4 Prendio Alternatives for Biotech (Faster, Easier & Cheaper purchasing software)
Prendio is one of the key players in the Biotech e-procurement software space offering a number of platform benefits. From purchase orders, and punchouts to complete three-way matching, Prendio offers a complete solution for the Biotech industry, but there are better alternatives that also offers payment processing within your supply chains. In this guide, we ranked and reviewed the best Prendio alternatives to help you browse options.
4 Prendio Alternatives
1. ProcureDesk — better punchout catalog support for Biotech
2. Quartzy — better inventory management for Biotech
3. Procurify— better for general-purpose procurement solution
4. Jaggaer— better for large Biotech companies
1. ProcureDesk
Our Verdict — Better punchout catalog support for Biotech
Price: $380 to $560/month for 10 users
ProcureDesk is an automation solution provides a complete purchase-to-pay solution that easily integrates with your accounting system and help you track your employee expenses at an affordable price.
It is the best alternative to Prendio if you are looking for a modern purchasing solution for your supply chain that has a central interface that is easy to use and offers worry-free onboarding support. ProcureDesk provides integration with close to 100+ punchout catalogs enabling it to provide a seamless purchasing experience for your empowered employees.
If you plan on purchasing lab supplies from only a selected set for your vendor payments and you don’t want to manage inventory, Quarty is a better option.
I recommend you get started for $380/month on the purchasing automation plan, then upgrade to the AP automation plan (with three-way matching) for $560/month.
Best For:
ProcureDesk is best for Biotech startups that are looking for an affordable procurement solution with strong punchout catalog support. On top of that, it also has a fabulous interface!
What’s Better Than Prendio:
- Easy to use interface that supports purchase of material and services. The interface is designed for scientists and not procurement professionals. That makes it easy to create purchase requests and other purchasing decisions without spending too much time on browsing multiple catalogs.
- Strong punchout catalog to connect to different vendor websites so that you can get your preferred pricing and better inventory visibility. ProcureDesk supports vendors like ThermoFisher, Fisher Scientific, VWR, IDT to name a few. ProcureDesk also have a website plugin that allows you to copy the cart data from any website and automatically add to your shopping cart.
- OCR for invoices so that your AP team doesn’t have to spend time matching invoices with the purchase orders. The OCR capability significantly reduce the time spent on the purchasing process invoices.
- Better order tracking so that you know when your order is going to be delivered. ProcureDesk offers real time order tracking so that you can track the status of the product when it is out for delivery.
- Inventory tracking capabilities for your financial operations so that you can easily track your lab supplies inventory.
What’s Worse Than Prendio:
- No managed service like Prendio. Prendio partners with Biprocure to provide procurement and AP as a service. Along with the purchasing solution, you also get a dedicated team of buyers and AP clerks that manage your purchasing and payment processes. ProcureDesk is a pure technology player and doesn’t offer managed services at the time of this writing.
- Limited reporting as compared to Prendio. ProcureDesk offers 50+ canned and management reports; however, Prendio has strong management reporting, including the ability to create custom reports. I would suggest having a list of your common reports and reviewing with the ProcureDesk team to see if the reporting capability suits your needs. ProcureDesk does supports custom reports but there is no ability for the user to add it.
Try ProcureDesk today with a free 14-day trial.
2. Quartzy
Our Verdict — Better Inventory management for Biotech
Price: $159/month for 5 users, additional users for $29/month
Quartzy is probably the only solution provider that manages in the inventory in their own warehouse. Researchers can use to see the real time inventory of what is available in Quartzy warehouse before placing the order. Quartzy works with different vendors in the Biotech space to negotiate a preferred pricing for lab supplies.
Quartzy is designed to solve the use case of a small lab that doesn’t have a preferred list of suppliers and researchers can pick and choose from an inventory of curated vendors.
Quartzy used to have a freemium model but now they have shifted to paid only model.
Best For:
Quartzy is best suited for small labs with a few researchers who are just getting started. The solution is best suited for researchers and has limited capabilities for finance leaders and procurement teams.
What’s Better Than Prendio:
- Better user experience that makes it easier for researchers to order lab supplies. You can search catalogs by Product #, CAS # or manufacturer # which makes it easier to find the product.
- Quartzy shop is a set of curated catalogs that allows researchers to purchase products from a curated vendor list. Quartzy maintains the inventory for these items and are readily available to ship as compared to directly shipping from vendors.
- Inventory management so that you can track all lab supplies inventory. It provides support for bar codes printing as well as storing inventory across different locations.
What’s Worse Than Prendio:
- No custom reporting functionality. Unlike Prendio, Quartzy doesn’t offer the ability to create custom report functionality.
- Limited support for outside network vendors. The curated catalogs are designed to support the vendors that are in the network for Quartzy. For outside vendors, you can still create the purchase order but there is no easy way to manage catalogs for such vendors.
- No invoice matching capabilities. Unlike Prendio Quartzy is limited to purchase orders and inventory and there is no 3-way invoice matching capabilities.
3. Procurify
Our Verdict — Better For Biotech companies that don’t need strong punchout support and wants to skip any administrative burden
Price: The vendor doesn’t mention the pricing on their website.
Procurify is a cloud-based procurement and accounting software that helps businesses streamline their procurement processes. It offers a range of features such as purchase order creation, approval flows, supplier management, spend tracking, and reporting.
Procurify is a complete spend management solution for medium-sized companies. The company doesn’t exclusively focus on Biotech, similar to Prendio but caters to all industries.
With Procurify, businesses can easily manage their procurement process from start to finish, ensuring that they have the right products and services at the right time and the right price. The software also offers integration with popular accounting and ERP systems, making it easier for businesses to manage their financials and track their Spend.
Best For:
Procurify is best for medium-sized Biotech companies with outsourced lab management. If all you are doing is working with Contract Research Organizations (CRO), then Procurify is a good solution.
What’s Better Than Prendio:
- Virtual cards for spend management: if you have a heavy credit card spend, then virtual cards is a good approach. With virtual cards, a card is issued to the employee after the purchase request is approved. You get the best of both worlds, the ability to review the Spend before purchasing, and you don’t have to process Bills to pay vendors.
- Mobile app: Prendio doesn’t have a mobile app which makes it difficult to approve on the go. Procurify mobile app allows you to approve on the go.
- OCR capabilities: Procurify OCR capabilities make it easier for the accounts payable team to work on the approval process of invoices. With OCR, the data can be matched to the appropriate document, like purchase order and receipt. This reduced the burden on employees because they didn’t have to approve every invoice.
What’s Worse Than Prendio:
- Limited punchout catalogs: Unlike Prendio, Procurify doesn’t have an extensive list of vendor catalogs. Prendio offers punchout catalogs with major Biotech supplies vendors; however, Procurify is limited to vendors like Amazon, Staples, and so on.
- Limited reporting: Procurify doesn’t offset extensive reporting capabilities as compared to Prendio. The built-in reporting does provide basic Spend reports for finance, but custom reporting capabilities are missing.
- No managed service: Procurify doesn’t offer a managed procurement service similar to Prendio. Your internal finance teams need to manage the collaboration with vendors to offer better customer service.
4. Jaggear
Our Verdict — Better For Large Biotech companies
Price: The vendor doesn’t mention the price on their website.
JAGGAER is a cloud-based procurement software solution that helps the finance officer in your business automate and optimize their procurement processes. It offers a range of features such as spend analysis, sourcing, supplier management, contract management, and eProcurement.
The company was originally called SciQuest and primarily focused on providing e-procurement solutions to Life Sciences and Biotech companies.
JAGGAER’s solution is designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries streamline their procurement process, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. It also offers advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to help your business operations make data-driven decisions and optimize their procurement strategies.
Best For:
JAGGAER is best suited for large Biotech and Lifesciences companies that need complete spend management capabilities, including contract management, RFP etc.
What’s Better Than Prendio:
- Vendor portal: Jaggaer vendor portal makes it easier for suppliers to manage their supplier profile, purchase order acknowledgments, and invoicing process. It provides a simple interface for employees to communicate with the company.
- Complete spend management platform: Jaggaer is a complete spend management solution. So not only it provides e-procurement functionality like Prendio, but it also offers complete source-to-pay capabilities which include Spend analysis, strategic sourcing tools, contract management, and vendor performance management tools.
- Support for compliance: Regulatory compliance related to contracts is a critical requirement for Biotech and Lifescience companies. With contract management, Jaggaer provides strong compliance support. Prendio doesn’t have any such capabilities.
What’s Worse Than Prendio:
- Expensive: Jaggaer is more expensive than Prendio. While Prendio is affordable for most Biotech startups, Jaggaer might be very expensive.
- Higher implementation cost: Depending upon the scope, the implementation timelines could vary, and hence the higher cost.
- No managed service: Jaggaer doesn’t offer a management procurement or AP service. Companies with limited staff offering customer service might find it difficult to manage a large spend management solution.
The Bottom Line
Here are our top picks for the best Prendio alternatives to try this year:
- ProcureDesk — better punchout catalog support for Biotech
- Quartzy — better inventory control and management for Biotech
- Procurify— better for general purpose procurement solution
- Jaggaer— better for large Biotech companies
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