What is workflow management?
A workflow comprises a sequence of tasks and actions that are part of a larger, more complex task. All business processes follow a workflow, but inefficiencies often creep in unwittingly into business processes. Workflow management helps break down the business process to its core elements and helps streamline the process by assigning sub-tasks, each with defined inputs and outputs, clear owners of sub-tasks, and rules and exception management guidelines for the process stages.
The objective of a workflow is to reach a goals or result, and workflow management enables achieving those results more efficiently or more effectively.
Procurement is a complex task with numerous sub-processes and different trajectories of workflows depending on what is being procured and how it is being procured. The workflow management tools within Proqura enable your organization to define the rules and processes and guide users effortlessly through the process with maximum compliance.
How does Proqura help me manage procurement workflows?
All organizations have rules, both formal and informal, documented and unwritten, governing how their processes should flow. Training users on these standard operating procedures and ensuring compliance at all levels and on all transactions is challenging and costly if done manually.
Proqura enables you to define the rules and process flows up front, enforcing compliance by users as they run through a process. The individual user training on processes is minimized when the natural flow of the system automatically guides them correctly.
Proqura contains distinct and configurable workflows that can be adjusted and predefined depending on a multitude of dimensions:
Type of procurement
Spot vs. Strategic
Category of items to be procured:
Direct procurement vs Indirect Procurement
Goods vs. Services
Simple items vs. Complex or technical items
Requisition formats
RFQs and RFPs where item required and suppliers are known vs. RFIs where further information is needed before a formal requisition can be created
Supplier selection rules
Invite pre-qualified suppliers vs. float publicly to all suppliers
Bidding rules
Competitive tendering vs. Reverse auction
Minimum number of bids thresholds
Single stage bidding vs. multiple stages
Single envelope bids (commercial and technical terms in one proposal) vs. Two envelope bidding (technical terms evaluated first and commercial terms evaluated separately)
Contracting rules
Purchase orders vs. Contracts - define what procurement contracts can be executed through a simple purchase order versus a more comprehensive contract
Approval thresholds based on
Item price / requisition or order value
Item quantity
Item category
Catalog item (managed spend) vs off-catalog item
User permissions and authority levels
Supplier type
Supplier location
Commercial terms