Building an e-Procurement tool using Zoho Creator

For the latest installment of #JustLowCodeIt, we've got Nexivo, a partner based out of India, sharing how they solved their customer's problem using Zoho Creator.

This blog was written by Pravash Pujari, head of presales & partner acquisition, as part of the Creator Developers' Month initiative. Thank you for sharing your story with us!

Partner & company

Nexivo is a Zoho Premium Partner and a digital transformation company helping customers automate their critical business functions using industry best practices through Zoho platform apps like Zoho One, Zoho CRM, and more. Nexivo's Zoho experts have been automating sales, marketing, financial, and customer support operations, which directly impact the revenue of companies. Nexivo, being a Zoho-only company, has strong expertise in developing custom solutions using Zoho Creator, and also develops Zoho extensions and widgets with integration competence.

Nexivo follows process-driven performance methodologies for various consulting, implementation, training, and support projects. Team Nexivo is committed to providing unflinching and approachable support to all their customers. We also have strong expertise in integrating Zoho with SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Google, and other SaaS products.

This year, Zoho awarded us with a "Zoho Partner of the Year 2022: Fastest Emerging Partner" award, as Nexivo become a Premium Partner within the short span of only two years.

The customer and the e-Procurement application

Magnasoft is a leader in the arena of digital geo-spatial information and services. They provide intelligent spatial data solutions by displaying voluminous geo-spatial data in a comprehensible 3D format, for better analysis and informed decision making. They have 1,500+ customers spread across 72 locations worldwide. Magnasoft operates their business in the US, India, and the UK.

Nexivo built an eProcurement application on Zoho Creator to cater to the vendor management system Magnasoft uses. It allows their vendors, freelancers, and partners to get on board and to associate them with their procurement plans.

The challenge

Managing a huge number of freelancers and vendors was a tedious task for Magnasoft, as it involves inviting lots of new users, onboarding them after the multiple steps of the selection process—which includes getting the signed agreement—sending RFQs, sort listing quotations based on vendor rating, releasing POs, and making payments.

The procurement team were doing all these tasks manually over spreadsheets and email exchanges. During the process, it was almost impossible to track the incoming quotations in a systematic manner, which resulted in delays/defaults in payment, causing dissatisfaction among both vendors and freelancers.

App modules

• Requisition
• Vendor Sign-Up
• Vendor Detail Gathering
• Vendor Agreement
• Vendor Onboarding with a Vendor Portal
• Request for Quotation/RFQ
• Bidding
• Quotation Short Listing
• Purchase Orders
• Invoice Submission Module for Vendors
• Payment Acknowledgement

How Zoho Creator solved the client's problem

Our Nexivo business analysis expert ensured they understood the procedure and implementation of the tool as per the client's requirement. The process then started with a Requisition module, wherein the internal employees raise procurement requests to the team lead. According to the financial specifics, the budget was approved by the respective authority, at which point a bidding request/RFQ was opened for the vendor ecosystem.

The vendor signup form is crucial for Magnasoft to invite their vendors over the web, which is hosted on their website. The data comes for approval to the team and then vendors fill out the vendor onboarding form with all the relevant, statutory details. The submitted details go through multiple stages of approval to different teams. On final approval, the agreement document triggers from Zoho Creator to the vendor's email address. After signing off on the agreement, the vendors get access to the portal. Based on the type of the vendor, they can see relevant open RFQs.

Clicking on the RFQ gives vendors access to submitting their estimates against each line item and to uploading the soft copy of the signed quotation. On final bidding day, the procurement team at Magnasoft compares the quotations from multiple vendors and finalizes one of them. On completion of the quote finalization, the finance team  generates the purchase order and shares it with the vendor. The entire cycle is completed when the vendor receives the payment and it's marked paid by the finance team.

This automated journey from requisition request to billing has helped Magnasoft boost their productivity with transparency.

ROI & thoughts on Zoho Creator

VP of information technology at Magnasoft, Mr. Tanzeem Yousuf Khan, shared his thoughts on their implemented solution:

Nexivo is always the best partner for Magnasoft in their commitment, support, and solutions. Our eProcurement application implementation program has a big workflow that's used by various departments, which Nexivo understood well and helped us in that part of our digital transformation journey. Enhanced productivity, open-ended scalability, and go-green were the major outcomes of this engagement.

Message to budding Creator developers

Nexivo highly recommends Zoho Creator as one of the best low-code platforms. It provides developers with ease of work and an efficient tool to design applications. It's also a simple task to make alterations under Zoho Creator, even on a live application.

Throughout this month, we'll be bringing you more interesting stories, so keep checking back and help celebrate International Programmers' Day with us!