WESTPORT carries out all procurement electronically to move towards transparency and increase the speed and efficiency of its procurement.

The use of e-procurement and e-bidding resulted in savings, cost reduction and transparency, which has led to good corporate governance.

"It is a fact that most MNCs worldwide use some form of e-procurement and e-bidding technology," Peter Webb of e-procurement consultancy firm Privasia Sdn Bhd said.

"To our knowledge, the only locally-owned and operated organisation using a Malaysian-owned, and developed world class e-procurement and e-bidding solution is Westport." In the last three years, this e-procurement and e-bidding initiatives, saved Westport more than RM75 million.

Bids of up to US$50 million (RM190 million) have been carried out, with savings of between nine per cent and 60 per cent are regularly achieved.

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

E-procurement has delivered transparency for Westport's daily procured goods and services.

With all of Westport's major sourcing decisions going through e-bidding technology, there is transparency on every ringgit sourced.

The bid can be viewed by any senior manager 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 in a marketplace, the cost floor of that market is lowered, producing lean and mean pricing, while ensuring supplier profitability, which makes Westport more competitive than other ports not using this technology.

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

This can only be achieved by sourcing these contracts centrally via e-bidding, and then making them available to all users through electronic catalogues accessible from a desktop.

This means that procurement controls the pricing through the e-procurement system, but the users have ready access to the suppliers through the e-procurement system. Therefore, a streamlined and non bureaucratic process is created that generates a high level of user and supplier satisfaction, and ensures that the lowest possible prices are always being paid.

E-procurement relies on the supplier base becoming e-enabled, taking on the responsibility of creating and maintaining their catalogues via the Internet, and submitting business forms such as DOs and Invoice via Web EDI.

Westport has invested time and effort into educating and training the supplier base, and the response of Malaysian suppliers have been excellent, with many of them being IT proficient. With e-procurement and e-bidding, Westport guarantees an equal opportunity to all parties, ensures there is open competition, and maintains the highest ethical standards in all transactions.

The NST, 28.3.2005