• Posted by: Melissa Jordan
• On: 10/17/2006 20:44:42
• In: Accounting & Finance

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As a $17 billion company, privately held PricewaterhouseCoopers has tremendous leverage when it goes to the marketplace to make purchases. Now the company is offering to share that leverage by creating a purchasing consortium. Its new economy marketplace will offer members the ability to purchase products, services, travel and software. It will also cover best practices, contract negotiation, and other content areas.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is taking the position that anyone can create a marketplace. While the largest financial consulting firm is hardly "anybody," what we see here is the beginning of a flood of similar ventures from companies of all kinds, including similar consulting companies, banks, other large companies with purchasing leverage, and potentially anyone else.

A user in the United States wishing to enter into E-procurement currently has at least two options. PricewaterhouseCoopers is one option, while joining a marketplace run by an E-procurement software vendor is another. The user has to consider many factors when making a final choice, including:
 Current buyer and vendor members of the marketplace
 Capabilities of the underlying procurement software
 Ease of integration with existing back-end, legacy or ERP systems
Ease of integration with other marketplaces
Likely financial stability and viability of the marketplace
Experience of other users, including ease of use and speed of delivery
These factors must be determined for every candidate marketplace or E-procurement company.