By : Junaid Ali, CEO of eINDUSTRIFY

A Smarter Procurement Solution

The landscape of industrial procurement is undergoing a transformative shift, shaped by the rising tide of remote work and the surge in online transactions. As businesses adapt to this new reality, the pulse of industrial commerce beats to the rhythm of innovation and digital transformation, ushering in a future where procurement is more efficient, timely and cost-effective.

Selling and buying industrial products has changed for good. While much of the world slowed down and was impacted significantly by COVID-19, some sectors, like energy and IT infrastructure, grasped the opportunity to grow. According to the 2020 ARTS release, online sales increased by 43% in 2020. Emerging from the pandemic, many industries now demand round-the-clock product availability and transactions and a more streamlined procurement process than has ever been available before.

However, the manner in which many industrial products are currently resourced, in terms of procurement and supply chain complexity and opaqueness, is no longer fit for purpose on two levels. At a micro level, the traditional seller/buyer model perpetuates historic inefficacies in how one company does business with another. On a macro level, it holds back the urgent improvements required in global energy and power infrastructures to support the necessary pick up of pace in the transformation toward net-zero targets.

Put simply, the infrastructure that drives industrial projects requires much greater transparency, connectivity, and speed.

The development of a more streamlined, faster, and worldwide digital purchasing model and supply chain environment for the industrial sectors have been defined by eIndustrify as ‘frictionless procurement.’ Frictionless procurement combines insights and investment into action, empowering accelerated timeframes through advanced digitalization, enabling companies to succeed in this rapidly evolving landscape for procurement. Frictionless procurement is already advancing. For many companies today, the choice is stark: those that embrace frictionless procurement can profit from such a transformation, but those that don’t run the risk of being left behind.  

Recognizing the unlimited potential of this commercial revolution for buyers and sellers, eIndustrify and Prismecs have launched an online solution that will play a critical role in enabling frictionless procurement. The platform improves the interface between buyer and seller by improving discoverability, predictability, and transaction speed. It will deliver purchasing clarity and disrupt the traditional seller-buyer status quo plagued by ambiguity to meet rising demand and support the drive towards sustainability goals.

Founded in 2019 to bring purpose-built solutions helping enterprises modernize outdated models hindering advancement, Prismecs works globally, providing project management experience spanning construction, equipment integration, and maintenance to deliver complex industrial assets. Prismecs supports the oil and gas, power generation, renewables and metals, mining and cement industries. As an innovative platform launched by Prismecs, eIndustrify offers a range of procurement tools and services optimized for modern businesses. Whether companies want to streamline procurement processes, reduce lead times, or simply save money on purchases, eIndustrify has the tools and expertise to succeed.

The eIndustrify platform is, in essence, the world’s first “virtual mall,” with “storefront” availability for industrial product manufacturers and buyers to engage and do business. Pairing this online marketplace model seamlessly with Prismecs's flexible and global service support and on-the-ground workforce support makes the solution unique. Sellers of all sizes previously restricted to supplying local buyers will have access to international markets and multiple revenue streams without the need for extensive internal capacity, receiving support for installation, commissioning, servicing, and warranty work from Prismecs' expert engineers stationed around the world.

Advancing frictionless procurement will require continual technological progression, building on pandemic-spurred digital advancements to achieve a frictionless state. Alibaba and Amazon exemplify data-driven business-to-consumer platforms that demonstrate the potential for fully digitizing the selling and sourcing of industrial products. According to a 2021 survey, 87 percent of B2B buyers identified new suppliers online compared to 78% pre-pandemic. The frictionless procurement approach to commerce will eliminate intermediaries, empowering OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) worldwide to connect directly with SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and enable procurement teams to secure the most competitive prices from the global market.

What’s Wrong with the Old Way of Buying and Selling?

The power and energy industries must change to meet larger societal and climate imperatives ahead. Those changes must include the way they carry out business transactions if pressing net zero deadlines are to be met. Conventional industrial procurement models have long been outdated but are now wholly unfit for purpose given rapid urbanization and infrastructure decentralization. Problems persist around the lack of visibility and quality data for buyers and sellers, hindering their ability to make informed decisions.

The prevalence of excessive intermediaries further complicates transactions, introducing unnecessary layers and inefficiencies. Outdated distribution channels can contribute to slow progress, impeding the pace at which transactions can be conducted. Limited competition among sellers results in cost inefficiencies and inflexible price structures.

Limitations also exist in traditional marketing methods used by companies to sell products. Purchasers are no longer prepared to invest valuable time in searching websites and scanning through product images for the right equipment. They want to know immediately if you have what they need.

With frictionless procurement, the barriers to entering the procurement market are significantly reduced. Information on product availability is instant, making it faster and easier for sellers of all sizes to connect with global purchasers.

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Benefits of the Frictionless Procurement Model

Frictionless procurement offers the capability to bring SMEs and OEMs together worldwide at a rapid pace. Furthermore, it has the potential to position the energy sector, which has often been criticized for lagging behind industries such as aviation and automotive when it comes to new technology adoption, ahead of these rival verticals in enhancing digital technology adoption in the procurement process.

The frictionless model disrupts the current procurement landscape, overcoming current obscurity by giving buyers more clarity on what products are available and what they’re purchasing and providing OEMs with a better understanding of which products are selling most and how they are being marketed. It also advances smart buying, such as seamless cross-buying of complementary products.

For sellers and purchasers, it opens the door to new markets, liberating them from excessive geographic constraints. European manufacturers can ship products to Africa and the US and vice versa, identifying gaps in manufacturing to enhance global efficiency. Buyers, in turn, gain expanded options, just-in-time availability, and cost savings by accessing more flexible price structures from the open international market without being tied to limited and often more expensive local sellers. With many smaller-sized OEMs working under leaner and more flexible business models, this can enable faster technology adoption, which can generate efficiencies and lower costs for them and lead to benefits for customers.

How the eIndustrify Digital Procurement Platform Works

eIndustrify’s Digital Procurement Platform emerges as a transformative force in frictionless procurement, reshaping how manufacturers and buyers engage in business. By simplifying and streamlining onboarding, transactions, and compliance requirements, the approach overcomes previous barriers to transacting online. The platform offers immediate access to personalized online stores for OEMs, eliminating the need for costly standalone e-commerce investments. Each seller is paired with a dedicated store manager responsible for uploading seller-provided product catalogs. eIndustrify also undertakes all ERP (enterprise resource planning) work and regulations integration. This breakthrough approach extends a competitive edge to smaller sellers, granting them unprecedented access to a global network of larger buyers with little upfront cost.

Buyers on the eIndustrify platform experience an expansive array of choices with hundreds of searchable catalogs at their fingertips and rapid identification of appropriate products. The procurement process gains momentum through frictionless transactions facilitated by seamless contact between buyers and sellers. Product catalogs undergo meticulous review by eIndustrify personnel, guaranteeing that the offered products align with the quality standards expected by purchasers and meet national and international industrial regulations. The platform takes the commitment to quality a step further by providing buyers with product delivery time guarantees, enhancing speed, transparency, and reliability in the procurement process. The goal throughout remains to introduce simplicity where needless complexity previously dominated.

Servicing the Solution

Pairing the platform, which simplifies transactions, compliance, data insights, and more, with Prismecs' global background in professional services produces comprehensive seller enablement. Prismecs brings unparalleled power to the partnership through its global strength and extensive experience. With a robust international presence and a wealth of expertise, Prismecs empowers sellers with efficiency, traceability, and visibility to improve product quality. Sellers no longer need to be multimillion-dollar companies to engage with new markets, nor do they need to supply a service team or other resources. Sellers can gain turnkey global installation and support without building extensive internal capacity. With Prismecs’ engineers spanning continents, sellers now gain vital capabilities around shipment, field installation, commissioning, maintenance, and traceability analytics, which were absent previously.

Enabling Improvements with Big Data and AI

Frictionless procurement using enhanced data sets the stage for unlocking further value as intelligent and connected components continue entering mainstream use. Products already emerging, like smart valves that facilitate remote monitoring and diagnostics, enable greater clarity and accuracy for buyers and sellers to predict product life span and maintenance, reducing the risk of costly, unscheduled asset downtime and delay while new parts are sourced.

Rich data also opens the door for more accurate spend analysis for buyers. With the introduction of AI, buyer-seller matching grows more precise through algorithms to best meet customer equipment needs.

On a macro level, frictionless procurement powered by big data enables governments to gain valuable industry insights on national spending patterns. The utilization of big data can provide governments with unparalleled visibility into domestic production and cross-border trade flows.

As a breakthrough approach, it sets a precedent for replication across various industrial sectors, marking a shift in how businesses engage in the digital marketplace.

Facing Procurement Challenges Head-on

Across business, increased digitalization is disrupting conventional buying and selling models. There is no going back to how transactions were carried out before the pandemic when it comes to industrial procurement. More than 75% of B2B buyers and sellers say they now prefer the convenience of remote human engagement over face-to-face interactions. Connectivity, speed, and transparency are essential for modern industrial equipment transactions. Existing buying and selling models pose too many challenges around inefficiency and opaqueness, wasting time and money.

As we accelerate toward the deadline of meeting net zero goals, the speed of transformation required in energy and power infrastructure and the way projects are resourced must increase. Against the backdrop of a need for urgent change, current procurement models are not fit for purpose. There is no time to waste in the adoption of frictionless procurement.

In partnership with Prismecs, eIndustrify is advancing frictionless procurement solutions to modernize current model limitations, changing industrial buying and selling for good. Through relentless innovation and a commitment to frictionless procurement, eIndustrify and Prismecs are replacing painful transaction friction points with flexibility and intelligence.

By boldly expanding purchasing possibilities, frictionless procurement is ready to revolutionize buying and selling to benefit the industrial equipment sector and support wider environmental goals.

Shape Future with eIndustrify Procurement

Tags: ["Power Generation"    "eProcurement"    "Procurement"    "Industrial Products"    "Supply Chain"    "Power Generation"    "B2B"]