Procurement has been one of those frustrating business processes for years. Stagnated purchase orders, forgotten requisitions, and slow approval cycles have caused many enterprises to slow to a crawl.
Thanks to advances in technology over the last decade, procurement is getting an overhaul. The advent of mobile technology is bringing a new level of efficiency to all procurement processes, drastically reducing the time needed to do vital tasks.
5 Benefits of Mobile Procurement Apps for Enterprises
Extending your procurement applications to mobile devices brings many benefits to workers. The most obvious benefit is the ability to complete tasks from anywhere at anytime.
1. Complete Procurement Tasks Anywhere, Anytime
For people who are constantly on the road, being able to quickly review and complete procurement tasks outside of the office is critical.
2. Increase Coordination and Cooperation
Not only does it provide for faster processes and business decisions, but it tethers the team together regardless of location.
3. Upgrade Processes Workflows
Another benefit of mobile procurement apps is the ability to integrate the functionality of the mobile device into the workflow. Mobile devices featuring cameras, GPS, and push notifications can make complex, manual processes disappear into a simple task with a few taps on a smartphone.
4. Better Supply Chain Processes
Depending on the organization, PO approval triggers a chain reaction of supply chain and logistical operations. Getting on-time approvals saves both time and money. It also reduces effort required, resulting in better scheduling and logistics, reducing overall operational costs.
5. Streamlined Processes
In some industries, PO creation is bypassed if the goods are required urgently by field personnel. This happens because it’s too difficult to phone someone in the office to create the PO.
If it’s related to manufacturing, the goods are procured from known vendors at a pre-negotiated price. Usually, the PO is created as an afterthought during payment. When this happens, it completely defeats the purpose of the PO process.
Mobilizing PO and approval can effectively solve this problem.
Things You Can Do With a Mobile Procurement App
Being able to take the procurement process on-site brings its own benefits as well. Managers will be able to know if purchase orders came from the correct warehouse thanks to GPS tracking. They’ll be able to see photos or actual barcodes of the assets to ensure they are purchasing or ordering the correct items.
Create POs or PRs From Anywhere
Depending on your role, you can create Purchase Orders or Purchase Requisitions from the office or in the field. Incorporate GPS, Barcode Scanning, and Photo capability into your workflow for a simpler process condensing manual data entry to a bare minimum.
Leverage Notifications For More Efficiency
Stop work from being delayed and end the problems with missed and forgotten POs. With a mobile app, you can get instant notifications of PO/PR requests, approvals, and rejections.
You can open the procurement app directly from the notification to quickly and easily approve or reject the PO or Requisition. When approved, the same app can be used by other employees for receiving the product into the warehouse.
Track purchases from requisition all the way through to receiving in one, intuitive app.
Utilize Barcode Scanning For Minimizing Mistakes
With a mobile app, someone can actually go to the a warehouse and scan a barcode; creating a Purchase Order quickly and easily with fewer opportunities for human error.
The Easiest Way to Get a Mobile Procurement App
Just realizing the benefits of mobilized procurement processes isn’t enough. Getting a mobile procurement app that will seamlessly integrate with whatever system your enterprise is running isn’t the easiest thing to do from scratch.
If you’re a user of the appsFreedom Platform, you have access to our library of pre-built, pre-integrated procurement apps. These apps are ready-to-use, saving you the time of development. You can start using them as-is, or you can customize them to meet any specific requirements regarding business processes. These ready-to-use apps can have you up and running in a few days as opposed to starting from scratch and developing your own.
About Our Pre-Built Procurement Apps
Our pre-built app templates aren’t bare-bones. They started off that way, but have been improved and iterated based on real-world client usage and requirements.
Many of our clients have used our procurement app templates across different sectors and industries. With real-world feedback from our customers, the app has been through several integrations and is now enhanced to meet the needs and requirements of our enterprise clients.
Even if you need to customize it, you’ll find the customizations are minor and it will easily integrate with your current systems. Of course, you can always build your apps from scratch using our platform if you prefer to create your own. Our model-driven platform allows you to build custom apps from scratch in days as well.
If you’re interested in trying out our pre-built procurement app, or if you want to take the appsFreedom Platform for a spin, sign up for a free test drive today. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish with appsFreedom.