EffiGO might not be a name you know, as they spent the first decade building, deploying, and growing primarily in India (where they have over 150 enterprise customers including some of the largest names in India in Construction, Manufacturing, CPG, Automotive, IT, Pharma, and Chemicals and have sourced and procured over 25 Billion in Spend), but they now have a growing presence across Asia, the Middle East, and are just starting to expand into Europe (with America coming soon).
However, it now is a name you should know because they built the system from the ground-up to be a complete purchase requisition to invoice approval system with all of the key sourcing and procurement steps in between for indirect (and tail spend), direct, rate-card based services AND complex (project) procurements for their customers — whatever their customers needed. And the foundational “plan to pay” from purchase requisition to ok-to-pay suite can be obtained by a LMM or SE (Large MidMarket/Small Enterprise) at an annual license cost starting at 100K. Integrations, and they highly recommend integrating to the ERP (where they have integrated with most major ERPs multiple times including, but not limited to SAP, Oracle, Infor, Dynamics, etc.), custom configurations, and services are extra, as with any other major player, but the license cost makes it affordable for the mid-markets who need a direct/complete sourcing solution.
The core of the EffiGO platform is broken into two main modules that cover the two main work streams:
Plan to PO
The Plan to PO component consists of the creation/acceptance of the Purchase Requisitions (which can be pushed from the ERP or manually created in the platform), the creation and execution of the sourcing events, the selection of the award, and the definition of the contract that orders will be made against.
Once a Purchase Requisition is pulled in from the ERP or manually created by a user in another organizational department, the user will see it in EffiGO and can pull it up, see all the details, edit those details (including, but not limited to the goods and services requested, the units, the delivery dates requested, the payment terms, etc.) or request an edit if they don’t have the authority, and approve it for sourcing.
With respect to core sourcing, the platform supports:
- RFX – Quick
- RFX – Full (with or without TechnoCommercial Evaluation)
- Auction
- Reorder (from a past RFX created in the last quarter)
- Order from Catalog (for products where [rate] contracts are in effect)
RFX (and auction) creation starts by selecting one or more approved requisitions to kick-off an RFX (or auction) process, selecting the event type, entering basic information (name, business unit, event owners, business unit, desired delivery locations, currency, etc.), and determining whether the event only requires commercial specifications and terms or detailed engineering/technical review and a weight-based award based on commercial terms and product/supplier review.
Note that the system will inform the buyer if one or more parts or items in one or more of the requisitions they select is either in inventory and/or already under contract and can just be fulfilled without going through a sourcing event.
Once the basic event criteria have been defined, and the items and quantities confirmed, the user is walked through the remaining configuration steps that include:
- documentation – standard organizational terms and conditions, NDAs, and other project specific documents (which can be pulled in from a central library) or uploaded
- price tables – the platform supports pre-configured bidding templates for different categories and products (that can be associated with any level of the product and service hierarchy they support), which can include non-price components, and the user just needs to select one
- vendor selection – the buyer can search for vendors by group, category, location, etc. and add them one at a time or in groups
- dates: clarification questions, bids, follow-ups (if requested), notifications, etc.
- review criteria: techno only – select the template that will be used for product/services/vendor review and scoring
Note that since the requisitions can be pushed in by the ERP, they can range from a requisition for a single item to a requisition for a complete bill of materials, each item or part can be associated with its own cost breakdown table defined in the EffiGO platform, each part can have its own associated documents, including drawings and detailed product specifications, which can be included in the ERP push, pulled in from the EffiGO library, or even pulled in from a (n optional) PLM integration, and the cost tables can also include service cost rate tables as well. To make bidding easy for the suppliers, the bid sheets can be pulled down into Excel (and then re-uploaded), and that can be done on a product or event basis (and then the workbook will be multi-tab if different cost models are required for different parts and/or service rate cards).
If the sourcing event is being awarded on commercial terms only, then the application will select the lowest bids at the part, bundle (grouping), or RFQ level for award, and if the buyer approves, the award selection(s) can be output for offers, letters of intent, and contract negotiations, one per supplier. If the sourcing event is on commercial and technical, the commercial are auto-scored and the buyer scores the technical components, and then the award can be auto-computed in the application according to the award level.
Once a contract has been signed, it can be uploaded with all of the terms and conditions defined (and all meta-data from an associated event can be associated with the contract), and custom completion requirements can be specified in the meta-data to make sure that all POs go out with those requirements (and they are not forgotten — more on this in our discussion of the PO to Pay module).
PO to Pay
The PO to Pay component consists of the creation of the purchase orders, the management of the purchase order and assurance of contract terms and conditions, the management of associated communications (acknowledgements, change requests, ASNs, etc.), the acceptance of the invoices against the orders, the processing and approvals, and the creation of an ok-to-pay push notification to the payment system.
When a buyer is ready to place an order, the buyer can create a purchase order:
- off of an RFQ
- off of one or more catalog items which may or may not be under contract (but are approved for purchase)
As with sourcing, if the buyer selects an item that is already in inventory or under contract (and can be requisitioned without any approvals), the system will inform the buyer.
As with any other system, a purchase order consists of items, units, approved pricing, delivery locations, dates, and other key pieces of information. Unlike other systems, the buyer can specify a full host of requirements that must be met before the PO can be issued, acknowledged, and dispatched against which include, but are not limited to:
- whether an Ack(nowledgement) is required
- whether acceptance is mandatory
- whether an ABG (Advanced Bank Guarantee) is required
- whether a [C]PBG ([Contract] Performance Bank Guarantee) is required
- whether a LC (Letter of Credit) is required
- whether the vendor needs to submit any technical documentation
- whether the requesting buyer needs to provide the vendor with any instructions or documents
- whether stage monitoring is required (and what the stages are; these can be selected from pre-configured or PLM lists)
- whether transportation is in the scope of the buyer or vendor
- whether the vendor is required to submit dispatch instructions
- other potential organizational specific requirements around purchase orders (for certain products, services, or categories)
When a vendor receives the purchase order, they also receive all of the associated documents and information provided by the buyer along with all the instructions they need to follow and requirements they need to meet to make a delivery AND get paid for it.
Once a vendor has dispatched (part of) a purchase order (which is also tracked against an RFQ to make sure that they never dispatch more units than they have been approved for), they can submit an invoice, which is associated with the order, which goes into an approval queue. Approval chains can be configured to be as simple, or complex, as needed, with as many steps as necessary.
Catalogs are buyer maintained. Suppliers can upload and submit catalogs to the buyer, but they don’t go live until approved by the buyer, who can accept or reject items and pricing. Once awards have been made and/or contracts have been signed after the issuance of a sourcing event, the buyers can create catalog items with the details and pricing, and mark them as under contract if a contract is signed or the rates are approved (if the supplier is willing to honour the quotes in the latter case).
Catalog items can have as many buyer standardized fields as needed to completely specify the item, which can be searched by type, category, supplier, location, status, and keywords against key fields. All items can be associated with their proper place in the organizational category hierarchy, which can be as deep as required. (Note that vendors can identify the categories they service up to Level 4 in their profile.)
Vendor Management
Required vendor information management is embedded throughout the process and is included with both of the core modules and includes vendor onboarding as well as ongoing information management, reviews, status updates (which can block on a category, unit, or organizational level), and insights (through the built-in reporting).
Vendors can be loaded from the ERP on implementation or created inside the platform. Vendor profiles in EffiGO consist of basic corporate details (type, corporate id, taxation registration, primary category, HQ, etc.), deep business details (registered and correspondence details, production locations, etc.), financial info, registration & certifications (statutory, documents, etc.), sustainability information, declarations, and audit log. Additional forms can be configured on implementation to capture any additional information that the buyer needs to track.
In addition, the buyer can maintain the vendor status and whether or not they are approved on a division, or even category basis. Unapproved vendors can be invited to events by an authorized user, but cannot be sent POs, or approved for payment.
Vendor Portal
A vendor has their own portal to interact with the buyers on the EffiGO platform. While they will get email notifications of every sourcing event, change, award, contract offer, purchase order, change, information request, etc., many actions will need to be taken through their portal (for which they will get a direct link to do so in the e-mail). This is because communications, acknowledgements, change requests, etc. need to be associated with the right event or purchase order, key documents need to be secure, and the organization needs to make sure invoices (with payment instructions) are not tampered with.
Summary
EffiGO is a very different kind of platform — one that was built to serve manufacturing clients in Construction, CPG, Automotive, IT, Pharma, and Chemicals from the ground up and one that ended up being a direct-focussed system that can also handle indirect, services, and complex project procurements as well! It’s a name you don’t know, but if you have a mix of direct, service, and indirect needs, one you should know — especially if you are based in EMEA where EffiGO is currently expanding to!
Technobug
Technobug
Technobug
Technobug
It puts the boom-boom into my heart (hoo-hoo)
It sends my soul sky-high
When the PR starts
Technobug into my brain (yeah, yeah)
Goes bang-bang-bang
‘Til my keys do the same
But something’s bugging me
Something ain’t right
My best friend told me
What he did last night
When I was sleeping in my bed
I was dreaming
But I should’ve been Sourcing instead
Wake me up for EffiGO-go
Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
Wake me up for EffiGO-go
I don’t wanna miss it when we hit that high
Wake me up for EffiGO-go
‘Cause I’m not planning on Sourcing solo
Wake me up for EffiGO-go
Lets get Sourcing tonight
I wanna hit that high, yeah yeah!
