Features of the GEP SMART Unified Procurement Software
GEP SMART has been designed for today’s procurement professionals who need and demand greater usability and accessibility. It leverages the cognitive power of AI and scalability of the cloud to offer a single, digital workspace for all types of users. GEP SMART’s mobile-native design is ideal in a world where professionals are increasingly untethered from their physical offices — enabling them to source, procure, pay, and effectively manage the entire procurement planning process from wherever they are working.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is revolutionizing business processes across all functions. The powerful, innovative AI capabilities built into GEP SMART execute processes across the source-to-pay operations spectrum, from spend analysis and sourcing to purchase order processing and invoice management.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
GEP SMART leverages the power of RPA, incorporating AI and machine learning to perform repetitive, conventionally time-consuming tasks and freeing procurement team members to work more strategically.
Big Data Analytics
With AI-powered GEP SMART, your procurement team can perform ongoing as well as ad hoc analysis. This helps you take control of data, unlock its real value and gain insights that enable better planning and decision-making.
Built in the Cloud
GEP SMART procurement software is expressly designed, engineered and purpose-built for flawless operation in the cloud — unlike other solutions that are awkwardly adapted or ported to the cloud. It leverages the scalability, power and security of the world’s premier cloud infrastructure, Microsoft Azure.
Native to Mobile
GEP SMART is a mobile-native procurement platform that is powered with complete apps for iOS and Android devices. Easily access dashboards and reports, take part in sourcing events, and review and approve orders, all on the go. GEP SMART is Procurement on the Move™
“Consumerized” Digital Work Environment
GEP SMART has an intuitive design, stunning visual appeal and intelligent interfaces. It enables fluid and natural movement from task to task and drives the ability to work on any platform. Designed for simplicity (but never oversimplified), it supports role-based user ecosystems tailored to the precise requirements of varying user types and use cases.
The Benefits – Why GEP SMART Procurement Software
Unlike most e-procurement software suites, GEP SMART doesn’t just help you work faster — it accelerates digital procurement transformation. The perfect combination of easy-to-use procurement analytics tools and streamlined process management capabilities make it a user favorite. Here's why your people will simply love using the award-winning procurement software, GEP SMART:
Better Economics
GEP SMART procurement management system is built entirely on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which not only ensures world-class cybersecurity but also erases the need for additional IT infrastructure, integration, personnel, support or maintenance costs.
Increased Savings
GEP SMART sourcing and procurement management software enables realization of significant cost savings. Typical results range from 25 to 40 percent increase in savings post adoption. AI-based spend analytics help you get comprehensive spend visibility and identify additional savings opportunities.
Platform Agnostic
GEP SMART makes it easy to leverage your existing investments and infrastructure as it works seamlessly with SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and all other major ERP and finance or accounting systems.
Proven Best Practices
Enjoy easy access to a rich, perpetually updated repository of field-tested, best-practice processes and workflows, checklists, scorecards, templates and tools for every situation or objective.
User Satisfaction
Intuitive, easy-to-use procurement tools flatten the learning curve, increase adoption and compliance across the business, and sustain use over the long term.
Superior Multilingual Capabilities
GEP SMART has extensive multilingual capabilities (all major European and Asian languages), critical for globally-networked businesses and their complex supply chains.
GEP SMART Procurement Software – Functionality Overview
GEP SMART differs fundamentally from other procurement software suites in that it is one platform, one database and one collaborative workspace built specifically for strategic procurement. It’s the first “e-procurement” software designed according to how sourcing and procurement professionals really work. Regardless of what device you work on, GEP SMART procurement software is easy to deploy, learn and use, and negates the need for extensive training. Take a look at some of its underlying functionalities that simplify all strategic procurement activities:
- Spend Analysis
- Savings Tracking
- Sourcing
- Contract Management
- Supplier Management
- Procure-to-Pay
Spend Analysis
Understand spend quickly and easily. Move from line item to enterprise-wide view with a click. Optimize savings opportunities based on your strategy.
Savings Tracking
Gain real-time visibility into your cost-savings initiatives and their impact. Eliminate redundancy and error from data capture, tracking and measurement.
Sourcing
Quickly identify, evaluate and qualify new suppliers. Streamline your sourcing events and achieve best-value agreements whenever you source.
Contract Management
Reduce the time, effort and paper used to create, manage and monitor contracts. Boost contract utilization and increase spend compliance.
Supplier Management
Monitor thousands of suppliers; use scorecards, surveys, alerts, status and summary reports; track, measure and optimize supplier performance.
Procure-to-Pay
Boost adoption and spend under management with a consumer-like purchasing experience, improve compliance and reduce cycle times.
GEP SMART PROCUREMENT SOFTWARE USE CASES
Procurement Transformation
- Redesign and optimize procurement processes and workflows.
- Implement best practices and standardize procedures across the enterprise.
- Automate manual tasks and eliminate inefficiencies.
- Enable data-driven decision-making through spend analysis and reporting.
Spend Management
- Gain comprehensive visibility into organizational spend.
- Analyze spend patterns, trends, and outliers across categories and suppliers.
- Identify savings opportunities through spend analytics and benchmarking.
- Enforce spend compliance with budgets, policies and contracts.
Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
- Automate the entire procure-to-pay cycle from requisition to payment.
- Enable self-service requisitioning and approval workflows.
- Integrate with legacy ERP software and existing financial systems for seamless data exchange.
- Ensure policy compliance and control over procurement processes across the enterprise.
Source-to-Pay (S2P)
- Streamline the source-to-pay process — from sourcing to payment.
- Conduct strategic sourcing events such as RFPs, auctions and negotiations.
- Streamline all upstream and downstream processes and cut down their source-to-settle cycle time.
- Save time, effort and resource spent on repetitive tasks and focus on activities that drive more value.
Supplier Management
- Maintain a centralized repository of supplier information and performance data.
- Conduct supplier risk assessments and monitor supplier compliance.
- Enable supplier collaboration and communication seamlessly.
- Manage supplier onboarding, performance evaluation and development.
Contract Management
- Centralize contract storage and manage the complete contract lifecycle.
- Automate contract creation, approval workflows and version control.
- Track contract milestones, renewals and expirations.
- Ensure compliance at all times with contract terms and obligations.
"GEP SMART enabled us to have everything centralized in one place. Our users love the GEP SMART platform; it’s user-friendly and intuitive, and even the most senior leaders in the company appreciate its ease of use … they see the results, and are very happy with the efficiency and effectiveness of the solution."
Frequently Asked Questions
Procurement software is business application software that is used to streamline and automate the procurement process within enterprises. It is also known as purchase-to-pay or P2P software.
Procurement software optimizes the entire procurement lifecycle of enterprises, from requisition to payment, helping them to effectively manage their procurement process or purchasing activity.
Procurement software as a service (SaaS) refers to the delivery model of any particular procurement software that is hosted on the cloud and provided to users or enterprises over the internet. The SaaS model implies that the procurement software platform is accessed and used by enterprises on a subscription basis.
The system offers advanced procurement functionality without the need for extensive on-premise infrastructure or significant upfront costs. At the same time, the procurement software provider or vendor ensures continuous software improvements and updates.
GEP SMART procurement software seamlessly integrates with all major ERP or back office systems to streamline and automate the end-to-end procurement process – from spend analysis and strategic sourcing, to contract and supplier management, all the way to savings tracking. Natively built in the cloud, it offers unmatched flexibility, security and scalability through a unified, user-friendly digital platform that boosts adoption and productivity.
GEP SMART is a unified source-to-pay procurement software, which means that unlike stand-alone procurement tools, it brings all the critical functionality — spend analysis, savings tracking, sourcing, contract management, supplier management and procure-to-pay — on a single platform, enabling automation and fluid exchange of data across end-to-end operations.
Yes. The GEP SMART procurement software can work with any F&A or back-end ERP system, such as SAP and Oracle. It can be easily integrated with both on-premises software as well as cloud-based ERP systems.
The implementation time of the GEP SMART procurement suite is directly linked to the complexity and scale of client operations. Some of the key aspects that can have a significant bearing on the implementation time include the number of users (using the platform), geographical locations (the platform will be used across) and the number of functions (the unified source-to-pay platform will enable).
Unlike other platforms that are not optimized for user experience and are complex to navigate, GEP SMART enables an out and out user-friendly and easy-to-navigate experience. It’s intuitive design and intelligent interfaces aid quick learning and adoption, thereby limiting the training efforts to a bare minimum. Read more about GEP SMART’s user-centric design
A significant level of customization is possible with the GEP SMART platform. It can be configured to meet customer-specific requirements and use cases. Our technology experts work toward understanding your business needs and accordingly provide the necessary configurations and workflows to customize GEP SMART.
GEP SMART is designed to make working with customers a seamless experience. Here are its top three benefits to suppliers:
Single version of the truth: Suppliers and customers log in to the same system ensuring everyone gets the same view of the truth.
Self-service portal: Suppliers can easily update profile and/or product information, participate in sourcing events, perform negotiations and issue invoices, among a host of other actions.
Better interaction: transparent buyer-supplier information exchange improves collaboration and promotes stronger business partnerships.
GEP SMART is native to the market-leading Microsoft Azure cloud platform that provides unmatched data security, scalability, responsiveness, uptime and performance along with easy implementation and timely, topnotch maintenance support – helping improve the effectiveness of your procurement process.
GEP SMART channelizes the full transformative power of new and emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, RPA, big data analytics and IoT to deliver high performance and next-level results.
AI-powered procurement software — by combining advantages such as predictive power, intelligent automation and prescriptive recommendations — drives greater efficiency, insights and value across the procurement life cycle. Key capabilities and features of an effective AI-enabled procurement solution include:
Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms analyze spend patterns to forecast future demand, prices, budgets needs and supply risks ahead of time for smart just-in-time decisions.
Automated Workflow: AI bots handle high volume, rules-based tasks in the requisition, purchase order, invoice processing cycles automatically freeing up staff.
Intelligent Search: Natural language processing and image recognition by AI make searching for and comparing goods/services easier in order to find the best contracts.
Supplier Risk Assessment: AI evaluates risks associated with suppliers on parameters such as financial health, regulatory compliance issues and market events for risk mitigation.
Contract Lifecycle Management: AI tracks contract milestones, analyzes past agreements, and provides recommendations to optimize terms and pricing for renewal negotiations.
Optimized Mobile Accessibility: AI makes possible intuitive mobile apps that make it easy for users to approve purchase requests, query order statuses, chat with intelligent bots for real-time procurement support.
User-Friendly Interface: AI-enhanced interfaces such as flexible dashboards, interactive reporting, voice commands and conversational bots should facilitate straightforward navigation.
A procurement platform is an end-to-end solution that helps enterprises optimize and manage their procurement process. Advanced procurement hubs employ advanced digital environments that unify and simplify procurement activities ranging from provider sourcing to purchase execution and analysis. With AI-driven capabilities, procurement platforms can also automate and expedite processes like bidding negotiations and transaction processing. Enterprises can leverage procurement technology to drastically reduce repetitive manual efforts, errors across the source-to-pay (S2P) cycle, and at the same time cut costs. Other capabilities of a procurement platform include supplier management, sourcing, purchase order creation and tracking, and data reporting.
Automated procurement software systems offer several key advantages over their traditional counterparts. With faster response times and intelligent workflow management, they can drastically cut manual work by automating repetitive tasks, leading to substantial cost savings by eliminating errors and identifying opportunities to reduce expenses. With real-time visibility into spending patterns and supplier performance, automated procurement software such as GEP SMART enhances transparency across the procurement function.
With enhancements across the board, automated procurement software systems are scalable and capable of handling increased volumes with growth in business — thereby acting as a comprehensive solution to the complexities of modern procurement.
GEP's procurement platform is loved for its comprehensive suite of procurement solutions, which typically support international suppliers and multi-currency transactions. Key features that facilitate this include:
1. Global Supplier Management: GEP's platform enables organizations to manage suppliers from various countries, ensuring compliance with local regulations and standards.
2. Multi-Currency Support: The GEP SMART procurement software platform is designed to handle transactions in multiple currencies, which is essential for businesses operating in global markets. This feature helps streamline procurement processes and financial reporting.
3. Integration with Financial Systems: GEP’s platform can easily integrate with existing financial systems to manage currency conversions and ensure accurate financial data across different regions.
GEP's procurement software ensures compliance by centralizing procurement activities, enforcing role-based access control, and automating compliance checks. The centralized platform maintains version control, enforces automated approval processes and allows for granular control over user access. Automated checks can verify transactions in real time, while comprehensive reporting and analytics can track compliance metrics and identify potential issues. By leveraging these capabilities, GEP's procurement tool helps companies maintain compliance, mitigate risks, and improve overall procurement efficiency.
