Self-Service functionality will Enable Thousands of Transactions to be Handled Daily from the Desktop
Staffware and Biomni have formed a strategic alliance to develop the first workflow-enhanced e-procurement solution with scalable, fully automated, self-service functionality.
Staffware’s alliance with Biomni is part of Staffware’s eProcurement vision to become a leader in the eProcurement market in multiple vertical sectors.
The combined Staffware/Biomni eProcurement solution, suitable for businesses of all sizes, has the competitive advantage of enabling employees to order and fulfill items from their desktops allowing the procurement department to spend more time on developing supplier relationships and procurement strategies rather than chasing purchase orders and invoices. The enhanced workflow, not present in other eProcurement solutions, allows parallel approvals to take place for orders and requests, speeding up the time-to-desk of employees’ orders and further reducing the acquisition costs associated with purchasing business items.
Staffware’s rules based workflow engine will combine with Biomni’s eProcurement software to:
Link with the company’s Intranet to enable employees to check the latest price and availability of items, reserve business travel or monitor budgets.
Facilitate even the largest of purchases that traditionally require a special or complex approvals process.
Eliminate rogue purchases by taking in to account pre-defined authority levels.
Provide the company with strict procurement control, allowing the procurement department to spend more time on developing supplier relationships and procurement strategies rather than chasing purchase orders and invoices.
Allow access to on-line supplier catalogues for real-time ordering of products and services from a list of pre-defined items with agreed volume discounts.
Provide complete flexibility for the company to immediately implement changes to their approval or supplier processes.
Deliver cost reductions due to saved time and elimination of administration overheads.
Staffware and Biomni expect to launch the new solution in April 2001.
The news of the alliance follows Staffware’s recent launch of four new business divisions dedicated to developing solutions for today’s eBusiness markets. One of the new divisions is eProcurement, the other three are eCRM, eBanking, and Supply Chain Management/New Product Development.
John O’Connell, Chairman and CEO of Staffware said We are delighted to announce this alliance with Biomni, who operate the largest procurement electronic network in Europe. Our workflow engine will inject a flexible and scalable process driven capability initially into the current buy-side functionality of the Biomni product set. Combining with Biomni to develop a unique e-procurement service at a time when such dramatic growth in demand for self-service e-procurement solutions is forecasted, provides us with the potential to drive sales in to many new organizations and markets.
Angus Gregory, CEO of Biomni stated: The development of this solution has been driven by the needs of our customers. It became apparent that what our customers really wanted was a comprehensive authorization process for their purchasing activities, to make raising requisitions even easier and speed up their approach to buying. We chose Staffware to help us achieve this goal because of the sophistication and flexibility of its workflow solution and its experience in self-service, or B2E (business-to-employee) solutions.
The forecasted growth of the e-procurement market is huge, with Gartner group predicting that the value of transactions procured by businesses using the Internet will be around GBP7.3 trillion in the year 2004. This compares to a figure of just GBP145 billion for 1999.*
