Does your procurement system consist of a piece of paper that’s passed around until it eventually ends up in a dusty folder? Or does your department keep track of everything in a spreadsheet system that's just as easily lost in electronic sub-folders, if you remember to save it at all?
If you're using a legacy system, it is time to consider an e-procurement system that will put you back in control of spending, plus save your company time and money. So, what specific advantages does e-procurement offer? And how exactly does it help you take back control of spending? Let’s break it down.
what is an e-procurement system? (and why is it relevant in 2025)
Electronic procurement, also known as e-procurement, refers to the use of digital tools and technology to manage the whole purchasing process, from request to payment. It replaces manual paperwork and disconnected systems with one centralized, automated platform.
E-procurement in 2025 has become a necessity. With rising costs, tighter margins, and increased pressure on finance and procurement teams to manage spend with full accuracy, paper-based processes are simply not enough anymore.
A modern e-procurement system gives you immediate visibility into company spend, enforces purchasing policies at every step, and helps significantly reduce delays, errors, and rogue spending. It’s faster, more reliable, and scales with your business.
The top 7 key benefits of adopting e-procurement software
1. Full spend visibility with centralized procurement data
E-procurement gives you centralized access to all your data. Track down a purchase order (PO) or an invoice, and analyze metadata to find areas where you can improve your processes. This could mean tracking:
- Areas where approvals take the longest and can be shortened
- Vendors you spend a lot of money with (and who you might be able to negotiate better terms with)
- Times to pay invoices to take advantage of early pay discounts and optimize cash flow
- On-contract vs. off-contract spend
That level of procurement visibility helps you make better purchasing decisions across departments and vendors. With modern eprocurement software, you understand the full context behind every transaction.
2. Automation of manual, time-consuming tasks
You know what’s a common and costly problem with legacy procurement systems? Human error. Someone in the team enters the wrong data into a spreadsheet or forgets to save their changes. The manager goes on vacation and doesn’t approve a purchase order before leaving. These delays add up.
Modern e-procurement technology uses automation to prevent issues like these. Instead of having your team manually entering purchase orders or invoices, you can rely on:
You can automate data entry and rely on invoice matching capabilities and exception alerts to notify you when your numbers don’t match up, which mitigates the risk in accounts payable (AP) processes. Need someone to approve a high-priority purchase? The system emails each approver in sequence and lets them approve straight from their inbox. If someone’s out of office, delegated approvals automatically reassign the request to keep things moving.
3. Enforced budgets that keep spending in check before it happens
Budgets are a hallmark of a great e-procurement software. Budget calculations in legacy systems are all done by hand or in spreadsheets. There’s low visibility, no real way to enforce approvals for over-budget purchases, and one wrong keystroke can spell certain doom.
Modern systems will automate all of this and let authorized users know the available budget and the potential impact of spend before it is incurred. A top eprocurement platform like Fraxion will alert approvers if a request is over budget. Plus, it will trigger special routing rules or approval workflows for over-budget expenses to ensure they’re properly accounted for (explore all the solutions Fraxion offers).
An additional benefit of a modern e-procurement system is that they also allow budgeting at both the GL Account and Project level, adding extra flexibility for your budgeting needs.
4. Smarter vendor management with complete order history
When you have access to all orders for each one of your vendors in a single platform, you can strategize remarkable cost savings. This includes:
- Consolidating similar orders to take advantage of bulk discounts
- Showing vendors how much you spend with them to negotiate price reductions
- See when non-preferred vendors are being used (and even put a stop to those orders to save money there, too)
The kind of metadata you obtain with eprocurement software isn’t available with a legacy system.
5. Detailed audit trails that support compliance and accountability
For many businesses, the question of what was purchased is not as important as knowing who interacted with that purchase, from request to payment. Spreadsheets can track some of this information for you, but what if someone changed what was on that paper halfway through the buying decision? The truth is, with older systems, there’s really no way to know.
Modern e-procurement systems, on the other hand, log each touchpoint and provide a detailed trail of exactly who did what. If the third approver added five extra widgets to your order, now you’ll know exactly when and where they did it, or better yet, be able to stop them from changing the order in the first place.
Since there’s a detailed history of all changes to each request for everyone to see, audits become a breeze. E-procurement transforms what used to be a drawn-out chore into an easy task.
6. Significant reduction of rogue spending across departments
Rogue spending is a big issue for many companies (and probably for yours, too). Around 40% of employees admit to having gone rogue (buying an item without proper approvals, or buying a different item than what was approved), at some point.
With paper and spreadsheets, it can be easy to hide or mask a rogue purchase. Not so with an e-procurement system. In fact, having an electronic audit trail that can’t be deleted is a powerful deterrent to rogue spending. It’s not only easier to catch, but you’ll also have fewer instances of it to begin with.
7. Greater control at every step of the procurement process
E-procurement systems give you greater flexibility and control over every aspect of the purchasing process. You can control who can input an order, who can approve and purchase it, and who can receive against or pay it. You can also set rules around who can view transaction details and when, giving you full control over visibility and access.
If you want more control over what your organization spends and who can submit, approve, and process PO payments, then an advanced digital e-procurement system is what you need.
Fraxion: a top, modern e-procurement platform for mid-sized businesses
Fraxion is a leading e-procurement software built specifically for mid-sized businesses that want full spend control. It helps you manage purchasing from request to payment.
Fraxion automates manual work, enforces compliance at every step, and gives your finance and procurement teams the visibility needed to make more informed decisions. Whether you’re dealing with delayed approvals, rogue spending, or lack of spend transparency, Fraxion replaces outdated systems with a faster, more reliable solution.
With built-in budget checks, audit trails, PunchOut catalogs, and over 50 ERP integrations, Fraxion supports every step of your purchasing workflow. It’s intuitive for your team to use and flexible enough to scale with your organization.
Want to see how it works? Book a personalized demo today.