Westport's use of e-Procurement and e-Bidding saves processes and reduces costs.

WESTPORT is a rapid adopter of new technologies as it recognizes that technology investments differentiate it from competitors and provide the foundation for growth.

For instance, as a step towards transparency and to make strides in the speed and efficiency in its procurement regime, Westport carried out all of its procurement electronically.

The use of e- Procurement and e-Bidding saves processes, reduces costs and boosts transparency.

A procurement consultant at IT solutions provider Privasia Sdn Bhd said: "It is a fact that most multinational corporations worldwide use e-Procurement and e-Bidding technology. The only locally-owned and operated organization using a Malaysian-owned and developed world class e-Procurement and e-Bidding solution is Westport.

In the last three years, e-Procurement and e-Bidding bave saved Westport RM75 million. Bids of up to RM200 million have been carried out, with savings of between nine per cent and 60 per cent achieved.

Time spent on the procurement and accounts payable processes has been cut by 76 per cent and the cycle time from a user raising a requisition, gaining budget approval, and the purchase order becoming visible to the supplier has been reduced from days to hours, and in some cases minutes.

Westport said with all of its major sourcing decisions going through e-Bidding, there was total transparency on every ringgit sourced.

The bid can be viewed by a senior manager from anywhere in the world with Internet access. Entry to the bid is password controlled for buyers and suppliers, and a complete electronic bid history is generated showing every bid submitted by whom, and when.

There is no way for a major bid to be anything but fair and ethical, with a full audit trail archived electronically.

Once e-Bidding becomes a commonly-used sourcing methodology, the cost floor of that market is lowered, producing lean and mean pricing, while ensuring supplier profitability, which makes Westport more competitive against other ports not using this technology.

With such a complex and diverse an organisation as Westport, it is essential that every ringgit spent was aggregated, where possible, into enterprise wide contracts that gained the maximum discount through consolidating into fewer suppliers.

This can be achieved by sourcing these contracts centrally via e-Bidding, and then making them available to all users through e-Procurement and e-Catalogues accessible from their computers.

Meanwhile, e-Procurement relies on the supplier base becoming electronic-enabled, taking on the responsibility of creating and maintaining their catalogues, and submitting business 'forms such as DOs and Invoices via the Internet.

Westport said it had invested time and effort in educating and training the supplier base, and the response of Malaysian suppliers had been excellent, with many of them being IT proficient.

With e-Procurement and e-Bidding, Westport guarantees an equal opportunity to all parties, ensures that there is open and fair competition, and, most importantly, maintains the highest ethical standards in all transactions. "Westport can claim to be leaders in the port industry in terms of its procurement processes, people and technology,"

The NST, 26.9.2005