What is E-Tendering?

Electronic tendering (e-Tendering) is an advanced procurement process to improve compliance, visibility, and decision-making across the S2P journey.

Electronic tender ("e-Tendering") is a significant part of the e-procurement chain. It is a process to send or receive tenders via electronic/digital procurement modes. It streamlines the procurement process and boosts efficiency with access to a higher-quality vendor pool. 

Understanding E-Tendering

e-Tendering is a crucial part of the e-procurement process with the primary intent of facilitating an efficient way of sourcing suppliers or vendors. A high level of security is indispensable for managing all the documentation over the internet.

This digital tendering automates functions inducing managing tenders, allowing for smoother and controlled procurement. Subsequently, allowing the procurement manager to manage and evaluate bids with ease.

Benefits of E-Tendering

Here is why your business needs to choose an e-tendering procurement system. Advantages of e-tendering include,

Higher cost savings - e-Tendering takes a break from traditional paperwork. It frees from a tendering process that requires publishing a tender notice in the newspaper. 

Transparent system -  Offers quick and transparent collaboration with suppliers offering clear visibility of every activity during the procurement process. The audit trail offers spend visibility, leaving no scope for confusion betw

Easy to use - With a conventional tender, factors such as design flair and addressing criteria beyond what has been requested may unduly impact the outcome. With an e-tender, everyone answers the same questions and often within a set word limit, so it should be easier for the evaluator to reach an objective decision. It reduces overhead tasks and improves turnaround time. 

Better vendor database - e-Tendering system allows for monitoring vendor performance and creating a pool of the best vendors. Here, vendors compete to get your contract, and you find the best deal from the best person. 

Higher efficiency - With e-Tendering, it is all digital which, helps increase efficiency. There is no more juggling between sheets, excel files, emails, etc., that delays the procurement process. 

Simpler evaluation - e-Tendering empowers you to access and manage information through a unified portal. This eases the task of comparing and evaluating suppliers. 

Technology benefit- This digital mode of tendering allows you to pick the process from where you had left without worrying about losing data or missing the context. 

Disadvantages of E-Tendering

Every coin has two sides, and so does e-tendering. To make the best of digital e-tendering, let us understand the cons of the process. 

Word limitation - The process of tendering involves a series of queries. But with e-tender, there is a limitation of the words that make it challenging to express things or work around the pre-defined criteria. 

Prescriptive structure - It leaves limited room for innovation/expression. There are no supporting documents attached for the presentation or explanation of the tender.

Technical glitches - With a regular saving of data and work, the e-portals can go slow and unresponsive anytime. This is prevalent when too many bidders are accessing the portal at a time, i.e., during the tender submission deadline.

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