e procurement vs traditional procurement – what’s the difference?

Traditional Procurement VS E-procurement – What’s the difference? 

Procurement is the process which a public body buys goods, works, and services. Traditional methods of procurement therefore manage all the stages of the procurement cycle manually.  

Traditional methods of procurement typically heavily rely on physical means such as paper processes, making calls, and manually managing procurement functions. This is often tedious, repetitive, and time consuming. Through relying mainly on paper processes, traditional procurement methods also result in a lack of visibility throughout the process often leading to extra tasks and constant chasing to ensure care is being arranged properly and proactively.  

E-procurement on the other hand is a more strategic and digitalised compared to traditional procurement processes. Through the use of technology it involves more dynamic processes that offer higher transparency and visibility as well as minimum paperwork. This helps to create more value and significantly boosts the time it takes to organise the care and support needed across the health and social care sector.  

Traditional Procurement VS E-Procurement – What are the pros and cons of each? 

	Pros	Cons
Traditional Procurement	Promotes Competition – traditional procurement methods helps promote competition by encouraging suppliers to have competitive pricing whilst being high quality  Clear specifications – this method relies on detailed specifications to ensure that the buyer’s requirements are clearly defined to help achieve the desired outcomes  Structured process -  traditional procurement methods follow a structured and transparent method, this help to ensure the process is ethical and the selection of suppliers are based upon the objective criteria to best meet care needs	Time-consuming – like already discussed relying on paper process and complex processes can be time-consuming and can cause delays in procuring and delivering the necessary care services needed putting individuals at risk of lower quality care  Administrative burden – due to the process being paper based for both the buyer and the supplier it can require significant amounts of time and endless forms to fill that suppliers may lost interest in filling  Limited innovation – traditional methods of procurement may discourage suppliers proposing new approaches which could improve service delivery due to a limited ability to offer innovative and creative solutions   Lack of flexibility – traditional methods of procurement do not make it easy to adapt care plans if care needs change, this can then cause delays
E-Procurement	Cost Savings – By automating manual processes, reducing paperwork and eliminating the need for physical storage space, deals can be negotiated better with suppliers to identify more cost-saving opportunities quicker   Efficiency and time saving – e-procurement allows for the procurement process to happen faster by automating workflows, and reducing the time required to make transactions and agree contracts  Improves productivity – having more automated processes allows staff to concentrate on more critical tasks   Enhanced transparency –  It allows buyers and suppliers to have access to a full digital audit trail to help ensure compliance, prevent fraud, and account for better accountability   Better supplier management – organsiations can track supplier performance, evaluate their reliability and quality to make better informed decisions  Build more long term relationships with reliable suppliers   More competition –It allows access to a broader range of suppliers to have more choice in finding the best suppliers in terms of quality, price and delivery	Initial investment and integration costs – in order to transition from traditional to e-procurement methods an initial investment in software and training is needed as well as the need to integrate the system with existing processes which could be more expensive   Technical challenges – ensuring all team members, suppliers, and buyers know how to use the system is crucial, significant time will be needed initially to train everyone up   Data security and privacy – when digitsing processes it introduces potential security risks. Robust security measures need to be in place to mitigate risks and safeguard confidential data to avoid hefty fines and reputational damage   Resistance to change – some team members who are used to the manual processes may find it more difficult to change to alternative processes. Ensuring all members have a good digital literacy is crucial to ensure the transition is smooth

  

The table above therefore demonstrates both the advantages and disadvantages of traditional procurement methods and e-procurement methods.  

What is clear is that more traditional methods are a lot more time consuming and often are a lot less flexible when care needs change. In an industry that is very dynamic and often prone to changes whether in legislation or individual care needs, the health and social care sector often can experience major delays in organising appropriate care packages or care services being delivered. This can then delay waiting times longer and prolong hospital discharge delays further. 

The table above also shows how e-procurement does have a range of benefits that go one step further than more traditional methods of procurement. It offers more flexibility and visibility of audit trails, as well as offering more competition to allow buyers to have more choice in finding the best supplier to meet individual care needs. The table does however show there are some disadvantages when digitlising procurement processes. Like all digital transformations in local government services, there can be some teething issues including initial investment costs, issues with training and security, as well as resistance to change.  

What is important to remember is that when any service undergoes a digital transformation journey these initial barriers are to be expected. What matters is how you prepare for them so every staff member can use the system correctly and confidently so suppliers can deliver the care that is actually needed. 

What are the benefits of e-procurement over traditional procurement methods? 

 

 

Like discussed above, there are a variety of benefits which e-procurement methods have compared to traditional procurement methods. One of the biggest benefits which hasn’t been addressed yet is how e-procurement methods can help improve community health and wellbeing quicker by providing local authorities better access to higher quality care and support services at the best price.  

This could include medical supplies, medical equipment within GP practices, and within homes with the use of digital telecare, as well as services such as social prescribing which can help address the wider social determinants of health to address both clinical and non-clinical needs.  

Through using e procurement processes, local authorities can also be strategic to cater their care and support services to meet the needs of their community instead of offering more generic services. This can also help ensure all services can help reach the capacity they need by understanding the care needs of the community better and knowing which services are higher in demand than others. 

E procurement methods also allow local authorities to consistently commission care that is fully complaint. This then allows communities to reduce the number of substandard or unsafe products they use which can put individuals at risk of lower care quality and continuity of care.  

E procurement processes encourage a co-production approach within local communities through making it easier for all stakeholders to access the information they need in one place. It allows local stakeholders, GPs, District Nurses, Link Workers, Care Workers, and various other community organisations to work together to get the best outcomes possible.  

Therefore both types of procurement methods are beneficial in how they help to deliver better quality care for individuals across the community regardless of their care need,  but through investing in e procurement processes, local authorities can be more strategic and build stronger networks to collaborate and share expertise to address more complex needs efficiently.  

This also helps local authorities best prepare for the upcoming CQC inspections where the CQC will be assessing how local authorities work with people to provide more proactive, person-centred care and support, whilst ensuring safety for both citizens and their care workers.  

The benefits of e procurement – How can Access Adam Care Commissioning help? 

Digital cloud-based technology is accessible anywhere, at any time. Using e-procurement processes ensures parameters are put in place to ensure the correct people have the right level of access to make sure the system is completely secure.  

With further development of NHS data objectives such as the patient level data set, e-procurement platforms can more easily connect, display, and report on the information needed. This allows different teams within a local authority to view or access the specific data they need when they need it more easily.  

Local authorities and healthcare organsiations can, therefore, create digital infrastructure that is accessible by staff, providers, and patients to create a positive ecosystem which offers full visibility of the services an individual is using.  

This is invaluable for integrated care systems (ICS) as it helps them grow and upscale their services. NHS England define ICSs as the ‘partnerships of organsiations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area.”  

E-procurement processes bridge the gap between health and social care services therefore to connect the NHS with councils, local services, and patients so patients have the best care journey possible with minimal disruption. This helps to lead to stronger relationships between stakeholders and patients as well offer more digital improvements, and more importantly better care.  

Some of our customers, Midlands and Lancashire Community Support Unit and Staffordshire County Council, found that before using our Access Adam Care Commissioning platform they were heavily reliant on more manual and traditional procurement processes. After they invested in our commissioning platform their time spent on administrative tasks were reduced by 20%. This meant their resources, time, and money could be spent on more value-adding tasks to improve the care delivery and accessibility further.  

By digitising their paper-based processes all their information is centralised onto one secure online storage platform meaning that there are no risks of records being lost or damaged. This improved transparency and meant they could have a better delivery of reporting and analytics of their joint-care funded packages to help identify where they could improve to increase their outcomes further in the future. 

At Access Adam Care Commissioning we also aim to ensure we help local authorities deliver a consistent quality service across the whole community including social care, housing and transport, and WREN Housing is no different.  

Our Housing Solution offered WREN Housing a system that made tracking all the information needed within one system easy and efficient, by automatically removing or blocking any provider who were either no longer compliant or did not have the correct compliance materials in the first place. This ensured that the landlords provided were 100% compliant all the time.  

To date our Access Adam Housing solution has automatically checked over 8,500 safety certificates from over 2,300 different providers for WREN Housing and has overall placed over 6,000 households into safer and more compliant temporary housing.  

 

Investing in e procurement methods are very beneficial therefore as it helps to improve the community’s health and wellbeing in a variety of areas that go further than just social care.  It helps to save time processing data and information to allow more time to be spent organising the care and support that is needed across the community especially as needs change, demand increases,  budgets get tighter, and resources get more limited.  

e procurement vs Traditional procurement – Summarising which one is better for your local authority? 

In this article we have reviewed the differences between how traditional procurement and e-procurement methods work. We have evaluated the pros and cons of each to establish that traditional methods of procurement can sometimes be counterproductive for the health and social care sector due to the dynamic nature of the sector and the need to adapt and be flexible to changes quickly.  

We did address however transitioning to digital procurement methods isn’t always smooth sailing and that local authorities need to be prepared to overcome the initial implementation teething issues and initial investment to then be able to achieve better outcomes later on. 

What is also important to note however, is that transitioning to digital procurement methods can take time so before deciding to digital transform your procurement methods, your local authority must have the time and resources in place to ensure everyone is fully trained on how to use a digital procurement platform so the transition has minimal disruption.   

Through explaining the benefits of e-procurement platforms, we demonstrated how some of our customers have benefitted from using our Access Adam Care Commissioning platform across the whole sector including health and social care, housing, and transport.  

For more information on how our brokerage solution can help ensure you work with more 100% fully compliant providers, increase competition, and most importantly improve the quality of services delivered, find out more today.  

Contact us now and we can show you first-hand how our commissioning solution can help streamline your services across the whole of your local community to deliver a better continuity of care.