ABSTRACT
Purchasing, or procurement, is about buying goods from suppliers as inputs to your transformation process. The way this is carried out has changed considerably since the arrival of Internet technology and e-commerce solutions. Notably, purchasing can be carried out through specially developed extranets. More recently, e-marketplaces and exchanges have been set up where suppliers compete for contracts using e-procurement software. One such is Covisint, a global, e-business exchange for the automotive industry – www.covisint.com. Not all e-procurement ventures have been successful, as is the case with other first-wave Internet ideas, but as with any new technology, people will learn how best to use it through experimentation, evaluation and adaptation.
