The Impact of E-Procurement on the Number of Suppliers: Where to Move to?

This paper examines how electronic procurement influences the organization of economic transactions. It seeks evidence for ICT-induced changes in how companies organize their activities and whether ICT lead to more competitive and transparent markets. Testing the relationship between the effect of electronic procurement on procurement cost and sourcing strategy, I provide new evidence that electronic procurement leads to more market transactions. This leads to the conclusion that electronic procurement increases market transparency, lowers search and supplier switching costs and improves the management of supply chain and contradicts the predictions that ICT will lead to a dominance of network-like organizational form and an increasing reliance on hybrid forms of organizing economic transactions. Two implications emerge from these results. The first one is relevant for companies engaging in ICT projects. ICT combined with changes in business strategy leads to a reduction of market transaction costs and, as a result, opens up new possibilities in terms of how business activities can be organized and/or how to structure competition in upstream markets. This effect of new technologies is of clear benefit to companies successfully implementing and using new technologies. The second implication is of great importance for companies whose customers implement ICT to intensify competition among suppliers. Changing environment forces them to adapt to new market conditions and look for new ways of maintaining profitability.information technology and firm boundaries, markets vs. hierarchies, sourcing strategy, electronic procurement

Barriers and prospects of e-Procurement in the South African construction industry

Purpose of this paper The use of electronic procurement in construction is increasing with the associated barriers and prospects in the different countries. However, the extent of barriers to, and prospects of e-procurement uptake in the South African construction industry is not well articulated in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to report findings of a study conducted to investigate the barriers to e-procurement adoption in the South African construction industry. This is with a view to suggesting ways to mitigating the barriers and enhancing the prospects of e-procurement in the South African construction industry. Design/methodology/approach The study was exploratory in nature and the data used were derived from online questionnaire survey involving 603 respondents comprising architects, clients, construction/project managers, contractors, engineers, quantity surveyors, procurement and supply chain officials in the construction industry conducted between March and June 2014 in South Africa. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical and content analyses. Findings. The main barriers to e-procurement uptake in the construction sector are related to unreliable ICT infrastructure, cultural issues, concern over security and data protection, unequal access to IT infrastructure by all categories of firms, inadequate knowledge on e-procurement systems and legal issues. Practical Implications The study indicates that there is a possibility of future success in the use and maximization of the benefits of e-procurement in the South African construction industry. However, these depend on the availability of reliable ICT infrastructure and knowledgeable construction professionals; improved access to ICT infrastructure across the country and supportive legal environment. What is original/value of paper The paper provides insight into the current barriers to e-procurement use and suggests how the identified barriers can be mitigated to maximise the benefits of e-procurement in the South African construction industr

Web use and offshoring

Formulating a model which summarises transportation costs, uncertainty and price, we describe how a switch to ICT procurement can impact more readily procured services rather than materials. Uncertainty represents a catch-all factor describing the dovetailing of operations between two neither culturally nor geographically proximate, independent firms. Using a 3-year panel, we find that ICT 'switchers' report increases in services offshored by between 1.9 and 1.6 percent. Uniquely, we also report a 2-3 percent reduction in the level of materials offshoring following a switch to internet procurement

An assistive robotics control system based on speech semantic recognition

Since 90’s era, many researchers and organizations are working on assistive technologies to ease the disabilities people to move around freely, independence, comfort and have the capabilities to enjoy life to the fullest. Nowadays, most of assistive technologies such as manual wheelchairs are propelled by patients sitting on the chair and physically turning the large rear wheels with hand or need helpers to push the chair by handles from behind of the wheelchair. Meanwhile, most of voice command wheelchair unable to deal with an unknown word and cannot take spontaneous speech data from the native speakers. Thus, this project proposes a method of control system for an assistive robotic based on speech semantic recognition through hardware implementation. Consequently, the purpose of this project is to develop a system based on speech semantic or meaning or the interpretation of a word, sentence, or others language form that can be used for an assistive robot. The mobile robot is represented as a wheelchair and a home prototype floor plan is represented as a house with four rooms (living room, toilet, kitchen and bedroom). The mobile robot moves according to the semantic of user commands and the commands are given on Android application Arduino Bluetooth Controller. This Android application is used to catch the command using Google Voice and send the command through Bluetooth HC-05 that connected to the Arduino. Moreover, the obstacle avoidance sensor used for this project is SHARP IR Distance Measurement sensor that standby when their obstacles in front of this mobile robot and the navigation system of this mobile robot are using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The effectiveness of this mobile robot has been tested using qualitative method by gathered 12 respondents to test this mobile robot on the floor plan. The total effectiveness of this mobile robot is 83%. This mobile robot is still effective but there are some parts that are still missing and need to be improved. Finally, the main contribution of this project is to help physically handicapped people such as patients who cannot move their feet by controlling using speech meanings through helpful robotics applications

Benefits and issues of managed services executive summary

The report draws on case studies of schools, which have used managed service provision for ICT services. The report identifies six key lessons for establishments considering using a managed service, which are outlined in this summary document

The Impact of E-Procurement on the Number of Suppliers: Where to Move to?

This paper examines how electronic procurement influences the organization of economic transactions. It seeks evidence for ICT-induced changes in how companies organize their activities and whether ICT lead to more competitive and transparent markets. Testing the relationship between the effect of electronic procurement on procurement cost and sourcing strategy, I provide new evidence that electronic procurement leads to more market transactions. This leads to the conclusion that electronic procurement increases market transparency, lowers search and supplier switching costs and improves the management of supply chain and contradicts the predictions that ICT will lead to a dominance of network-like organizational form and an increasing reliance on hybrid forms of organizing economic transactions. Two implications emerge from these results. The first one is relevant for companies engaging in ICT projects. ICT combined with changes in business strategy leads to a reduction of market transaction costs and, as a result, opens up new possibilities in terms of how business activities can be organized and/or how to structure competition in upstream markets. This effect of new technologies is of clear benefit to companies successfully implementing and using new technologies. The second implication is of great importance for companies whose customers implement ICT to intensify competition among suppliers. Changing environment forces them to adapt to new market conditions and look for new ways of maintaining profitability

Conformity Assessment in the Public Procurement of Accessible ICT

Public procurement is an important instrument for improving the accessibility of the information society. In Europe, in December 2005, the European Commission issued mandate M/376 to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, to harmonize and facilitate the public procurement of accessible ICT products and services by identifying a set of functional European accessibility requirements for public procurement of products and services in the ICT domain. The mandate is to be carried out in two phases: Phase I – inventory of accessibility requirements and assessment of suitable testing and conformity schemes, and Phase II – standardization activities. This paper presents an overview of the technical report produced by the authors as members of a CEN and CENELEC project team assigned to carry out “an analysis of testing and conformity schemes of products and services meeting accessibility requirements”. The work was developed from October 2007 until October 2008

Mapping the e-business profile and trends in cost management in the UK construction industry

The advancement of e-business applications and IT infrastructure has had massive impact on construction business processes over the last decade. The added effects of globalisation coupled with global economic recession have forced businesses to implement e-business applications within their organisations. It is clear in all industries, that e-business technologies have become a key strategic vehicle in improving performance. In Construction, e-business applications complement most of the business functions and have removed geographical boundaries resulting in a global construction market with increased competition, increased collaboration and have helped reducing the fragmentation of the industry. However, even though the successes are inevitable, it is scrutinized that the advancement is still constrained within the industry. Thus there is a need to undertake an analysis of current construction e-business usage and attitude of construction professionals towards e-business trends to ensure a productive and beneficial implementation of construction e-business tools within organisations. This study acknowledged the niche for research into current e-business usage in UK construction organisations and aimed to determine and map the use of ICT in construction cost management activities, and explore the attitudes of professionals towards e-business approaches. Initially a comprehensive literature review was carried out together with an online web search to identify what ICT and software packages are being used for construction cost management activities. Results from this review aided in developing the research questionnaire and a detailed an online structured survey was carried out using the chartered quantity surveying organisations within the UK. This paper presents the findings of the survey and discusses the ICT usage within construction organisations for cost management activities and the attitude of construction professionals towards BIM and construction e-business trends