Electron^® Procurement

Conventional e-procurement solutions have focused on that aspect of an organisation's purchasing activities that represent the most significant set of process and cost-savings inefficiencies - the acquisition of consumables.

The Electron Procurement component specifically designed to handle the procurement of direct-cost goods and services from all your supply chain partners - from the discovering of potential suppliers, through quotation and transaction negotiation to the completion of the trade.

The Electron Procurement component handles the procurement of your organisation's consumable or indirect-cost requirements as well.

Electron^® Sales

The Electron Sales component is an web based, e-commerce software specifically designed to handle the complexities of an organisation's sales functions. The Electron™ Sales component has been constructed to include:

•  advanced sales pricing,

•  negotiation and transaction management for inter- and intra-company,

•  domestic and international sale of direct and

•  indirect cost goods and services.

Electron^® Logistics

A key factor in choosing the best deal, whether buying or selling, is ensuring the product can be transported from the seller's site to the buyer's site at the best cost for the best service.

Recognising this, iP³ has incorporated logistics quotation and management functionality as an integral part of Electron Procurement.

The Electron Logistics links trusted third party logistics handlers to both the Electron Sales and Procurement components of respective sellers' and buyers' systems enabling the rapid provision of accurate shipping quotations on a per order basis without any manual intervention by the supplier.

The need often arises to support purchase and sales transactions with transportation or other third party services such as insurance or inspection. Because these value-added services are closely inter-related to core contract sales terms and conditions, a coordination of simultaneous information flows between the buyer to/from the freight agent to/from the seller is critical.

The Electron Logistics includes functionality that provides asynchronous and multi-party communication that is:

•  integrated with transaction management functions consistent with international trade rules and core contract terms

• integrated with transaction execution safeguard functions to reduce transaction failure risks such as non-payment

Microchain^®

Another feature Electron Procurement includes is a unique supply-chain management tool known as Microchain.

Microchain enables your procurement staff to select items found in the Ether Directory or on other organisations' Electron Commerce systems, and have them added to your procurement catalogue. It further facilitates the acquisition of goods and services at the best possible terms.

Microchain links the Electron Commerce system's purchase order and inventory management functions with supplier relationship management functions to result in a highly flexible supply-chain management tool.

Other features and functionality of Electron Procurement are the:

•  Direct B2B, asynchronous order acceptance, rejection, amendment and processing functions.

These features assists enterprises to overcome information inconsistencies because real-time updated items are cross-referenced to an enterprise's supply-chain requirements and any strategic sourcing agreements it may have in place with key suppliers.