Cloud e-procurement in the construction industry: Could e-procurement replace traditional methods of securing construction work in the future?

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION3

1.1.Introduction3

1.2.Background of the research4

1.3.Aims and objectives5

1.4.Research questions6

1.5.Rationale significance of the study7

1.6.Structure of the study8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

2.1.Procurement9

2.2.E- Procurement9

2.3.e- procurement In The Construction Industry10

2.4.Traditional Methods Of Procurement13

2.5.Challenges Faced By The Traditional Methods Of Procurement14

2.6.e-procurement And Construction Supply Chain15

Refernces18

Appendices23

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The construction industry in any country plays very important role in the economy of any country, and form a huge proportion of the country's income, success and Gross Added Value. In the past it has been observed that many construction industries in UK have stated to expand and develop due to many different factors with the e-procurement and management being one of the major reasons. Procurement is considered as one of the important factor for the project management in the construction industry (Gebauer and Segev, 1998, pp. 30-43). Several models have been proposed in the past in order improve the results in different domains like infrastructure, document management, workflow, performance and information distribution (Kalakota, et.al, 2001, pp. 31). In the past reports conducted, it has been concluded that the involvement of e-procurement can bring improvements in all the process of construction and development. The major steps in order to use the e-procurement in the construction industry has resulted in reduce inn the cost of the transactions, to improve the compliance and the efficiency of the project, save the cost of the inventory, to minimize the time of the cycles in the project life cycle and to Reduce or eliminate “maverick” buying (Eadie , et. al,, 2007, pp. 32).

This research context relates to Procurement and how the different methods are adopted for procurement by the construction industry in supply chains. Procurement has been an important part of the construction industry for decades. The term procurement is defined as an act which is commenced to obtain or buy services and goods. The process of procurement involves different stages, that is, preparation, process of a petition, receipt and payment approval. The construction industry of UK procurement is known as ordering and purchasing products.

Background of the research

Many years ago traditional procurement started out as paper and conversation based meaning that procurement officers generally networked with long-term partners or either well-known suppliers for purchasing at fixed prices. However, now days this has changed immensely and has become a strategic function where by procurement officers search for suppliers that fit within a company's total policy (Wong and Sloan , 2004, pp. 620). Traditional procurement could take more than a week, when quotes are obtained and then the company has to wait for approval from the finance along with purchase order.

Procurement recaptured some of its tactical importance only from the 1960s onwards with activities including spend planning and later assembling, however the later assembling did not appear on the job list until the early 1980s (Martin , 2008, pp. 121). In saying this wasn't until the mid-90s that supplier relationship management as well as strategic service actually ...