“Good morning! Do you have any idea when those A4 notebooks will arrive? I think I ordered them quite a while ago… And I really need them before the end of the week. Thanks! -Jo”
Uh oh. Now you remember. You received an email from Jo about two weeks ago asking for twenty notebooks, and you were so swamped with work on the day that you completely forgot to put the order in with the supplier. They take AT LEAST four days to deliver, and now Jo will have to wait even longer.
You phone the supplier to see if a personal plea will speed up the process a bit, but there’s only so much that they can do to help… Now you’ll have to pop over to the nearest stationery shop on the way home from work, where the books probably cost double what they’re actually worth. If only you’d had an assistant, reminding you about the little things that get lost so easily in your inbox. But assistants cost a lot of money.
The solution is a workflow that orders stock from suppliers, checks up on whether they’ve delivered your order, and chases them if they haven’t.
Using the workflow, instead of sending you an email with a request, Jo submits her request through a form which details what she wants to order and who her preferred supplier is.
Once Jo has made her request, all that you need to do is approve the purchase (or deny it, if it’s ludicrous!) with the click of a button.
Once you’ve hit ‘Yes’, all you need to do is sit back and wait for the order to arrive. The workflow will take care of the rest! Once the notebooks have been delivered, the receptionist will respond to the workflow, indicating that the order has been received. After that, the workflow will even send off an email to Jo, letting her know to pick up her notebooks when they’ve arrived.
The benefits
- Ease of mind, knowing that you won’t forget to place orders ever again.
- Free up the time that would have been spent typing up numerous emails to suppliers and employees.
- Save money on the items you would have ended up needing to buy at the shops at the last minute.
If this solution fits your needs you can clone it directly into your Kotive account for free.
Procurement
The workflow is automatically copied into your account when you select it. Want to make one or two changes to fit your situation better? No problem!
Written by 
Caroline Swart Bankart
Get help staying on top of your company's orders, suppliers and deliveries. #procurement
