generate important competitive advantages for the company.
Each cell has a well-defined responsibility within the organization and with the organization. Clients of one cell may also be clients of others. These organizational cells need to have the right skills and collaborate with other cells within the organization.
To reinforce the desired behavior, each cell is rewarded according to its results, since as a results center, members develop a psychological sense of achievement in the space of clients and the business reserved for them.
E-Procurement and cellular organization
Types of E-procurement
- Web-based ERP (Web-based ERP): Serves to create and approve purchase requisitions, make purchase orders and receive merchandise and services through the use of a software solution based on Internet technology. E-MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Tuning): Same as Web-based ERP, except ordered goods and services are non-product MRO supplies.E-Sourcing (E-Profiling): Identify new suppliers for a specific category of purchase requirements using Internet technologies.E-Tendering (E-Tendering): Send requests for information and prices to suppliers and receive responses from them, using Internet technologies.E-Reverse auctioning (E-Reverse auction):Use Internet technologies to purchase goods and services from a number of known or unknown providers. E-Informing (E-Information): Collect and distribute operations information to internal and external entities using Internet technologies. E-Marketsites (E-Sites Mercantil): Expands on Web-based ERP to open value chains. Buying communities can access preferred vendor products and services, add to shopping carts, create requisitions, seek approval, issue purchase order receipts, and process invoices with integration to vendor chains and buyer financial systems.Expands on Web-based ERP to open value chains. Buying communities can access preferred vendor products and services, add to shopping carts, create requisitions, seek approval, issue purchase order receipts, and process invoices with integration to vendor chains and buyer financial systems.Expands on Web-based ERP to open value chains. Buying communities can access preferred vendor products and services, add to shopping carts, create requisitions, seek approval, issue purchase order receipts, and process invoices with integration to vendor chains and buyer financial systems.
If we analyze the fundamental types of E-procurement and the concepts of cellular organization we conclude that:
- It is extremely important to use Information Technologies (E-Procurement) and within this the ERP and E-MRO to correctly operate these cells or self-directed work groups in a harmonious and collaborative way within business organizations, at less in terms of a part of Logistics, and therefore to make this new organizational form effective. It is almost impossible in an increasingly globalized world to find new and better suppliers that make the work of cells or groups more effective Self-Directed Job Entries Without the Use of E-Procurement, Specifically E-Sourcing, E-Tendering, E-Reverse Auctioning, E-Informing, and E-Marketsites.
conclusion
E-Procurement plays a fundamental role in the implementation of new organizational forms such as Cellular Organization, which in turn allow companies to compete more successfully in a constantly changing world.
