E-SOURCING STRATEGIES ON EFFICIENCY OF PROCUREMENT PROCESSES OF SUGAR FACTORIES IN KENYA

Sugar factories are increasingly confronted with greater global competition and changing markets environment despite their effort to use e-sourcing strategies as a key pillar to improve procurement performance. This has resulted in unnecessarily high operation costs, poor inventory control, unacceptable supplier appraisal standards and uncoordinated business activities in the procurement positions, thus affecting general performance. E-sourcing has become a powerful tool which facilitates accountability and audit-ability. This study sought to determine the effect of e- sourcing strategies on efficiency of procurement process of Sugar factories in Kenya. The study adopted a correlational research design where the target population was 165 who were the Head of Agriculture, Head of Finance, Head of Manufacturing, Head of ICT, Head of Marketing, Head of Purchasing and Procurement staff working in sugar factories in Kenya. The study findings are presented in form of tables, figures and graphs. The e-sourcing strategies; e-tendering strategy, e-prequalification strategy and e-evaluation strategy could only explain 59.8% of efficient procurement performance as shown by R2 of 0.598. The study recommends that sugar factories suppliers should procure document management software which will enables them to register their suppliers online and submitted their mandatory requirements online. The results of this research may guide in policy formulation for the sugar sub sector. KEY WORDS: E-Evaluation, E-Prequalification, E- Sourcing, E-Tendering, Efficiency of procurement process