MeRLIN Sourcing: Powering Strategic Direct Procurement

MeRLIN is a Strategic Direct Sourcing Solution that offers seamlessly integrated sourcing process automation along with Supplier Relationship Management, Category Management, Contract Management, Audits, and eProcurement functions augmented by Advanced Analytics.

What are MeRLIN’s features?

MeRLIN is modular, flexible, configurable, and easy to deploy. It is powered by the Microsoft Technology stack and can be deployed On-Premise or on Cloud.

Category Management

  • Build and maintain strategic category plans with spend, supplier, and risk visibility.
  • Analyse category performance and identify consolidation or optimisation opportunities.
  • Enable category-specific sourcing strategies and supplier segmentation.

Supplier Relationship Management

  • Manage the entire supplier lifecycle with configurable onboarding, compliance, and performance workflows.
  • Maintain a complete Supplier 360° view with scorecards, audits, KPIs, and partnerconfigured fields.
  • Allow controlled supplier updates, mandatory document setup, and secure editing rights for buyers and vendor masters.

Sourcing & eProcurement

  • Discover prices, match similar items, and launch online RFQs across global supplier bases.
  • Compare bids, manage engineering or price-change RFQs, and run multi-round negotiations with audit trails.
  • Support BoM-level sourcing with visibility into rolled-up cost impacts.

eAuctions

  • Run reverse, forward, multi-parameter, rank-based, or sealed-bid auctions.
  • Use auto-extensions, visibility controls, proxy bids, and real-time ranking.
  • Analyse outcomes, measure savings, and finalise awards with integrated analytics.

Contract Management

  • Maintain a central contract repository with version control and approval workflows.
  • Track expiries, renewals, and compliance through automated alerts.
  • Link contracts to sourcing events for seamless execution and governance.

Analytics

  • Access PPV, supplier performance, category insights, and lifecycle analytics out of the box.
  • Use standard dashboards or drill down by commodity, supplier, item, or region.
  • Create custom reports, run what-if analyses, and explore data through self-service tools.

Budgeting & Planning

  • Maintain budgets across regions, categories, and business units.
  • Compare Budget vs Actuals to identify optimisation and sourcing priorities.
  • Manage standard costs in base currency for accurate planning and reporting.

Data Handling

  • Consolidate supplier, item, and price data into a single global source of truth.
  • Standardise attributes, commodity structures, and classifications across the enterprise.
  • Automate data updates with configurable ERP, PLM, and finance integrations.

Compliance & Auditing

  • Track all changes with audit trails and manage roles and permissions securely.
  • Enable supplier audits with templates, scoring, NCR tracking, and follow-ups.
  • Generate audit reports and delegate tasks to improve turnaround time.

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    Why MeRLIN?

    MeRLIN provides a strategic platform that enables value optimization through advanced automation, global data aggregation, category insights, contract governance, eAuctions, and analytical tools, empowering sourcing teams to move from transactional procurement to value-driven strategic sourcing.

    Who will benefit from MeRLIN?

    Fast-Paced Product Development Teams

    Organisations where R&D, engineering, and procurement must work together to accelerate NPD/NPI cycles.

    Companies Focused on Cost Reduction

    Manufacturers aiming to optimise costs across the product lifecycle using analytics, part similarity, and BoM insights.

    Manufacturers with Complex Direct Material Sourcing

    Enterprises managing multi-plant, multi-currency, and BoM-heavy sourcing operations.

    Teams Struggling with Manual Supplier Management

    Procurement functions still dependent on Excel, emails, and fragmented tools for supplier onboarding, compliance, and audits.

    Data-Driven Sourcing Leaders

    Organisations needing real-time insights and integrated data from ERP, MRP, PLM, and risk systems to make faster, more informed decisions.

    What are the tangible benefits?

    Faster Sourcing Cycles

    Accelerate RFIs, RFQs, and price discovery through digital eSourcing, part similarity checks, and multi-level BoM sourcing.

    Proven Cost Optimisation

    Identify savings across the product lifecycle using Spend Analytics, PPV insights, supplier rationalisation, and BoM variant analysis.

    Simplified Global Direct Material Sourcing

    Standardise sourcing across plants and geographies with multi-currency support, global data aggregation, and integrated category insights.

    Unified Supplier Lifecycle Management

    Automate onboarding, registrations, audits, and compliance tracking while consolidating all supplier intelligence in a single 360° scorecard

    Better, Data-Driven Decisions

    Make confident sourcing choices with real-time insights enriched by ERP, MRP, PLM, and third-party risk integrations.

    Reduced Risk Exposure

    Evaluate supplier and commodity risks using performance metrics, compliance alerts, audit status, and category-level risk signals.

    Faster Time to Value

    Benefit from quick deployment, out-of-the-box capabilities, and automation that reduces manual workload and delivers faster ROI.