Marketplace

Welcome to the Proactis Marketplace Content Hub, your one-stop resource centre to automate your spend control processes
 

What is a Marketplace?

A Marketplace is an online website where certain categories of products or services are bought and sold. Sometimes referred to as an eMarketplace, a procurement marketplace is a platform that connects staff with approved suppliers and contracts when they are purchasing products and services. B2C examples are Amazon Marketplace and Facebook Marketplace.
 
 

eCommerce buying has many challenges:

  • Out-of-date, incorrect information leads to incorrect pricing.
  • Suppliers are continuously adding and changing their offerings and it's difficult to keep up.
  • Maverick, off-contract buying; even when buying from an approved supplier, contracted discounts may not be used.
  • Inadequate item information means uninformed purchases with no good ability to make comparisons.

Take control of your purchasing through a centralised marketplace:

An internal marketplace provides a practical and rapid response to the procurement needs of your employees, giving staff access to all negotiated content and qualified suppliers for quote requests via a single platform.  

This leads to:

  • Visibility over purchases.
  • Reduced risk of errors.
  • Improved compliance.
  • Increased volume of spend under control.
Find out how to simplify procurement while retaining control:
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Take control of your purchasing through a centralised marketplace

Employing a B2B Marketplace can lead to:

Streamlined purchasing process and seamlessly introduce spend control.
Streamlined purchasing process and seamlessly introduce spend control.


An electronic collection of items to purchase
An electronic collection of items to purchase, which represents the goods and services bought in the normal course of business.


Reduced administration cost and effort with supplier self-service catalogue maintenance.
Reduced administration cost and effort with supplier self-service catalogue maintenance.


Enhanced search and retrieval experience
Enhanced search and retrieval experience and deliver the same consistent, complete and correct information to every requester.

Leeds Beckett University streamlines purchasing processes with Proactis marketplace functionality

"Our main driver was to implement a marketplace that integrated with our Unit4 Business World ERP system and enabled us to distribute purchase orders electronically. Proactis was the best fit for our supplier profile, as it gave complete flexibility depending on each supplier’s eCommerce readiness."

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Leeds Beckett University streamlines purchasing processes with Proactis marketplace functionality

Best-practice purchasing:
8 key principles for B2B marketplaces

This comprehensive guide dives into the 8 key principles that will transform your approach to B2B marketplaces, empowering you to:

  • Streamline purchasing
  • Enhance supplier relationships
  • Implement marketplaces
  • Transform purchasing
​Transform your approach to purchasing today:
Find out how
Best-practice purchasing: 8 key principles for B2B marketplaces

Proactis has provided Marketplace solutions to many organisations around the world:

Proactis provides a highly accessible, well-classified directory of goods and services in a way that makes sense to the accessing organisation - to streamline the purchasing process and introduce spend control in a helpful way.

The categorisation is specified by the buying organisation and can be unified with industry-standard classifications. It presents a compelling and easy-to-access interface which helps the selection process within the organisations spend management system using B2C (online Retail) metaphors.


Learn more about Proactis Marketplace
Marketplace FAQs
What is a B2B Marketplace?
Sometimes referred to as an eMarketplace, a procurement marketplace is an online platform that connects staff with approved suppliers and contracts when they are purchasing products and services.

Read more about the Proactis Marketplace
What are the advantages of using a Marketplace?
With a Marketplace, businesses obtain an easily managed framework for providing employees with access to authorised supplier catalogues and websites (punchouts) – ensuring that the easiest way to find and buy something, is in fact, the right way – driving savings and better spend visibility and reducing risk.

Take control of your purchasing through a centralised marketplace
Glossary
Spend Control
The aim of all organisations, to control what is being purchased and to optimise spend and supply chains so they can reach their full potential. Spend control helps to save money and create efficiencies while increasing compliance and reducing risk.

Source-to-Pay (S2P)
A complete end-to-end outsourcing solution, usually made up of component parts - Source-to-Contract (S2C) or Procure-to-Pay (P2P).

Source-to-Contract (S2C)
Part of the end-to-end spend management process that supports the Procurement team in the activities they perform to make qualified suppliers and negotiated best-value agreements available to the organisation for use when they need to buy something.

Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
Also known as Purchase-to-Pay, this is the part of an end-to-end procurement system that enables and manages the routine purchasing of goods and services by an organisation’s staff.

Spend Visibility
The ability for managers to easily access past in process, and potential (request submitted but not yet approved) spend within their realm of responsibility.

Spend Under Management
The portion of spend that is influenced by the Procurement team and their processes.


Procurement / eProcurement
eProcurement and all of its various component terms such as eSourcing, eAuctions, eInvoices, ePayables, etc. are all terms that simply imply the use of information technology and internet-based communications to support the Spend Control process – including all procurement and financial control aspects of that process.

Supply Chain
In its simplest form, a supply chain is the activities required to deliver goods or services to the consumer. When thinking about a service, services will come together to offer an overall customer service, as opposed to a finished product.

Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the process of managing the flow of goods and services to and from a business, including every step involved in turning raw components into final services/products and getting them to the customer.

Purchasing
The acquisition of goods and services on behalf of a buying entity.

eInvoice
Broadly speaking, an electronic invoice is any invoice sent by a supplier to the buyer in electronic form rather than as a paper invoice.


Supplier Relationship Management
SRM is building and maintaining a strong supplier base by structuring and streamlining the entire supplier lifecycle – from initial identification to adoption, approval, transaction and analysis.

Contract Management
Contract management in procurement is the process of managing agreements with suppliers to achieve the best possible financial and operational performance. The goal is to ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and optimise supplier relationships.

Marketplace
Sometimes referred to as an eMarketplace, a procurement marketplace is a platform that connects staff with approved suppliers and contract when they are purchasing products and services.

Accounts Payable Automation
An efficient and effective Accounts Payable function supports an organisation’s cashflow and helps build healthy supplier relationships. The process of capturing all incoming invoices and efficiently transform them into optimised eInvoices, and enabling efficient invoice matching/approval in their finance system.