MeRLIN- Strategic Sourcing Simplified

Strategic Sourcing is an approach to supply chain management that rationalizes and improves the procurement activities of an organization with the use of tools, techniques and data analytics to find the best value. The strategic sourcing or strategic procurement process includes spend analysis, market & supplier analysis combined with effective sourcing, contracting and negotiating of terms to form the ideal supplier base for an organisation. MeRLIN strategic sourcing solution can simplify the complexities associated with strategic procurement through extensive automation and out-of-the box analytics that improve decision making.

Procurement: Procurement is the business process that deals with acquiring products and services for an organization and is usually viewed as a tactical function. Procurement is a broader concept encompassing multiple processes – sourcing, contract management, requisitioning, purchasing, payments, analysis, and supplier management.

• Sourcing: Sourcing is the procurement function responsible for finding the right supplier for meeting the organization needs and is viewed as a ore strategic function. It starts with identifying internal requirements and focuses on researching suppliers, running sourcing events, evaluating responses, and finally making decision based on factors influencing total cost of ownership including unit price, quality and discounts, timely delivery, risk etc.
• Purchasing: Purchasing is the activity that covers the transactional aspects of the procurement cycle including ordering goods, invoicing, receiving goods, making payments, etc.

Strategic Sourcing provides organizations with a number of benefits, especially if they implement a strategic procurement software. It enables organizations to leverage its consolidated purchasing power to find the best value. By bringing a strategic approach to purchasing activities, procurement leaders can ensure that they purchase goods at the best total cost of ownership. The most important benefits of strategic sourcing are:

• Cost reduction: By choosing the right supplier that offers maximum value, the overall cost of procurement of the organization will be reduced, products can be priced competitively and profits can be increased.
• Better supplier relationships: Enhanced communication with suppliers in strategic procurement helps form long and sustainable relationships with the suppliers of the organisation.
• Risk Management: Strategic procurement considers elements beyond the cost of materials. It analyses supplier markets, supplier flexibility and innovation, to mitigate potential risk factors.
• Stable Supply Chain: With good supplier relationships, the current and the future supply requirements of the organisation is taken care. There will not be a situation where the organisation faces a shortage of supply.

An eSourcing solution is a system that facilitates the business process of finding, evaluating, selecting and collaborating with potential suppliers through an online platform. It also includes all the analytical aspects of identifying savings, value, risks etc.

Procure to Pay Solution – A P2P (Procure-to-Pay) software is a system that supports the procure to pay processes that begins with the requisition of goods or services and ends with payment of invoices. It involves four stages namely: selecting & placing an order for goods and services, meeting compliance requirements, collecting delivery and invoice payment.

MeRLIN is an integrated strategic sourcing solution designed to manage the direct and indirect procurement needs of an organisation through effective supplier relationship management, eSourcing and advanced analytics. MeRLIN Strategic Procurement Software has features to cover the upstream activities of procurement including strategic sourcing, contract management, supplier management and procurement analytics as well as purchase order creation & order expediting. It has solutions for Category Management, Supplier Relationship Management, eSourcing (RFx and eAuctions), Contract Management, Requisition Management, eProcurement and Receiving.