A Survey on the Antecedent Conditions of e-Procurement Implementation and Use and
the Impact of e-Procurement on Procurement Performance

Note: Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement), in this study, refers to the use of web-based information and communication technologies (especially the Internet) in order to support the individual or all stages of the operational and strategic procurement activities, such as catalogue search, item requisition request, approval, purchase order, delivery receiving, payment, identifying sourcing opportunities, supplier negotiation and contract. Now, please click on the appropriate button. Please answer all the questions with regard to the particular division/unit of your organisation. If any of the item in the questionnaires is irrelevant or not applicable to your organisational context, please click the N/A button as provided.

Part A: ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION AND E-PROCUREMENT ACTIVITIES

Q1. Please enter the name of your organisation/agency (or division/unit if applicable).

Q2. Is your organisation best characterised as:
Private, for profit
Private, not for profit
Public, federal level
Public, state level
Public, local level

Q3. In which area is your position classified?
Procurement
Information Systems
Finance
Other (Please specify)

Q4. Which of the following best describes your position in the company? Please check only one:
Top executive
Senior manager
Middle-level manager
Purchasing officer/supervisor or non-managerial procurement specialist

Q5. Years in the current position. Please enter.

Q6. Please indicate your organisation’s annual procurement expenditure (including direct and indirect procurement) for the last financial year
Less than $10 million
$10 million ~ $100 million
$100 million ~ $500 million
$500 million ~ $1 billion
More than $1 billion

Q7. From an overall organisational level perspective, to what extent has your organisation used e-Procurement? Please click on the button that best describes the organisation's level of e-Procurement use in terms of overall procurement transactions.
No intention to implement - our organisation does not intend use e-Procurement within the next 12 months (or in the near future).
Intention to implement- our organisation has an e-Procurement implementation strategy in place or is preparing plans to investigate e-Procurement within the next 12 months (or in the near future).
Evaluation or Pilot use - our organisation has purchased `trial' capabilities or implemented `pilot' projects and is currently evaluating the possible use of e-Procurement.
Commitment - our organisation has specific plans and made formal commitments to utilise e-Procurement.
Limited deployment - our organisation has established a programme of regular but limited use of e-Procurement.
Generalised deployment - our organisation has deployed one or more forms of e-Procurement in its generalised capacity and integrated e-Procurement in the majority of information systems.
Rejection - our organisation has evaluated and rejected the use of e-Procurement.

Note: If your answer was "No intention to implement" or "Rejection" please go to Q22 at the end of this survey. Otherwise, please continue to Q8.

Q8. To what extent does your organisation use the following e-Procurement technologies in the conduct of procurement functions/activities in terms of overall procurement transaction? Please click on the appropriate button that best describes the level of e-Procurement use for each technology as it applies to your organisation.
No intention to implement Intention to implement Evaluation or Pilot use Commitment Limited deployment Generalised deployment Rejection
Third party e-Procurement system (e.g. Oracle, SAP, Ariba etc.)
In-house integrated e-Procurement system
Electronic catalogues
Electronic marketplace
Electronic auction/reverse-auction
Electronic tendering
Other (Procurement card/e-Payment, e-Invoicing, Web-based ERP Procurement module, Web-based EDI, Consortia markets etc. - please specify)

Q9. Among the e-Procurement technologies through which your organisation uses (or plans to use) to conduct procurement in terms of overall procurement transactions, please indicate the FOCAL e-Procurement technology. When answering the questions below, please take into account this FOCAL (predominant) e-Procurement technology ('e-Procurement' hereafter) unless otherwise stated.

Q10. How long has it been since your organisation first adopted e-Procurement? Please click on the appropriate button.
0-6 months
6 to 12 months
1 to 2 years
3 to 4 years
over 5 years

Q11. Please indicate if each of the following transactional and strategic procurement activities in your organization are assisted by e-Procurement (If you are in the pilot stage or intend to implement e-Procurement, please indicate if you think the procurement activities will be assisted by e-Procurement.
Yes No
Information Search
Requisition Request
Approval
Purchase Order
Delivery Receiving (Tracking)
Payment
Identifying Sourcing Opportunities
Negotiate
Contract
Other (Please specify)

Note: You have already completed about 40% of the Survey. Please continue to part B.

Part B: ABOUT YOUR PROCUREMENT PRACTICES AND E-PROCUREMENT ADOPTION/USE.

TRANSACTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Q12 With respect to the implementation and use of e-Procurement, please indicate to what extent you disagree or agree with the following statements. Click on the appropriate button for each statement. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the 'N/A' button.
1
Strongly disagree 		2
Disagree 		3
Neutral 		4
Agree 		5
Strongly Agree 		N/A
12.1 A majority of the products/services purchased using e-Procurement need to be designed specifically to our needs.
12.2 A majority of the products/services purchased using e-Procurement need to be tailored specifically to our needs before we buy.
12.3 A majority of the products/services purchased using e-Procurement are of value to only a small number of buyers.
12.4 For a majority of the products/services purchased through e-Procurement, it will be costly (in terms of time and resources) to switch to a different supplier.
12.5 The underlying skills associated with e-Procurement are rapidly changing in our organisation.
12.6 The optimal configuration of hardware and software required for e-Procurement is rapidly changing in our organisation.
12.7 Our organisation enters into many unusual transactions via e-Procurement.
12.8 A majority of the products/services purchased using e-Procurement involve frequent purchases.

TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Q13. With respect to the implementation and use of e-Procurement, please indicate to what extent you disagree or agree with the following statements. Click on the appropriate button for each statement. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the 'N/A' button.
1
Strongly disagree 		2
Disagree 		3
Neutral 		4
Agree 		5
Strongly Agree 		N/A
13.1 The financial benefits (e.g. ROI) of using e-Procurement are apparent to our organisation.
13.2 Using e-Procurement has allowed our organisation to focus on our strategic procurement activities (e.g. strategic sourcing).
13.3 Changes in work procedures associated with using e-Procurement are compatible with our organisation's procurement policies and guidelines.
13.4 Using e-Procurement facilitates the information sharing among various existing information systems (e.g. Finance, Accounting).
13.5 Using e-Procurement is easy to transmit, integrate and process data from suppliers/trading partners.
13.6 e-Procurement is conceptually difficult to understand from a business perspective.
13.7 e-Procurement is conceptually difficult to understand from a technical perspective.
13.8 It is difficult to understand and visualise the whole process of procure-to-pay (P2P) using e-Procurement.

ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Q14. With respect to the implementation and use of e-Procurement, please indicate to what extent you disagree or agree with the following statements. Click on the appropriate button for each statement. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the 'N/A' button.
1
Strongly disagree 		2
Disagree 		3
Neutral 		4
Agree 		5
Strongly Agree 		N/A
14.1 Our main trading partners that have adopted and used e-Procurement have benefited greatly.
14.2 Our main trading partners that have adopted and used e-Procurement are perceived favorably by suppliers.
14.3 Many of our suppliers that are currently using the Internet-based systems are demanding us to use e-Procurement.
14.4 Significant pressure is placed on our organisation to participate in the e-Procurement by our parent organisation/government.
14.5 Our organisation actively participates in industry/government, trade, or professional associations that promote adoption and use of e-Procurement.

ORGANISATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Q15. With respect to the implementation and use of e-Procurement, please indicate the extent to which you disagree or agree with the following statements. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the 'N/A' button.
1
Strongly disagree 		2
Disagree 		3
Neutral 		4
Agree 		5
Strongly Agree 		N/A
15.1 The senior management in our organisation actively participates in establishing the business case, formulating e-Procurement implementation strategy and documenting formal action/communication plan for the organisational use of e-Procurement.
15.2 The senior management in our organisation actively participates in documenting operational and management controls that measure, monitor and report on the progress of e-Procurement implementation and procurement performance.
15.3 The senior management in our organisation actively participates in providing user training and encouraging organisational learning on the use of e-Procurement.
15.4 The senior management in our organisation actively participates in launching supplier adoption campaigns (e.g. educating suppliers, providing incentives etc.) to encourage larger as well as SME and indigenous suppliers to adopt e-Procurement.
15.5 The senior management in our organisation actively participates in identifying/acknowledging the key risk/barriers to e-Procurement and in documenting the risk mitigation/barrier elimination plan.
15.6 Our internal customers are concerned about the change in the job content because of e-Procurement.
15.7 Our internal customers are concerned about the loss of the status because of e-Procurement.
15.8 Our internal customers are concerned about the alteration of relationships with the suppliers because of e-Procurement.
15.9 Our internal customers are concerned about uncertainty/unfamiliarity/misinformation because of e-Procurement.
15.10 Our internal customers are concerned about job insecurity because of e-Procurement.
15.11 Our internal customers are concerned about the change in decision-making approach because of e-Procurement.

Q16. With respect to the implementation and use of e-Procurement, please indicate the extent to which you disagree or agree with the following statements. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the 'N/A' button.
1
Strongly disagree 		2
Disagree 		3
Neutral 		4
Agree 		5 Strongly Agree N/A
16.1 Authentication arrangements (i.e. the process of identifying the entity that sends or receives information) for e-Procurement meet our organisation's needs.
16.2 The interoperability framework adopted by our organisation encourages the adoption of a consistent approach to e-Procurement.
16.3 The existing legal framework is technology-neutral and supports the use of e-Procurement.
16.4 The e-Procurement framework adopted by our organisation supports the use of open standards (e.g. XML).
16.5 Our internal customers feel comfortable regarding security and privacy when using e-Procurement.
16.6 Our suppliers/trading partners have Internet-based systems to engage in e-Procurement.
16.7 Our suppliers/trading partners feel comfortable (regarding security, privacy etc.) engaging in e-Procurement.
16.8 Our suppliers/trading partners are willing to share information electronically with our organisation.
16.9 Our suppliers/trading partners consider it important to engage in electronic business.

Note: You have already completed about 80% of the Survey. Please continue to part C.

Part C: ABOUT THE IMPACT ON PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Please indicate the % benefits gained in the following procurement performance measures AFTER implementing/using e-Procurement in your division/agency. It is suggested that you refer to the baseline performance measures if available in your organisation. If the item is not applicable to your organisational context, please click on the N/A button.

Q 17. To what extent has the implementation of e-Procurement affected the performance of the following measures in your organisation?
<20% 20%~40% 40%~60% 60%~80% >80% N/A
17.1 Reduction in purchasing cycle time
17.2 Increase in throughtput (number of transactions during the given time period)
17.3 Decrease in number of staff in purchasing department (or number of staff responsible for purchasing)
17.4 Reduction in matching (e.g. invoice, inventory) costs
17.5 Reduction in overall search (e.g. goods/services, supplier) costs
17.6 Reduction in communications costs
17.7 Reduction in information processing costs
17.8 Reduction in negotiation costs
17.9 Reduction in monitoring (or enforcement) costs
17.10 Reduction in maverick (off-contract) purchasing
17.11 Reduction in the number of suppliers
17.12 Reduction in the purchase price of goods and services (e.g. because of supplier competition and volume aggregation)

Q18. To what extent has the implementation of e-Procurement affected the performance of the following measures in your organisation?
<20% 20%~40% 40%~60% 60%~80% >80% N/A
18.1 Reduction in errors and mismatches (re-keying and duplications)
18.2 Reduction in administrative tasks (paperwork and manual filing etc.)
18.3 Improvement in the quality of products/services
18.4 Improvement in delivery reliability
18.5 Improvement in information sharing with internal customers and suppliers
18.6 Increase in reliability of management information and analysis (e.g. spend profile) capabilities
18.7 Increase in flexibility to user/buyer's changing needs (e.g. customisation and volume of product/service)

Q19. To what extent has the implementation of e-Procurement affected the performance of the following measures in your organisation?
Negative No impact Moderate impact Great impact Significant impact N/A
19.1 Increase in availability of public information on bids/offers and their depth
19.2 Increase in transmission of timely public information on contract awards on price, volume and execution time
19.3 Increase in availability of audit trial information
19.4 Increase in visibility of management reporting processes (e.g. regular, exception and ad hoc) and overall procurement performance
19.5 Increase in ability to identify responsibilities and duties for significant/complex purchases
19.6 Increase in compliance with relevant delegations in procurement

Q20. If you would like to suggest to us further performance measures or provide additional comments on the antecedents of e-Procurement adoption and use and impact on performance measures, please do so below. Please also feel free to offer your overall comments on this survey research.

Note: You have almost completed the Survey! The following part is optional. If you would like to skip this part, please click on the "Submit Survey" button located at the end of this survey now, otherwise, please continue to part D.

Part D: ABOUT YOUR CONTACT DETAILS (Optional): The objective of this optional part is to know your contact information in order to send you the summary of our research results.


Q21. Finally, as a token of appreciation, we will send a summary report as soon as all survey responses are collected and analysed. Your contact information will be recorded in a separate file from your responses, and will not be known by anyone outside of this research project.
Email

Or Regular Mail address:


Q22. We would very much appreciate if you could forward the link http://turing.une.edu.au/UNEsurvey/eProcurement/ to e-Procurement experts inside or outside your organisation or suggest the contact details. If you know of somebody who could be interested to participate in this research, please enter the email address/es.
Email

This concludes the UNE survey on e-Procurement. We would like you to know that your efforts are very much appreciated. Only with the responses of professional like you, knowledge in the field can be advanced. Please click on the "Submit Survey" button now.



Once again, thank you very much for your participation in this research.

©2006. Kishor Vaidya. The University of New England, New South Wales, Australia.