As industries become e-commerce enabled, the purchasing of MRO supplies is slowly, but surely, making the jump online.

Recent studies have found that many MRO buyers remain squeamish about putting acquisitions for suppliers online. Smart MRO buyers don’t just go online and make a purchase at the drop of a hat. It is a thought-intensive process with challenges and unexpected turns along the way. Success often means a re-engineering of a company’s acquisition process.
Buyers should keep in mind that preliminary decisions include what type of purchasing system do the needs require. The best solution may be a client-server based system requiring the first purchase to be a server to host the application. An alternative is to buy a license to an existing hosting system. Regardless of which MRO system a company selects, significant hardware investments are sometimes involved along with software investments. Hopefully, these outlays will be justified when procurement starts to show significant savings.
MRO systems usually use procurement management software, which supports an infrastructure of catalog content management and supplier transaction gateways. Using procurement management software, companies can oftentimes make the transition to online MRO purchasing a little smoother. Some companies even surprise themselves with how many suppliers they can load in a short amount of time. Of course, procurement officials should always scrutinize the suppliers they select, keeping an eye open for those that have proven themselves able to make the jump to e-commerce.
MRO systems come fairly easy to use, utilizing concepts not much different than those on a well-designed electronic retail site, such as dragging and dropping intended purchases into a shopping cart icon. On some MRO systems users don’t even need to separate purchases by supplier. They can build a list of multiple items, each from a different source, and the system will automatically send purchasing orders to each individual supplier. Users also have a lot of options as to how they search the system. Depending on their needs, they can go in by supplier, by product description, by manufacturer part number or by supplier part number. Another benefit is that with an MRO purchasing system, companies can more easily view their total spending.
Choosing the right MRO purchasing system is as important as finding the right supplier. As with any decision that affects business, it is important to do the necessary research before making a final choice.

Source: Suppliers: Key to Putting MRO Purchasing Online
Bill Atkinson
Manufacturing.Net, Aug. 24, 2000
http://www.manufacturing.net/magazine/purchasing/archives/2000/pur0824.00/082mro.htm