E-Procurement/Vendor Enablement

• What is E-Procurement?
• E-Procurement in the CRA
• Method of Payment
• Security
• E-Procurement Benefits
• Understanding E-Procurement within the CRA
• Electronic Catalogue
• E-Procurement Workflow

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What is E-Procurement?

E-procurement is the purchasing of goods and services using the Internet. E-procurement systems are designed to simplify the procurement process by reducing unnecessary administrative tasks and paper work, improving the purchasing cycle process flow. Electronic supplier catalogues loaded onto the online application provide clients with a single searchable source of products and services. Orders created by users are sent electronically to the respective suppliers for action and delivery.

E-Procurement in the CRA

In the fall of 2001, the Finance and Administration Branch of the CRA began the implementation of an internal (intranet) e-procurement initiative together with strategic sourcing. The combined objectives of this initiative were to reduce costs, provide one-stop shopping for standardized products and services, simplify internal business processes, and improve the overall ordering process.

The Agency's e-procurement tool is an easy-to-use bilingual and internal web-based application called WBRO (pronounced Web-Ro). It was developed in-house and is available to CRA employees for the procurement of frequently purchased goods and services. WBRO automates the ordering process, allowing the CRA to foster strategic relationships, capitalize on its buying power and realize significant savings. It is also integrated into the CRA's business system - SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in data processing).

As a result of this initiative, in August 2002, the CRA awarded a contract to one national supplier for the provision of the vast majority of CRA's office supplies, the first strategic sourcing commodity to be uploaded in WBRO. The catalogue was implemented and deployed nationally in September 2002.

The next phase of e-procurement in the CRA will see the addition of other commodities to the e-procurement portal through additional strategic sourcing relationships. This will enable the Agency to realize its goal to provide online procurement for the majority of high volume goods and services it currently utilizes.

Method of Payment

The designated method of order payment for the e-procurement system is by the Federal Government approved acquisition cards. Each e-procurement account holder is issued his or her own purchasing card for transaction purposes. Internal Agency policies govern the use of acquisition cards.

Security

The prime difference between a standard e-commerce order process and that of CRA's e-procurement system relates to how the CRA handles acquisition card information. The CRA processes order requests via email to the respective vendor, without disclosing the acquisition card number, thus ensuring that card information remains secure.

In the future, aspects such as a billing gateway will be incorporated into the system to create further administrative efficiencies and long-term savings.

E-Procurement Benefits

The CRA has conducted studies that have demonstrated and proven the efficiencies of implementing e-procurement. Some of the benefits include:

• An automated electronic process integrating ever maturing, industry accepted technologies (applications, secure communication channels, etc.) and providing one-stop shopping
• Promoting compliance through an easy-to-use and efficient purchasing, payment, and reconciliation Web-based tool
• The ability to provide consolidated supplier catalogues and accurate, up-to-date pricing online, eliminating the need for multiple paper-based equivalents
• The reduction of:
  • Order to delivery timelines (E-procurement promotes Just-in-Time delivery)
  • Order errors
  • Overhead and inventory costs; and
  • Administrative workload
• Order data capture capabilities facilitating the expansion of management reporting, monitoring, financial analysis and forecasting abilities.

Understanding E-Procurement within the CRA

As an increasing number of commodities are added to CRA's e-procurement portal, it is essential that the internal and administrative operations of the Agency's system remain uniform regardless of the vendors ordering, billing and shipping processes. Potential vendors need to understand the Agency's e-procurement workflow as well as billing and issue resolution processes.

Electronic Catalogue

Spreadsheet technology (e.g. MS Excel) is the simplest, most acceptable form of electronic catalogue submission. The following is a sample of data that may be required.

CRA's catalogue attributes include:

• Product Code*
• Manufacturer*
• Manufacturer Website link
• Unit Price*
• Unit of Measure*
• Description, short (English & French)*
• Description, long (English & French)*
• Product picture, .jpg file format
• GSIN
• Area of Delivery*
• Green Certification*

* Mandatory fields – The remaining fields are highly recommended and desirable.

The onus is on the vendor to ensure the information is accurate. Once submitted, the CRA contracting group reviews the catalogues.

Catalogue pricing and updates are governed by the respective strategic sourcing contracts and can only be modified by the CRA in accordance with those agreements.

Vendors do not have direct access to the CRA e-procurement system and, therefore, their respective online catalogues. Catalogue maintenance is performed only by CRA personnel.

E-Procurement Workflow

The implementation of the Agency's e-procurement system has been undertaken in an environment that is flexible as well as adaptable to the changing requirements of both the Agency and those of our strategic sourcing partners. The development of the related procurement workflow is a constantly evolving process.

That being said, the current procurement workflow, demonstrated in the table below, is a result of both the system's and the users' functionality as well as the Agency's financial and procurement requirements. These requirements encompass communication and information flow between users, the e-procurement system and vendors.