Specialty Chemicals Firm Unifies With E-Procurement

Overview: The article tells that for many companies, the move toward e-procurement is based on a desire to reduce costs or streamline processes. However, for Rohm & Haas, Philadelphia, Pa., a specialty chemical company with 21,500 employees worldwide, e-procurement is an integral part of a strategic shift in the way purchasing is being handled. In 1999, it acquired Morton Chemical, and the electronic materials business was expanding. In the course of integrating these businesses, it wanted to use the larger corporate leverage to obtain more favorable contracts for the goods and services it purchases. To this end, the company assembled a cross-functional team to create commodity contracts across the whole enterprise. At the same time, the company assembled a "best practices" team to identify the best way for purchasing to be handled. While some companies implement e-procurement first, then create supplier contracts and internal processes later, Rohm & Haas had these two structures in place before implementing e-procurement. This was critically important to the success. In the contracts area, the biggest challenge when implementing e-procurement relates to setting up the catalogs.

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Format: HTML | Date: Dec 2000 | Pages: 1