Procurement built for the construction sector

According to The Chartered Institute of Building, 87% of construction professionals believe good procurement is synonymous with a successful project. However, project delays, unpredictable demand for labour and materials, and ever-changing building regulations can sometimes make ‘good procurement’ feel like an uphill battle.

It’s busy times for the house building sector as the Prime Minister announced earlier this year that she wants house builders to construct 300,000 new homes a year to help meet the housing shortage. And, for work begin on these new builds, construction firms’ procurement teams will busy sourcing and on-boarding new contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. However, in an attempt to get staff on-site to begin work quickly, non-compliant buying activities; risky sourcing processes; and decentralised supplier data silos have become common issues for procurement. Without strict procedures for procurement in place, projects could be delayed if part of the supply chain does not deliver.

In order to mitigate against risk and achieve a 360  overview of the supply chain, buyers need robust and transparent processes in place. A growing number of procurement professionals are abandoning their traditional, manual approaches to purchasing and turning to software to enable more transparent, controlled and cost-effective processes. And it’s the software designed specifically for the building trade, such as web3 for Construction which is starting to gain popularity with procurement professionals.

Best of breed, cloud-based software can deliver: robust processes for supplier compliance; scalable and efficient sourcing; effective contract and supplier management; insightful spend analytics and more including:

• Supplier information management (SIM) – making this process electronic significantly reduces the risk and burden of manual supplier setup and data management. It enables suppliers to self-serve everything from registration to account maintenance, providing a full audit, approvals and seamless integration to back-office systems.
• Purchase to pay (P2P) – purchasing visibility is vital if you want to take complete control of organisational-wide spend. web3 P2P brings automation to the entire procurement process ensuring employees can purchase what they need from approved suppliers at the right price.
• Strategic sourcing – by automating the sourcing process construction firms can streamline day-to-day processes such as tendering and auctions. It can also help them make the most of their purchasing power by negotiating better terms and ensuring the right suppliers are selected for each new project.
• Contract management – without the right tools in place to effectively manage and monitor contracts, it’s easy for them to roll over for another year without anyone even noticing. This could leave businesses exposed to non-competitive pricing or SLAs, or even expired healthy and safety certifications. web3 for Construction offers a secure, cloud-based repository for all contracts, alerting organisations when annual agreements or certifications are due for renewal.
• Systems integration – web3 for Construction can be integrated with any 3^rd party data source or legacy ERP and finance software. This allows organisations to collaborate more effectively across construction sites and offers greater transparency across systems.
• Analytics – with a transparent view of what is being spent, organisations have immediate, real-time access to performance feedback and analysis. Thanks to web3 for Construction’s integration capabilities, access to 2D and 3D data, financial data, corporate data and other documents are all linked together.

Without doubt, the procurement landscape in construction is tougher than most due to its diversity, complex supply chain and projects, and traditional manual processes. Yet, they have a lot to gain from software that enables a more transparent, controlled and cost-effective approach to procurement.

To find out more about how web3 could help you build your own blueprint for procurement download our solution guide here.

The post Procurement built for the construction sector appeared first on UK Construction Online.