As acutely pointed out by Langford and Murray, using e-business solutions to manage procurements is an inevitable consequence of the constant

and frequently unplanned pressure that technology and culture have from within and outside an organization. Moreover, although the use of computer-based tools to manage procurements allows for integrated project teams and knowledge sharing throughout project supply chains, one should not be deluded that risk and uncertainty have been removed from the procurement process (2011, p.340). Having said that, and based on relevant literature, below are some of the risks that implementing e-procurement carries, listed in order of potential impact and likelihood: Leadership-associated risks. The first risk likely to arise materializes because of a decision made by pressure and influence. By investing a large sum in deploying e-procurement, without thoroughly considering strategies to improve the organizations procurement management, the organization is missing the opportunity to achieve the same benefits credited to e-procurement by simply improving procurement practice among the procurement employees. For example, although a benefit of e-procurement is to reduce buying outside of the organizations preferred process or system, other measures, including the implementation of corporate buying strategies that offer value for money, do not need electronic tools (United Nations Global Marketplace, 2012). IT-associated risks. The e-procurements system in place must be compatible and standardized to the greatest possible extent with the existing technologies. For example, by failing to meet widely accepted standards for coding, technical, and process specifications, e-procurement technology adoption will be slow and fail to deliver the benefits as excepted (Parida and Sophonthummapharn, 2010, p.335). Operations risks. The reduction of the number of suppliers because some insist on the use of paper-based systems, or simply may not have access to affordable IT technology to deploy e-procurement tools can bring a sourcing risk (United Nations Global Marketplace, 2012). This can bring, for example, a business interruption risk because of the dependence on a reduced number of suppliers who may be exposed to significant risks of their own (Primus Consulting Inc., 2002). Integrity-associated risks. In their study, Trkman and McCormack point out that organizations plan to protect themselves against recurrent, low-impact risks in their supply chains, but ignore high-impact, low-likelihood risks (2010, p.345). For example, in order to reduce waiting time for approval of orders, the approval process is automatized by empowering procurement employees and thus reducing middle managers. Hence, there is the risk of wrong orders created by mistake (or even fraud from employees) in transactions with no supervisor approval. Financial risks. Although organizations can achieve competitive financial advantage from improved business performance, there are non-financial measures that should be taken into account (Phillips and Wojciech, 2006). For example, a price risk if there is not sufficient oversight to the prices contained in the catalogs, and a liquidity risk if there are insufficient controls related to cash flow risk and concentration risk (Primus Consulting Inc., 2002). Reference List Langford, D. and Murray, M. (2011) Procurement Systems. In: Sollish, F., Semanik, J., Morris, P.W.G. (ed.) & Pinto, J.K. (ed.). Planning and Administering Project Contracts and Procurement. Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 321-344. Parida, V. and Sophonthummapharn, K. (2010) The Effect of Benefits and Risks On E-procurement Implementation: An Exploratory Study of Swedish and Indian Firms, International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 2 (3), pp.186-201, Inderscience Publishers [Online]. DOI: 10.1504/IJICT.2010.032407 (Accessed: 14 June 2013). Phillips, P. and Wojciech, P. (2006) E-Procurement: How Does it Enhance Strategic Performance? [Online]. Available from: http://www.academia.edu/349233/Eprocurement_How_does_it_enhance_strategic_performance (Accessed: 14 June 2013). Primus Consulting Inc. (2002) E-Procurement - Benefits and Risks from the Business Risk Model [Online]. Available from: http://www.primuscon.com/white_papers/E-Procurement.pdf (Accessed: 14 June 2013).

Trkman, P. and McCormack, K. (2010) Estimating the Benefits and Risks of Implementing E-Procurement, IEEE Transactions On Engineering Management, 57 (2), pp. 338-349, Business Source Complete [Online]. DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2009.2033046 (Accessed: 14 June 2013). United Nations Global Marketplace (2012) Procurement Practitioners Handbook [Online]. Available from: https://www.ungm.org/pph/ch04s02.html (Accessed: 14 June 2013).