Impact of the Internet on Procurement

We believe that the Internet and related technologies will help change the role of the purchasing department, from a transaction-oriented function to a more managerial one that focuses on establishing and maintaining relationships with suppliers, third parties, and internal customers, and leveraging corporate buying power. In its new role, procurement will also manage the technological infrastructure necessary to either automate transactions fully or to empower end users to perform many transactions without the direct involvement of the purchasing personnel. These trends have major implications on procurement processes, policies, and technologies, and change management approaches. We discuss this statement by looking at the state of the art and trends in Internet-based procurement systems, and by using the results of an empirical survey that we conducted recently.