Three essential tools for the COVID-19 era

To cope with COVID-19 and ensure that their businesses continue to operate, buyers can rely on smart procurement tools. Zycus, a leading supplier of sourcing and procurement solutions, takes a look at the current risks and challenges, the consequences of the health crisis and three key tools to address them.

Challenges related to COVID-19

In recent months, companies have been adapting to very unpredictable circumstances. More specifically, procurement departments are facing four main difficulties:

• Supply chain disruptions, which have affected nearly three quarters of companies[1], are now the main source of risk related to COVID-19.
• Unscheduled purchases, made at the last minute increase during times of crisis.
• Supplier risk management, whether related to cost, quality or delivery, is becoming increasingly complex due to market fluctuations.
• Contractual risk management with force majeure and impossibility of performance clauses is also a hot topic.

Three tools for addressing these challenges

• A supplier management tool makes managing detailed supplier information easier and paves the way for analysing supplier portfolios by strategic level, by category, by location and more. This data, combined with supply chain factors, allows you to list high-risk suppliers easily, giving priority to those who will help to continue your operations.
• A sourcing solution allows for rapid management, for items such as a request for a quotation, and builds a resilient supply chain. In the current situation, having a very clear view of stock levels is also helpful to identify which products need to be listed.
• Contract management software, enhanced by artificial intelligence, automatically monitors contracts and detects the hidden risks and opportunities within large volumes of documents.

Given the current situation, and as the coming months are set to be just as challenging, companies have a vested interest in becoming more flexible and agile. Isn't this the perfect time for companies to move towards digitalisation and equip themselves with these tools?