E-procurement is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work, and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as electronic data interchange and enterprise resource planning.
The e-procurement value chain consists of indent management, e-Tendering, e-Auctioning, vendor management, catalog management, Purchase Order Integration, Order Status, Ship Notice, e-invoicing, e-payment, and contract management.
Indent management is the workflow involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual procuring departments defining their indenting process.
Elements of e-procurement include request for information, request for proposal, request for quotation, RFx, and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects).