Resumen de Mapping perceptions about the impact of e-procurement solutions over organizations performance

Helder Gomes Costa, Ernani Carvalho da Costa, Rogério Atem de Carvalho, Ruben Huamanchumo Gutiérrez

• español

  Na literatura científica há indícios de que a adoção de ferramentas de e-procurement melhoram o desempenho das organizações em diversos aspectos. Mas, como estas empresas percebem os impactos oriundos da adoção de ferramentas de eprocurement em seus negócios? Essa percepção é semelhante a do fornecedor desse tipo de serviço? Apesar das pesquisas reportadas na literatura, estas questões permanecem pendentes. O presente trabalho apresenta e aplica, um questionário para o mapeamento e contraste dessas percepções, permitindo a identificação de aspectos a serem melhorados para o caso particular estudado.Palavras-chave: sistemas de informação, e-procurement , percepção, e-commerce.Mapping perceptions about the impact of e-procurement solutions over organizations performanceAbstract: Aiming to respond to market and industry demands and pressures, organizations have performed actions to improve their competitiveness and that of their products and services, seeking to increase customer satisfaction, manifested through dimensions such as: good prices, quality, availability and scheduling. Additionally, one can observe the tendency to adopt e-technologies and e-features by the organizations. In this regard, there is a noted increase in the use of e-procurement solutions in order to support client-supplier transactions. In scientific literature there are several registers that reports that the adoption of e-procurement tools increases organizational performance under several criteria. How do the staff of an organization that uses e-procurement tools perceive the increases that come from the adoption of this kind of strategy? Are their perceptions different from those that come from the e-procurement services suppliers view point? Despite the advances in this field, questions like these still face researches. This paper shows an original model developed to map and contrasts these types of perceptions. This model wad based on comparing the data collected through the application of a questionnaire to a sample composed by members of three organizations which implemented an e-procurement solution to support their transactions and members of the company that has provided the e-procurement solution for such companies. It is interesting to highlight that the client companies have a high volume of transactions, being leaders in their segment in the Brazilian market. The development of the questionnaire was based on a bibliographical review of papers regarding e-procurement evaluation. The questionnaire was sent to the sample via an e-mail. As the research has focused on comparing perceptions collected through a form application, a Likert-based scale was adopted in order to support respondents while answering the questionnaire. As the questionnaire was developed to identify perceptions from both supplier and costumer companies, the gaps in perception from these different sides of the business could be caught and also analyzed. The results have highlighted interesting aspects that can suppor t e-procurement solution developers in its management decisions, such as: although customers organization 1, 2 and 3 agree with the statement that «One of the disadvantages of e-procurement system is the lack of trained professionals in the Vendors to support the solution after its implementation, both the Technical Team and the Manager Staff of the e-procurement supplier disagree with this statement. The analysis of this gap indicates the e-procurement supplier needs to increase the availability of trained and qualified professionals to attend to solutions pos-implementation support. Another remarkable result relates to the perceptions regarding the costs of e-procurement solution implementation: both client organizations and solution supplier viewpoints agree that solution costs are high. On the other hand, the results have also indicated that suppliers underestimated the speed of solution implementation and operation. So, deployment costs are estimated in a level higher than necessary. This knowledge is instrumental to the supplier and should be considered when reviewing their costs, which could result in the added benefit of increasing their portfolio of costumers.Key words: Information Systems. E-procurement. Perception. E-commerce.

• English

  Aiming to respond to market and industry demands and pressures, organizations have performed actions to improve their competitiveness and that of their products and services, seeking to increase customer satisfaction, manifested through dimensions such as: good prices, quality, availability and scheduling. Additionally, one can observe the tendency to adopt e-technologies and e-features by the organizations. In this regard, there is a noted increase in the use of e-procurement solutions in order to support client-supplier transactions. In scientific literature there are several registers that reports that the adoption of e-procurement tools increases organizational performance under several criteria. How do the staff of an organization that uses e-procurement tools perceive the increases that come from the adoption of this kind of strategy? Are their perceptions different from those that come from the e-procurement services suppliers view point? Despite the advances in this field, questions like these still face researches. This paper shows an original model developed to map and contrasts these types of perceptions. This model wad based on comparing the data collected through the application of a questionnaire to a sample composed by members of three organizations which implemented an e-procurement solution to support their transactions and members of the company that has provided the e-procurement solution for such companies. It is interesting to highlight that the client companies have a high volume of transactions, being leaders in their segment in the Brazilian market. The development of the questionnaire was based on a bibliographical review of papers regarding e-procurement evaluation. The questionnaire was sent to the sample via an e-mail. As the research has focused on comparing perceptions collected through a form application, a Likert-based scale was adopted in order to support respondents while answering the questionnaire. As the questionnaire was developed to identify perceptions from both supplier and costumer companies, the gaps in perception from these different sides of the business could be caught and also analyzed. The results have highlighted interesting aspects that can support e-procurement solution developers in its management decisions, such as: although customers organization 1, 2 and 3 agree with the statement that «One of the disadvantages of e-procurement system is the lack of trained professionals in the Vendors to support the solution after its implementation, both the Technical Team and the Manager Staff of the e-procurement supplier disagree with this statement. The analysis of this gap indicates the e-procurement supplier needs to increase the availability of trained and qualified professionals to attend to solutions pos-implementation support. Another remarkable result relates to the perceptions regarding the costs of e-procurement solution implementation: both client organizations and solution supplier viewpoints agree that solution costs are high. On the other hand, the results have also indicated that suppliers underestimated the speed of solution implementation and operation. So, deployment costs are estimated in a level higher than necessary. This knowledge is instrumental to the supplier and should be considered when reviewing their costs, which could result in the added benefit of increasing their portfolio of costumers.Key words: Information Systems. E-procurement. Perception. E-commerce.