Partners, corporate customers embrace HP`s e-procurement system

Just months after it introduced its e-Procure online purchasing and supply chain management tool to its customers and business partners, HP South Africa has reported that 10% of its product sales are already going through the system.

Close to 60 local business partners and corporate customers have rolled e-Procure out and use the tool to conduct business with other companies involved in HP South Africa`s supply chain. The e-Procure solution was custom-developed for HP South Africa by local e-commerce software developer, Digital Enterprise.

Says Gary De Menezes, HP South Africa`s commercial channel manager: "Our business partners are operating in a fiercely competitive environment where margins on sales of commodity products are paper-thin.

"This new tool gives them the ability to attack this challenge by driving down the costs of doing business, automating routine processes and refocusing account managers from processing orders towards strategic account management."

De Menezes points out that large end-users are increasingly demanding that their IT resellers are able to do business with them electronically because e-procurement allows them to tighten control over their spending and decrease the costs of processing purchasing transactions. e-Procure is designed to meet these needs and will hence help resellers to win business in these accounts. The solution will also help business partners entrench their position with existing customers and better manage the ordering process.

Mark Levy, MD of Digital Enterprise, who was brought in to design the system, says that e-Procure can be used to switch transactions between all parties in the supply chain (HP, distributor, reseller, end-user) or simply used to move a simple customer/reseller relationship online. Says Levy: "All parties in the supply chain access the same infrastructure and databases to get a single view of the supply chain. Orders flow electronically between resellers, end-users and distributors according to business rules that are defined by their relationships.

"The system links directly into the HP product catalogue for updated product and pricing information and hooks in with all of HP`s Web content tools as well."

Price lists can be managed and maintained at HP level where direct agreements exist (with direct reseller and global customer accounts, for example) and at reseller level where pricing is account-specific. The tool allows resellers and distributors to set up customised catalogues with different pricing for different customers.

Customers can choose between two editions of the tool. e-Procure Lite is a Web-based interface between end customer and reseller that covers simple procurement functionality.

The full e-Procure suite is a robust enterprise-class e-procurement suite, similar in nature to Ariba or Commerce One`s marketplace offerings. It can be rolled out in a phased approach and can be completely integrated with other enterprise applications such as ERP systems. HP has appointed Ernst & Young as its implementation partner for the tool.

e-Procure is built on Microsoft technology and standards and boasts support for multiple currencies and languages. It includes advanced functionality such as workflow management, track and trace, and warranty tools. The basic tool is available to HP`s business community for free.

"Three other countries within HP`s Europe, Middle East and Africa regions are also soon to introduce this product to their business partners and customers. We have developed a world-class solution that will help us, our distributors, resellers and customers drastically reduce costs and better manage the sales and procurement cycle," says De Menezes.