Abstract:
Small Medium Enterprises (SME) has been recognized as the backbone of the Sri
Lankan economy as it accounts for more than 75% of the total number of enterprises,
which provides 45% of the employment and accounts for 52% of total Gross Domestic
Production (GDP) for Sri Lanka. Even though these Small and Medium Enterprises are
essential to the economy more than 85% of SMEs face survival challenges and 75% of
SMEs do not succeed and fail within the five years of startup. Liquidation concerns,
Higher competition from other businesses, absence of technology, and Lack of business
skills/knowledge are the major factors for the failures.
The current business era has forced organizations to depend on Suppliers and reduce
disruption to the key business operations and have appropriate suppliers to supply
materials/ products. Companies are concentrating more on their core competencies and
relying on suppliers to outsource. Even though Outsourcing is a highly spoken topic,
the attention towards Indirect Material outsourcing is comparatively low. Maverick
spending, no appropriate approval workflows, lengthy discussions for negotiation are
some of the general issues that are evolved along with the domain. With the rapid
development of companies, the usage of Indirect material has expanded and
organizations usually spend 40% to 60% of the total revenue.
Taking two main groups involved in the process of purchasing and supplying products
into consideration, the research objective of this dissertation is to understand and
contribute to the existing process gaps and implement a centralized system that would
connect and benefit both Suppliers and Corporate clients in an effective structure.
To make a platform for the Small and Medium Enterprises to supply large scale
organizations, and from a cooperates perspective to have an effective workflow in
Indirect purchasing's “eProcure.Lk” has been introduced; eProcure.Lk is a Business-to Business eProcurement and Indirect Material product outsourcing software platform
