e-commerce partner, ABS, the company has developed an online supply chain system, linking suppliers right through to distributors. This system has enabled H&R to streamline its stock control and order processing, dramatically improving efficiency.
Page 5: New technology in corporate services
Microsoft 5 Image 3Corporate purchasing - or materials, resources and operations purchasing (mro) - covers the purchase of items such as office supplies, support services and consumables. Like many companies looking to reduce costs, Microsoft found that its own internal purchasing system was time consuming, labour intensive and inefficient. A paper based system is usually complicated to explain to users and suppliers. The answer was to develop a streamlined e-commerce application providing an easy-to-use online form for ordering anything from office supplies to lunch.
Microsoft developed MS Market, an Intranet application, which works through the firm’s internal communications network. It proved so effective that the programme has been expanded to include the ordering of virtually all goods within the company.
As total orders exceed £1.6 billion, Microsoft is able to negotiate excellent terms with the suppliers who are in turn assured of a consistent flow of orders. The cost for processing direct purchase orders has dropped from $60 per purchase to only $5. A typical transaction now takes three minutes and most orders are filled