Imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint… Materials are delivered haphazardly, costs spiral out of control, and deadlines slip through the cracks. For many businesses, managing IT procurement operations feels pretty much the same. Equipment requests pile up, vendor contracts are scattered, and hidden costs pop up when least expected. The result? Wasted resources, frustrated employees, and missed opportunities for growth.
Some of the latest research suggests poor procurement practices can hugely impact businesses. Approximately 15% of their annual budget is lost due to inefficiencies, duplicate spending, and mismanaged vendor relationships. And this challenge applies not just to large corporations: Small and mid-sized businesses share the same issues. As a result, a question arises – how can companies regain control of their IT purchasing processes and lay the foundation for better management?
Hurdles in IT Logistics
Technology procurement is often chaotic because it touches so many facets of a business. It’s not as simple as a quick laptop purchase: IT managers, HR managers, finance teams, and team leaders all need to align. Employees rely on a broad range of IT assets, from hardware like laptops and servers to services like cloud subscriptions. Without clear processes, the system is generally affected by:
- Low efficiency: handling everything manually leads to slower approvals and delays in securing critical resources for the company.
- Poor cost management: lack of visibility into spending often leads to duplicate spending or missed savings opportunities.
- Vendor confusion: managing multiple suppliers without a centralized system creates confusion and sometimes even mismanaged contracts.
- Overall confusion: poor ITAM can lead to a negative experience for teams and new hires, damaging the business.
Faced with these challenges, businesses must act, or else witness a loss of competitive edge. Poor management of time and money also often leads to an erosion of trust with internal stakeholders.
Streamlining the Process with ITAM
What if businesses could better manage tech logistics, turning it into a well-oiled machine? This is in fact possible with IT Asset Management (ITAM) and other innovative tools that are now available in the market. ITAM software is designed to ensure businesses can effectively track and manage their resources. The best ITAM platforms simultaneously optimize IT procurement. Here’s how ITAM can help:
- Improved inventory visibility: ITAM helps create a “blueprint” for your IT assets by maintaining an updated inventory of all software, hardware, and subscriptions. With this clarity ensured, businesses can reduce redundancy and make sure they don’t order products/services they already have.
- Managing vendors in a strategic way: using ITAM software, it’s possible to identify the most economic and reliable vendors and improve existing contracts. Eventually, this leads to an improvement in bargaining power and the simplification of business relationships.
- Workflow automation: when the approval process is digitalized, invoicing reconciled and purchase orders put in charge of software, ITAM can reduce errors and save valuable time.
Building a Better Procurement Process
At the end of the day, managing IT procurement doesn’t need to be an uphill battle. Using the right tools and processes, companies can reduce costs, streamline operations, and take control of their purchasing workflows.
If you want to simplify IT procurement and bring order to chaos, Dots can help. Using a combination of ITAM principles and an intuitive platform, it empowers businesses to optimize spending, manage vendor relationships, and ultimately, automate workflows. See what Dots has to offer. Book a demo today!
