A UK council has made the switch from paper and fax-based procurement to an electronic version and expects to process £10 million worth of transactions this year.
South Tyneside council, which deployed an eprocurement system across all directorates incorporating 475 staff, said it chose this option for a more standardised approach to purchasing and with the aim of obtaining better visibility and control of the process.
Previously, the local government body used a combination of paper, fax, internet and telephony for its procurement, but made the move to EGS' eprocurement platform in line with the Gershon Report and the National Procurement Strategy.
Tim Jennett, strategic procurement officer for the council, discussed the number of benefits already enabled by the system.
"[It] has enabled us to gain greater management insight into our purchasing, considerably reduce maverick spend and enabled us to identify gaps in our contracts," he said.
In related news, the council recently announced a series of discussions aimed at outlining proposals for the transformation of primary schools in the region.
|