What are /r/procurement's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

What you have working for you:

• Solid procurement foundation
• Military experience - I ran the procurement operations department for a former company and I LOVED people with military experience in those roles (they just get it).
  
• You are in school (the lack of a degree isn't going to hurt since you are working towards it and your other background).
  

You seem apprehensive about your lack of contract experience, so I recommend reading "The Contract Negotiation Handbook".

Contract Negotiation Handbook - Stephen R. Guth

If you are doing three bids and a buy and negotiating price down today, I think you will be ok. Don't talk yourself down about reading the contracts, read that book and then reassess if you think it is that complicated.

(Some contracts are a nightmare and people doing this for YEARS get confused, you can nail the basics in a few months).

Congrats on the role!

IT category manager for big tech (hardware/software/services). I would highly recommend this book! It’s definitely more for beginners but that sounds like what you need :). Feel free to DM if you have questions!

The Technology Procurement Handbook: A Practical Guide to Digital Buying https://www.amazon.com/dp/1789662109/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_6M3HFBV2ZWXM5AKFQN19

Plenty of information on google. Just search for RFP process. I found this: https://www.g2.com/articles/rfp-request-for-proposal

The RFP is pretty straight forward: figure out what your requirements are by talking to your internal stakeholders, figure who potential suppliers are. Create the RFP based on the requirements, collect bids from the suppliers. Analyze bids, select 1-3 finalists, work with them to further narrow it down or negotiate pricing. Once you know you want to go with, "award" them the bid and set up the contract.

Most of the software/programs out there are not built while keeping an one industry in mind for the obvious reason that the software builders want to target the largest audience possible. So these software may miss out on features that are critical for you company's need.

I would suggest you use this time that you have to build a system that exactly meets your own requirements. White the advancements in the now code technology you no longer need to have any coding knowledge to build apps for IOS, Android, Web and Desktop platforms. Also building you own system will also help you to save on cost that you would incur if you used a professional software.

There are many famous no code platforms like bubble.io and airtable that you can look into but for building an app for your specific need I would suggest you try DronaHq No Code Platform. It is an all in one solution to control and automate the entire procurement workflow from creating POs to managing the supplier's database.

They have many templates that you can choose from and customize them to meet your own requirements or build a system from scratch.

Lets use this time that we have in hand to explore unexplored avenues that might help us become better in our work.