Introduced first as a solution to hyper-urbanization, remote work has been imposed over the past few weeks as a solution for preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Traditionally, procurement departments don’t work remotely, so this is a good opportunity for organizations to discover new workflows and optimize their processes. Remote work actually has multiple benefits, including:

• Productivity. Teleworkers are up to 40% more productive than their office counterparts, and have measured an output increase of at least 4.4%.
• Performance. Remote workers produce results with 40% fewer quality defects.
• Engagement. Higher productivity and performance create stronger engagement and 41% lower absenteeism.
• Retention. 54% of employees say they would change jobs for one that offered them workplace flexibility.
• Profitability. Organizations save an average of $11,000 per year per part-time telecommuter.

Now, willingly or not, procurement departments can take advantage of these benefits as well.

From procurement automation platforms to chat apps, video call apps, and resource sharing platforms, procurement departments have everything they need to continue work away from the office. Here are four types of tools that enable remote procurement:

Chat Apps

There are chat apps for the workplace, and for personal messaging. Using the right app doesn’t just streamline communication within an organization; it also saves a lot of time.

According to Statista, 53% of organizations had adopted collaboration tools by 2016, and the number has been consistently increasing ever since. Benefits of work chat apps and collaboration tools include improved communication, streamlined workflow, increased productivity, increased accountability and enhanced project management.

There are many chat apps out there that organizations can use, but the most popular ones are Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Workplace by Facebook.

Video Conferencing

For modern and innovative businesses, building and maintaining quality relationships with partners, suppliers, internal teams, investors, and customers is essential. Video conferencing boosts productivity, saves time, reduces travel expenses, and promotes overall collaboration.

Utilizing a simple, unified video conferencing solution with support for screen sharing allows teams to be more connected, productive, and engaged. It also:

• Enables a digital workforce. Video meetings help organizations maintain human connections, irrespective of physical location, which speeds up decision making and improves the ability to collaborate globally;
• Rallies communication and culture. Remote work can boost productivity and lower travel costs at the same time; video conferencing has the unique ability to bring the human connection of face-to-face communication to every interaction;
• Increases communication reliability. Video conferencing provides a fast and secure way to communicate with your team, as well as with your suppliers.

The most popular video conferencing software applications are Skype, Google Hangouts, Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, and Zoom.

Resource Sharing

Until recently, most organizations depended on in-house servers for storing their growing collection of files. Today, storing data online on cloud servers is increasingly common, as it allows unlimited storage. What’s more, the data can be easily accessed from anywhere in the world.

Benefits of resource-sharing apps like Google Drive and Dropbox include disaster recovery through cloud storage, protection against attacks and hardware failure, cost savings, easy sharing with suppliers and colleagues, and collaboration for purposes of accessing and editing files or documents.

Procurement Automation

Traditionally, the procurement process has required a great deal of manual effort. However, modern tools enable manufacturers to hand off many manual tasks to procurement automation solutions. In exchange, procurement-process improvement frees up valuable internal resources for decision-making and strategizing.

Procurement automation tools enable:

• Easy RFx management. By using online RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs, organizations can communicate with suppliers more easily, and track every step of the way automatically and in real-time.
• Online auctions. Top-performing companies use e-auctions to ensure major cost savings.
• Online document approval. From requisitions to custom approvals, from purchase orders to invoices and three-way matching, procurement automation tools enable procurement managers to sign and approve any document online.
• Supplier management. Developing a mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers, especially with those deemed most strategic to the brand, is key to promoting quality, efficiency, innovation, reduced costs, reduced waste, and strengthening the supply chain.
• Contract management. Procurement automation platforms can assist contract managers to properly manage contracts by addressing transition management and performance monitoring, and by helping to ensure that both buyer and supplier fulfill their commercial and contractual commitments.

Alina Naftanaila is cofounder of Prokuria, a cloud-based e-procurement platform.