Depending on the size of your business, the procurement process can vary in length and complexity. Larger organizations may have procurement workflows with lots of paperwork and multiple layers of approvals, while smaller organizations may only require one person’s approval if the purchase amount is above a predetermined amount.
Whatever end of the spectrum your business is on, you can work smarter with a procurement application. Instead of relying on spreadsheets and documents scattered across various desktop folders, you can centralize your data in a procurement app. From sourcing and purchasing goods to managing vendors, a procurement app can help you digitize, record, track, and assess data to support your procurement strategy.
Jotform Apps is a powerful app builder you can use to create one or more procurement apps to suit your needs. Retire the spreadsheets and disorganized chaos — start creating procurement apps that make the process more efficient and your workforce more productive. Keep reading to see a few use cases you can address with our solution.
3 procurement app use cases to address with Jotform
1. Vendor management
After going through the often grueling process of identifying, vetting, and choosing a supplier or vendor, you don’t want to repeat it unnecessarily. In larger organizations — or any organization that doesn’t promote knowledge and resource sharing — a team will often seek out a new vendor, even if another team in the organization has already engaged with a good match for the same need.
You can mitigate this lack of awareness by keeping track of your suppliers in this vendor app. Prebuilt into the app are a few relevant items:
- Vendor information form: Use this form to input key data points for each vendor, such as name, contact information, nature of business, type of products and services, contact person details, and more.
- Product inventory information record form: Add products to your inventory using this form. You can enter key data points such as inventory ID, stock location, product name and description, unit price, quantity in stock, and more.
- Wholesale purchase order form: Your procurement team or other departments can submit purchase requests with this form. Requestors can enter relevant data, such as the date, their contact information, the item number and quantity, etc.
- Product inventory template: Turn to this Jotform Tables template to gauge your inventory levels. It comes with fundamental descriptors such as ID, name, unit price, inventory value, and reorder quantity. Make it your own by adding as many identifying and decisioning details as you want.
You can easily add a vendor list to this procurement app in a similar format as the inventory template. That way, any designated parties in your organization can check for vetted vendors before seeking out a new one in the market.
2. Inventory tracking
How do you know what you need if you don’t know what you already have? Not everyone is knowledgeable about all the items your organization has in stock, especially if your inventory data is disorganized. In this case, employees are likely to take the path of least resistance when they need a certain product — instead of hunting down an item that may or may not be available, they’ll just go buy a new one.
Obviously, this is an inefficient and costly alternative. That’s why it’s helpful to implement a procurement app that captures inventory data in an easily accessible and searchable manner. Here are a few apps you can try:
- Retail inventory app: While the title may have retail in it, this app’s generic column descriptions allow you to keep a record of any type of product inventory.
- Restaurant food inventory app: Running a restaurant? You can use this app to reduce the amount of customization you would need to capture inventory data for restaurant-specific items.
- Tool inventory app: This app is best suited for companies that keep track of tools for equipment and machinery.
3. Inventory inspection
Beyond keeping track of inventory you’ve purchased from vendors, it’s important to inspect that inventory for quality and adherence to agreed-upon specifications. Even if you’ve found vendors that have good quality control, sometimes mistakes slip through the cracks.
You can make inventory inspection easy with the right procurement app. For example, this mobile inspection app enables you to conduct inspections from any device. This is useful for inspectors who need flexibility when moving around a warehouse or receiving dock. It gives you some useful capabilities:
- Create unique checklists for inspecting items.
- Upload photos of inspected items for review and reference.
- Use an e-signature to prove who inspected an item or to approve inspections.
With Jotform Apps, you can begin your procurement journey with one of a number of template apps and customize it to your liking, or you can build one from scratch. Start building today.
Photo by: aleksandarlittlewolf
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