Is your procurement solution ready for mobile employees or vendors? Your company’s service representatives may be in the field working with customers and need fast access to parts for a repair. Consider the case of a business in healthcare that needs a mobile procurement solution for clinicians on the move. No matter what business you’re in, it’s important to remember that your team may be trying to launch a requisition, buy a product, or approve a purchase on the go. Here’s how cloud-based procurement solutions can help your business deliver.

Mobile Self-Service Procurement

Your employees are more likely to be working on mobile devices, whether they’re checking messages or ticking items off their to-do list between meetings. When the key systems they rely on are available via mobile devices, it’s easier to keep things moving forward. Self-service procurement solutions are easy to access on mobile devices. For example, a user can easily log in to your business’s procurement catalog, search for what they need, and place the order. Logging in on any device is easy, and they’ll have the same streamlined shopping experience that directs them to your company’s approved products, preferred vendors, and negotiated prices to assure cost savings and compliance.

Supporting Mobile Procurement Approvals

Cost controls and contract compliance are an important part of the procurement process. The latest tools make it easier for your business to offer mobile-friendly approval support. Managers are often running between meetings, traveling to client sites, and fitting in work around the margins of heavily scheduled days. Mobile procurement approvals can make it easier for them to identify priority requests and stay on top of their workflow. Notifications let them know when a purchase needs their attention. Approval and reviews are simple to log into from any connected device.

Analytics On the Go

Procurement and sourcing are central to the operations and financial health of your company. Today’s cloud-based procurement solutions capture a wealth of data. Mobility features support the ability to achieve complete visibility from any device, on the go. Perhaps you need to check the latest updates for where a critical contract is in review. Or, during a meeting, an executive asks for data on what percentage of your company’s spend is on contract. With mobile access, it’s easy to pull up the data you need to keep workflows moving forward, provide updates to stakeholders, and follow up as needed.

Mobile Supplier Features

Vendors and suppliers are also requesting mobile features from the customers they serve. Increasingly, procurement solutions are making it easier for your vendors to shift a lot of the workload away from your team. They may want to upload a document for a supplier qualification process, or it’s time to invoice you for work that’s been completed. By making it easy for vendors to interact with your system from any device, you help them comply more quickly with your requests for information. The less time they spend having to navigate complex administrative processes, the more they’re focused on delivering the products, services, and cost savings your organization needs.

Access Documents and Issue Purchase Orders

Mobile features can also help your internal team interface with suppliers more efficiently. For example, do you ever have to issue a purchase order when you’re away from your computer or amend the terms of an existing P.O. quickly so that work can be completed? With cloud-based procurement solutions, it’s possible to issue, update, and review documents from anywhere—so there are no delays in critical communication when you’re working from a mobile device. By providing mobile access to your procurement system, it’s also possible to review supplier qualification documents, contracts, agreements, and execution analytics. Let’s say you’re in a meeting with a supplier and a question comes up about a contract’s end date. Simply log in on your mobile device, get the information you need, and have a meeting that’s fully informed by the latest data.

Today’s workforce is mobile, and businesses need procurement solutions that can support that reality. Whether you’re empowering your procurement team to get more done, supporting mobile supplier updates, or streamlining the employee mobile-shopping experience, cloud-based procurement solutions can help. There’s no need to invest in specialized software—mobile features are embedded throughout today’s leading procurement solutions.

Learn more about Oracle Procurement Cloud today.