The activation of a purchasing and contracting process arises from a request or requisition stage where what is planned begins to take shape in a real moment where it is necessary to have internal clarity of the requirement in order to launch it in a later step. to the market and obtain offers adjusted to real needs. 

Context on budget requests and requests

Previously, requests or requisitions corresponded to a purely budgetary step where, through the ERP or control system used by the companies (even manual), a validation was carried out in order to guarantee that the purchasing and contracting resources related to the items were available. The requirement , however, although this step is required today, is not the central issue to carry out an effective purchasing or contracting process.

Now, the most relevant topics are the technical specification transmitted in a complete and clear manner, added to the policies and guidelines of the organization at the contracting level that complement the specific need. 

In this way, it is necessary to generate spaces where technical, strategic supply, environmental, legal and even safety issues come together to have a clear and complete result of the documentation of the process that will be exposed to the market to obtain the best offers. . Likewise, it is important to guarantee, based on the information of the process, that the rules of the purchasing or contracting process to be carried out have the appropriate evaluation criteria that guarantee that the selection of the supplier adjusts to the holistic needs.

Technology: an ally 

Technology today becomes a powerful tool, allowing spaces for understanding and discussion to be generated in the systems to obtain clear documentation of the process as a deliverable in a traceable and organized manner, even with the approval stages that at the level internal must be supplied.

In this way, it is important to explore good practices at a procedural and support level in order to strengthen this activation of the process that will surely bring satisfactory results to our management.