Value assessment of e-procurement projects: a modular methodology

An increasing number of companies, over the last few years, has introduced or is planning to adopt some kinds of e-business solutions. They allow new form of communication between buyers and sellers and they are expected to provide opportunities to create new marketplaces, whilst firm’s productivity and efficiency should benefit. Because of the recent history of such type of projects, it hasn’t been possible yet to identify neither clear guidelines for the implementation process nor evaluation procedures for assessing the validity of a certain e-business project. Furthermore, it has to be noted that a high number of e-projects have failed or haven’t led to the expected results. This paper focus on a particular aspect of this new way of doing business: the transfer of a part of purchasing activities on the net, the so called e-procurement. The proposed methodology aims to give a structured procedure for both a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation of a certain e-procurement investments starting from the identification of the main relationships among relevant elements influenced by the e-procurement introduction (activities, performance indicators and company’s features). The analysis includes also some considerations of strategic nature and should led to the redaction of a final report which has to support managers during the investment decision by highlighting expected benefits. The application of the proposed methodology to an Italian firm which has introduced the e-procurement is described.