Procurement is the process of acquiring goods, services, and materials that a business needs to run smoothly and efficiently. Procurement is important because the quality, cost, and reliability of suppliers directly affect a company’s profits and ultimately efficiency.
Because businesses often focus too much on their suppliers (vendors), they can end up ignoring other important steps in the procurement process. If your business is looking to organise and step up its procurement processes and workflows, you need to rely on a robust procurement ERP software.
Microsoft 365 Dynamics Business Central is the ERP you need to gain a complete overview of the procurement processes and workflows. Make the most of this ERP by having Brookland Solutions, a certified Microsoft Partner, customise it for your business’ procurement needs.
In this guide, we explore the features of Business Central that make it easy for your UK SMB to handle procurement.
The Procurement Process
A typical procurement process involves the following steps:
- Identify what goods and services your business needs
- Find suppliers with the best prices and negotiate
- Legal team creates contracts
- Issue payments and match invoices
- Ensure goods are delivered
Because procurement is a critical component of supply chain management, you need a system that can efficiently handle the sourcing, purchasing, and management of goods and services. When your procurement processes are perfectly organised and in order, your business will be more successful at maintaining optimal inventory levels, reducing costs, and ensuring the timely delivery of goods and services.
This is where a procurement ERP can help with managing end-to-end procurement processes and streamline your operations.
How Does Business Central Help with Procurement?
The Contracts feature in Microsoft 365 Business Central helps your business manage multiple aspects of the procurement process:
Manage Vendors
Vetting vendors is important to ensure your business is working with the right, credible and competent vendors. A centralised system that accesses supplier-related information can simplify the assessment process. As your Microsoft Solutions Partner (MSP), we can help you integrate the contract management software with Business Central, which will allow your procurement team to access key information such as procurement contracts, contract performance, and more.
They can also use this information to prioritise renewing vendor contracts and to extend existing contractual agreements. With an ERP like BC, you can evaluate, manage, and track your vendors effortlessly.
Convert the Best Offers to Orders
The next step is prioritising suppliers based on revenue potential. What your business needs is a concise vendor onboarding process to make sure you’re grabbing profitable opportunities. And this can be possible when you accelerate the procurement process with the help of Business Central contract management.
Integrating this feature into the system can help you convert opportunities into orders quickly. Maximise this functionality by initiating procurement contract requests from within the Business Central platform itself.
Overview of the Procurement Process
View and access the complete purchase history through Business Central. See vendor details, order lists, financial summaries, and contract data. With all this information at your fingertips, your business is more empowered to predict stock replenishment, delayed payments, and delivery delays. So if your procurement team spots any bottlenecks in the workflow, they can quickly step in and rectify them.
Assign Roles and Permissions
It can be extremely tedious sifting through endless procurement contracts. But thanks to Business Central, you can find the required contracts in seconds. How?
BC, when integrated with contract management, an add-on software, comes with a contract section for the vendor portal. This allows the procurement process team to access the contracts and documents related to the vendors without depending on the legal team to gain data.
Engage with Vendors
A healthy relationship with suppliers is important for a smooth procurement process, which comes down to transparency and compliance. Within Business Central, you can track purchase history, order details, and supplier data, which supports informed decision-making and smoother coordination.
For organisations looking for more advanced functionality such as dedicated contract management, Business Central can be extended with third-party solutions. These add-ons provide features like contract lifecycle tracking, milestone management, and vendor collaboration, allowing businesses to tailor the system to their needs while maintaining strong supplier relationships.
Monitor Transactions
After the procurement and vendor selection, you need to ensure all parties are following the terms and conditions of the procurement contract. Business Central can provide easy access to the financial summary of vendors, the payments made, and the transactions with suppliers. With this ERP to help you make payments on time, you not only avoid souring vendor relationships but also avoid fines.
Benefits of Handling Procurement in Business Central
A purchasing ERP system offers multiple benefits in the way you handle procurement.
Increased Efficiency
Automation of procurement processes reduces manual tasks, minimises errors, and accelerates cycle times, leading to increased operational efficiency.
Cost Savings
By optimising procurement processes and improving supplier negotiations, your business can achieve significant cost savings.
Improved Supplier Relationships
Effective vendor management tools help businesses build and maintain strong supplier relationships, ensuring better terms and more reliable deliveries.
Enhanced Visibility
Real-time data and analytics provide comprehensive visibility into procurement activities, allowing you to make informed decisions.
Scalability
As a cloud-based solution, Business Central can scale with the growth of the business, accommodating increasing procurement volumes and complexity.
Partner with Brookland Solutions for a Procurement ERP software
Whether you’re sourcing office supplies or procuring raw materials for your construction business, your organisation needs a more strategic and systematic approach to sourcing and negotiating with suppliers and vendors. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a system that helps your business ace the procurement process.
From accelerating your onboarding process to managing vendor payments, make the most of this powerful ERP’s features to take your business to the next level. And to help you do just that is Brookland Solutions, a Silver Certified MSP, specialising in making Dynamics 365 Business Central work for your business.
We can:
- Integrate data-driven inventory management
- Streamline your procurement process
- Support multiple warehouse capabilities
- Offer a comprehensive view of your procurement operations from start to finish
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business’ procurement process. Fill out our contact form for a quick demo session.
