Purchasing Services for Life Sciences

In order to efficiently manage your procurement, the first step is to understand your purchase spend , which is much easier said than done, especially without a dedicated procurement team. Below are tips to get you started with your procurement spend analysis. Identify Sources Before you can begin to collect data to analyze your procurement spend, you must first identify all of the sources that may affect your spend data, which includes sources from all departments across all company locations. Data sources may include accounts payable, general ledger, pCard, and eProcurement systems. Collect Data Analyzing your company’s spendings will be much simpler if you collect data on an ongoing basis. If you have an eProcurement system (like ours, Prendio), this data will be captured automatically and should be easy to report. We recommend obtaining, at a minimum, the following data: What was purchased? When was it purchased? From whom was it purchased? How many potential supplie

Although the words are used interchangeably more often than not, procurement and purchasing are not synonymous. First, let’s take a look at their definitions: Procurement : The act of obtaining or buying goods and services. The process includes preparation and processing of a demand as well as the end receipt and approval of payment. (Source:  BusinessDictionary ) Purchasing : The activity of acquiring goods or services to accomplish the goals of an organization. (Source:  BusinessDictionary ) Purchasing is Part of the Procurement Process Purchasing is actually just a subset of procurement. Procurement includes purchase planning , standards determination, specifications development, supplier research and selection, value analysis, financing, price negotiation, making the purchase, supply contract administration, inventory control and stores, and disposals and other related functions. Purchasing refers simply to buying goods or services. Purchasing often includes receiv