Cargill's IT team this week is being trained on a new catalogue
management application for company employees who purchase products
online.
The $48bn (£34.16bn) conglomerate has added the E-Catalog
Automation Platform from Cardonet to automate its procurement
operations. The upgraded software includes both buyer and seller
catalogue management capabilities; previously, the two functions
were offered in separate products.
The upgrade also adds features such as automatic classification of
content based on preset rules and category-level attributes. These
features let catalogue owners apply the same attributes with
different rules for each category.
Jeff Robles, Cargill's electronic procurement architecture and
implementation leader, said his team will initially focus on
cutting time out of the procurement process.
"If you can take five purchase orders and put them into one, you're
also going to be saving money," he said.
Cargill will establish standard rules for categorising content so
online catalogue managers will not need to review and categorise
content for every new catalogue.
For example, acronyms that are used in catalogues will be
identified and either automatically translated into their full
names or brought to the attention of a catalogue manager for
explanations.
Cargill's procurement system has 70 suppliers that offer a variety
of office and building supplies, Robles explained. He said one of
the company's goals is to create a preferred list of
suppliers.
Cargill wouldn't disclose what it's spending on the project, but
pricing for the Cardonet software starts at $125,000.