Digi-Key’s director of regional supply chain solutions, Margaret Cunha, encourages purchasers to begin their digital transformation and reap the benefits.
The challenges of 2020 have accelerated a digital revolution for purchasing and procurement professionals. The transformation has been so profound that Digi-Key has created a range of digital solutions to help procurement professionals work smarter, not harder, along with providing educational resources including a Digital Transformation eBook.
The company has developed three major digital solutions for procurement professionals. It’s important buyers select the one that will be best for their organization.
Electronic data interchange (EDI) provides more of a standardized format for sending purchase orders, acknowledgements, what’s on hand, etc. This technology has advanced over the past 10-years and organizations can now use EDI to effectively manage their procurement, pricing and ordering processes all at once. EDI is most widely adopted by larger organizations, universities and new product introduction (NPI) engineering companies since it requires an organization to have an EDI infrastructure prior to use.
A punchout solution streamlines the purchasing process by making it easier for users to create accurate and detailed purchase orders through an automated process. Punchouts use an organization’s existing technology to procure goods and services. These are most popular among medium to large B2B organizations and are even becoming a requirement for many RFPs.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are a newer digital solution, but they’re quickly gaining popularity because of how customizable they are. Digi-Key’s APIs are free to use, and digitally connect customers’ systems with the distributor’s system to provide automated, real-time product search, price and availability, quoting and ordering, barcode, product change notifications and more. Digi-Key’s solution is the first real-time API on the market. Customers who use it have a competitive advantage because they can receive all the critical information on products they need at speed due to the automated, machine-to-machine connection.
Undergoing a digital transformation may seem like a daunting task, but everyday your organization goes without digital solutions is another one that you’re at a competitive disadvantage to those who do. Now is the time to take the first step toward streamlining your processes for efficiency and you’ll experience the ROI that accompanies digital solutions.