Procurement 

Certified Inventory Optimization Professional (CIOP) is an end-to-end supply chain certification program. The certification consists of 30 modules focusing both on traditional and futuristic topics. The traditional topics are introduction to supply chain management, all about inventory, strategic business planning, forecasting, demand management, capacity management, sales and operations planning (S&OP), master scheduling (MPS), materials requirements planning (MRP) and production activity control (PAC). It also includes topics on procurement, warehousing, transportation, distribution, and packaging. The topic on the future trends such as Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Machine Learning (M/L) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). There is a significant focus on supporting technologies such as forecasting and process mapping tools such as Microsoft Visio. In addition to the above indicated topics the participants need to master over 3000 terminologies in supply chain management.

In a broad sense, procurement is the act of acquiring different goods and services that the business requires to perform its basic necessities. In simple terms, procurement is all about the acquisition of goods and services. In this process, a company seeks to acquire goods and services which meet its specific needs and which can meet the production needs of its employees and its customers. To be more precise, procurement simply refers to the acquisition of goods and services at a cost that is lower than their market price. In this context, procurement also covers all the activities that are pre-requisite for the acquisition of a product or a service. For instance, it is not the case that a company decides to purchase raw materials from a supplier whose price is lower than the market price.

A company's inventory comprises everything that is needed to ensure that the operations of the business are carried out in the manner required by the company. In other words, inventory simply means the stock of products or goods that a company sells or buys. The inventory is further subdivided into two sections namely the direct inventory and the indirect inventory. While the direct inventory comprises items such as cash, securities, motor vehicles, office supplies, machineries, and consumer and other consumables such as food and beverages, the indirect inventory comprises items such as accounts receivable, loans, leases, and securities related to the operation of the business.

There are many companies that offer their clients assistance in procuring the items that they need for their business. Most companies that specialize in the supply chain management offer their services to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and to corporations. Some of the companies that offer these services are ERP/CMS providers, Procurement management companies, Distribution services, and LMSs. ERP software, which is an application, is one such ERP application. Many companies also offer cloud computing services to their clients. Cloud computing is a service wherein the client hosted in a virtual environment; thereby, saving time and money on hardware, software, training and staffing.