A survey on adoption of e-procurement in Indian organisations

Abstract

Electronic procurement is defined as the sourcing of goods or services via electronic means, usually through the internet. It entails use of electronic means to buy products and services over the internet and involves electronic ordering, bidding and rendering via portals, extranets, private platforms, marketplaces and/or electronic data interchange. This paper presents the findings of a survey carried out to access the status of e-procurement and its implementation in Indian organisations. Data have been collected from 36 Indian organisations. The findings of the survey suggest that Indian organisations are using e-procurement to increase flexibility in production and cost reduction, enhance customer satisfaction, improve delivery, better inventory management and offer broad range of products. The adoption of e-procurement in Indian organisations is going to increase in near future, mainly because of the benefits it offers, the pressure of competitive environment in which the organisations are working today and most importantly because of the government regulations, making adoption of e-procurement mandatory in order to bring in greater transparency and elimination of unethical practices in procurement.