Electronic Commerce in the Procurement of Indirect Goods

This article looks at a rather new and innovative class of Business Networking appHcations, referred to as desktop purchasing systems (DPSs). In recent years the face of many businesses has been changed radically by business process redesign and/or through the introduction of integrated standard software, referred to as ERP systems (cf. Chap. 2.3.1), e.g. SAP R/3, Oracle Applications or Baan IV. BPR projects essentially deal with the interface to external customers and rarely encompass the organization’s procurement function.