Factors affecting the adoption of e-procurement technologies from the supplier perspective

Abstract

Quesada, Gonzalez, Mueller & Mueller (2010) have identified that organisations spend at least one-third of their overall budget on procurement of products and services. Hence the importance of reducing procurement costs through an efficient supply chain should be a priority for any senior manager. E-procurement is one of the components that can assist management in streamlining the operations resulting in an efficient supply chain process. The usage of qualitative research for this study ensured that appropriate answers were identified to address the research question and a clear understanding was obtained to establish the factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement technologies. The scope of the research was focused on the suppliers and manufactures of plumbing material in South Africa. The aim of the study was to establish the factors that influence organisation in adopting e-procurement technologies. The data reflected that e-procurement adoption improves organisation’s productivity, ability to better control costs resulting in an efficient and effective supply chain process. This is only possible with the support of senior management, end-user buy-in and allocation of financial resources. The three major findings identified were that e-procurement adoption is driven by internal needs, reduces labour costs and improves customer relations. Possible Future research should examine the influence of other factors such as competitiveness, customer service and organisation size.