Free Webinar: Streamlining Procurement Practices

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (SCM) offers a flexible, collaborative, and reliable platform, which works to boost productivity and improve profitability. The platform uses automated processes and predictive analytics to free up your and your employees’ valuable time, previously spent performing manual, time-consuming tasks.

Procurement is one of the many practices SCM helps to streamline, covering the process in its entirety, from raising the initial requisition all the way through to processing the payment after receiving the order.

Our video demo (below) offers a deep dive into the world of procurement, highlighting how organisations can use the software to enhance their internal procurement practices by automating a variety of time and money-saving activities.

Just in case you don’t have time to watch the demo in full, we’ve created a helpful rundown of some of the main processes Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management works to automate and improve.

Purchasing processes

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management works to automate your processes and can be tailored to meet the requirements of your system and current practices.

Whether you're allowing users to create their own requisitions in a decentralised approach or opting for a more centralised approach of having one nominated employee raising all requisitions, SCM can help streamline the process.

The automated workflows allow requests to be submitted, sending them to the relevant team for review and approval. If submitted by an individual user, you can opt for the requests to be sent to a procurement team, allowing the price and suppliers to be inputted before checking against a budget.

When raising requestions, SCM offers internal and external purchase catalogues, showing all available items and services, depending on the user’s access level. This allows for a more efficient and direct process, without the need to check stock manually.

There’s no need to worry about users not following purchase policies, as SCM ensures these are being adhered to right from the first point of entry. Once the request has been completed, checked against the budget, and approved by a senior manager, it will be turned into a purchase order and sent directly to the chosen supplier.

Creating requests for quotation

Using SCM, you can create and send quotation requests to a variety of suppliers, outlining any key requirements. The automated process captures any supplier questions and responses and allows you to score the quotes based on pricing, delivery, experience, etc. You’re able to view all the quotes and scores in a table, allowing you to make a decision quickly and efficiently, without having to manually go through each quote.

Being able to easily compare not only lets you select the most suitable supplier, but also allows you to document and evidence the entire process. This can be vital to ensuring you’re compliant with all internal and external policies.

Once you’ve selected your chosen supplier, the system will automatically generate a purchase order, in turn rejecting all other quotes.

Collaboration with suppliers

With D365 SCM you can give your suppliers access to your system, significantly reducing manual steps – and time – between transactions.

Don’t worry, you still have full control, and depending on your relationship with the supplier you can set various levels of access. In general, supplier access is quite restricted and is based entirely on the security roles you give them, you even have the ability to verify their updates to the system.

Through the platform, your suppliers will be able to access workflows, allowing them to view and create invoices, confirm orders, and suggest necessary changes to orders. As you’re no longer relying on integration between different systems, any updates you or your supplier make will be instant, meaning decisions can be made quickly without the need for manual back and forth.

Managing contracts

Within D365 SCM, there are two primary methods of capturing supplier-specific guides, pricing, and discounts. These are called ‘trade agreements’ and ‘purchase agreements’.

Trade agreements are commonly used when pricing is based on a per-order basis. This means it doesn’t matter how many times an order is placed, as there is no commitment made.

Purchase agreements represent the contract terms you have agreed with your suppliers, committing to a certain number of orders, over an extended period of time. With this method, you are able to order directly from the agreement and keep track of how many items you’ve purchased. As all the work has been done upfront, you’re not having to waste time creating requests for every single order, streamlining the entire purchasing life cycle.

Inside your configurable workplace, you can choose to view any expiring purchase agreements, helping to keep track of your workload and contracts that need reviewing, ensuring the best use of your time possible.

Personalised training libraries

SCM is completely customisable to your organisation, and the systems and processes you use. We understand getting used to new software can be tricky; that’s why we offer tailored training libraries – defined by us, for you.

The library provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the platform, showing you exactly how to perform your tasks and complete actions. Whether it’s how to attach requisition documents or how to create new purchase agreements, you have access to any training or reminders you need.