Enhancing Procurement Process for Educational Institutes

A fundamental principle of procurement is that all required goods and services must be secured at the best possible price to meet the needs in terms of quality, quantity and time. The items that educational institutes want to procure is typically within a set budget that varies across institutes. Requirements defer depending on the size of the institute in terms of students and staff as well as area. To procure their requirements, every institute needs a systematic purchasing solution.

Amazon Business is that buying platform that schools and training institutes have been waiting for. It is the one-stop destination for all educational requirements, online as well as traditional classrooms. Amazon Business provides:

• A safe buying guarantee
• Business deals
• Bulk discounts
• Fast and reliable shipping for various distance learning products and equipment for digital classrooms.

With Amazon Business, schools and colleges can find one place for all their purchasing requirements. The time required to evaluate and check out tenders, identify various vendors for different requirements, analyze their spending patterns can all be reduced to a great extent with the many features of Amazon Business. With Amazon Business, educational institutes have a wide selection at their fingertips at reasonable prices, coupled with a robust delivery system.

PROVIDE AN EASIER PURCHASING PROCESS

To enhance and create an easier purchasing process, the important step is to review and eliminate inefficiencies in the current process. Amazon Business has stepped to the forefront in creating a well-defined process that allows educational institutes in a hassle-free procurement process.

Better Set of Compliance Procedures

All teachers and staff involved in making purchase decisions for the institute can access a single Amazon Business account using the Multi-User Account facility. A group administrator can set up approval policies to notify such teachers and staff members to get approvals before the order is processed. This facility will help the teachers and staff manage their institute’s spending and streamline the procurement process, helping them concentrate on teaching and administrative duties.

Build a Relationship with your Preferred Supplier

With Amazon Business, one can build a strong relationship with a particular seller. When buying a product, businesses can check the seller details and even ask questions regarding a product before buying. If a business is happy with the quality and pricing of that particular seller, they can continue their procurement process through that supplier at all times.

Save Time with Going Electronic

Having a procurement process through an e-commerce platform means that payments are processed electronically. This not only saves time but also provides instant payment, higher security, saves processing costs, there is more transparency, and most importantly it is contactless.

While many educational institutions would benefit from eliminating paper completely in their procurement process, not many have been able to do that. Paper requisitions, purchase orders, invoices, and other things take a lot of time and can also result in manual errors. Going electronic throughout the entire procurement process will save a lot of time and effort, and make the process easier.

Pinpoint Wasteful Spending

Amazon Business has features like Business Analytics that helps create reports based on their spending and other factors. One can create reconciliation reports, refund reports and analyze the spending pattern. With the help of this data, businesses can plug those areas where there is an unnecessary expenditure, thus establishing an improved procurement process.

WIDE SELECTION AT DISCOUNTED PRICES

The goal of Amazon Business is to help schools and colleges reduce the cost of their purchases. Educational institutes can choose from more than 15 crore products across a wide range of categories and save time and effort instead of writing to vendors and check their quotes.

There are more than thousands of sellers on Amazon Business for coaching and training institutes to choose from. Buy products under various categories like office supplies, writing supplies, notebooks, calculators, colouring pens and markers, geometry sets, and many more such products.

LOGISTICAL SUPPORT

The most important advantage that Amazon Business provides to coaching and training institutes throughout India is its pan-India coverage. Be it urban metros, Tier II or III cities, or even rural towns, Amazon Business has a huge logistics network that covers all these places. This logistical feature of Amazon Business acts as a huge advantage, especially to Tier II and III cities and rural towns, in their procurement process, which otherwise would prove to be a huge challenge to them.

BULK PURCHASES AND BUSINESS EXCLUSIVE DEALS

Amazon Business offers heavy discounts on bulk purchases, business exclusive deals and cashbacks in addition to quantity discounts from multiple sellers. Schools and colleges can save more with exclusive deals and discounts on multi-unit purchase. They can get quotes from multiple sellers who sell in bulk based on their wholesale order quantity and request for Quantity Discounts. Institutes can then compare and choose the most competitive price when buying educational supplies like laptops, tablets, stationery supplies, school books, whiteboard and markers, sports items, art and craft essentials, and other accessories in bulk.

Overall, Amazon Business plays a definitive role in the virtual education environment by helping schools and training institutes take optimum advantage of technological advancements and enjoy the benefits of knowledge sharing. Create a free Amazon Business account now and restructure buying within your educational institute.

IMPORTANCE OF ESTABLISHING A PROCUREMENT PROCESS

Developing a Master Service Agreement

One can set up a standard template for each supplier to purchase goods, thus simplifying the procurement process. When the terms for each order is agreed in advance, businesses can save a lot of time since the need for renegotiation is eliminated.

Improved Purchasing Inventory Management

With a master service agreement in place, the supplier is bound to supply goods to the buyer’s warehouse to be ready for customer orders, thereby reducing delays in orders and the likelihood of stock unavailability. That means customers always get their orders on time, ensuring increased satisfaction and future business. Word of mouth recommendation can result in new orders too.

Improved Forecasting

Establishing a procurement process enables businesses to keep records of their purchasing history. Such records of past purchases help in forecasting spikes and reduction in orders. Knowing the causes of spikes and troughs helps the business to be proactive in its purchasing strategy. Thus, they can keep future orders at a level that ensures profitability while also maintaining an optimum level of order fulfilment.

FAQs

1) How to make a purchase through the Amazon Business portal?

After logging in to their business account, one can search for the product of their choice and click on the products they intend to purchase. It will take them to the product detail page on Amazon. If a Business Invoice badge is displayed, it means one can be sure that they will receive a business invoice for that product.

• From the product detail page, select the quantity and click on Add to Cart button.
• The next page will ask you to ‘Review Your Cart’
• Once reviewed, click ‘Proceed to Checkout’
• The next page is the Business order info page where you can enter a Purchase Order (PO) number. This page is optional and is added to help keep a track of orders placed by the business.
• Select an existing delivery address or add a new delivery address
• Select from the available delivery options and click Continue.
• Choose the mode of payment and click Continue.
• Review order details and click ‘Place your Order and Pay’

2) What if the received items do not meet the specifications of my Purchase Order?

You can request returns for all items bought from sellers listed on Amazon Business, except those items that are particularly identified as not returnable on the product detail page. Go to ‘Your Orders’ and select the product that you would like to return or replace. Select the reason for the return, refund type and return method.  Items can be returned or replaced if you've received them in a damaged condition or have missing accessories, is defective or different from the description provided on the product detail page on Amazon Business.

3) How to contact a seller on Amazon Business to ask about the products that I need to purchase?

Search the product you want to buy and go to the product details page. Next, select the seller’s name and on the next page select ‘Ask a Question.’ You can type in your query by following the on-screen instructions. The seller will respond to all your queries within three working days.

4) Why is Purchase Requisition important in the Procurement Process?

A purchase requisition initiates the procurement process. The purchasing department initiates the purchasing process based on this document. Since it serves as a formal request, it also serves as a control tool to ensure that no fraudulent practices take place. A purchase requisition helps the entire procurement process to be centralized thereby making the overall system easy to manage.