"The technology is two-thirds of the reason we can negotiate low prices," said Matthew Lekstutis, a senior vice president of EDS CoNext, an online procurement service.

VirtualGeula: A bookfinding and procurement service assisting scholars all over the world 3.

Enppi performs any combination of the following activities: studies, basic and detailed engineering and procurement services.

The procurement service consists of catalog management, procurement management, sourcing management, logistics management, and billing & payment management.

They work on behalf of businesses, providing procurement services in exchange for commissions from the energy suppliers.

"People have tried mechanizing the process, but nothing other than hand labor has worked so far," said Clare Mullett, manager of procurement services.

It employs 95 people, plus six in its international subsidiary, and has a plant in Patterson, N.Y. "We act as a procurement service," Mr. Frickel explained.

Plans also call for consolidating the separate administrative, personnel and procurement services that those agencies maintain at their New York headquarters.

They are often within the "order to cash" segment of the business encompassing procurement, customer services and distribution.

The public procurement process should be improved so that the working conditions and job security of those employed in the procurement service can be taken into account in connection with competitive activity.