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Sourcing and Procurement 
Glossary

Your trusted guide to exploring sourcing and procurement terms & definitions,
from the world’s leading procurement experts and companies

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Downstream environmental factors

Impacts on the environment caused as a result of the use of the goods you are producing

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Driving Blind Disease

One of Vested's 10 Ailments. This ailment affects many business relationships; the lack of a formal governance process to monitor relationship performance and measure success.

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Dual-sourcing

Using two or more suppliers for a product, splitting demand between them, to keep pricing competitive and ensure continuity of supply

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Dutch Windmill

A combination of buyer's purchasing portfolio and supplier's customer portfolio, leading to 16 different business-to-business relationships, each of which call for a different sourcing strategy.

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E-Catalogues

On-line resources used for more efficient order handling, improved logistics, and improved and better payment processing. May be integrated with an organization's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

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E-commerce (or electronic commerce)

Buying and selling goods and services, or transmitting funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the Internet

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Downtime

Time when production or services cannot be carried out

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Drop shipment

Merchandise which is shipped by a manufacturer directly to a customer in response to the seller who collects orders but does not maintain an inventory.

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Due Diligence

Detailed assessment of one or more business processes or production lines, culture, assets, liabilities, intellectual property, judicial and financial situations in order to make outsourcing decisions.

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E-Auction

A process in which a purchaser pre-qualifies multiple suppliers and invites them to participate in a fixed-duration Web-based bidding or sourcing event.

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E-Procurement solutions

Any number of solutions providing e-procurement activities. These solutions are also sometimes referred to as Source-to-Pay suites, or Procure-to-Pay suites, or "Req to Check" solutions.

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E-procurement

Electronic procurement that occurs when the transactional activities of the purchasing process are conducted electronically, typically over the Internet, to shorten the cycle time and lower the transaction costs of the acquisition process.

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