During these volatile conditions in business, a sound procurement strategy is the need of the hour for organizations to be successful. A well-crafted procurement strategy ensures the willingness to buy in time and the resources necessary for goods and services delivery, along with savings in costs, risk mitigation, and supplier reduction requirements. This, in turn, allows companies to improve their competitive advantage, operational efficiencies, and innovation when procurement goals are aligned with the broader corporate goals. This article examines the key ingredients of a successful procurement strategy, offering helpful advice that organizations can apply to endure the volatile world of business.
Table of Contents
Why You Need a Procurement Strategy
Every organization has to have a clear procurement strategy in order to run its business efficiently. Long-term does not necessarily fail in plotting, for we have mechanisms to plot and plan, but it often fails in execution to convert that plan into practice that produces effects to see all the benefits from such hard work. If we do not implement well, we end up being consumed by the whirlwind of the immediate, and we lose sight of that vision that was so beautifully crafted. A good procurement strategy would bring in fresh approaches and a culture towards driving better customer value, getting benefits from cost efficiencies, and advancing with perpetual process improvement.
Common goals of procurement strategies include:
- Improving spend visibility and control
- Achieving cost savings through strategic sourcing
- Enhancing contract delivery and coverage
- Strengthening key supplier relationships
- Ensuring quality management and product development
- Boosting customer satisfaction and value
- Enforcing process and policy compliance
- Reducing errors and missed opportunities in purchasing
- Meeting sustainable development targets, such as lowering carbon emissions
- Increasing supplier diversity
In the absence of a concise set of priorities and mechanisms to measure their attainment, these opportunities tend to fall by the wayside, or one organization has too many active pilots/programs to satisfy customers.
8 Steps to Building a Procurement Strategy
1. Assess the Current State
To develop an effective procurement strategy, start by documenting your current spending and market conditions for each category. This involves understanding historical expenditures and segmenting them appropriately.
Accurately categorizing expenditures to reflect the business and market realities is essential for a meaningful analysis.
This analysis will reveal spending trends, identify opportunities, and highlight areas for potential cost reduction. This knowledge serves as the foundation for a robust procurement strategy. Utilize spend cube analysis to thoroughly document your approach for leveraging identified opportunities, managing costs, and mitigating risks.
2. Engage Stakeholders
Identify all stakeholders to whom the plan may impact. These include business management teams, suppliers, finance, end-users, and subject matter experts. It is crucial to manage their requirements and expectations, as some may resist the proposed changes. Any strategy is doomed without stakeholder engagement. It likewise allows you to collect more valuable feedback and business requirements that you may have missed. Because they have domain knowledge, they are the experts who can provide valuable information in terms of the potential risks and opportunities.
3. Align with Organizational Goals
The strategy must align with the business’s overall strategic intent. Conducting a fact-based spend analysis will help align and prioritize your procurement strategy with corporate goals across all functions. Key inputs for the strategy should include:
- Corporate vision and mission
- Medium-term corporate plans
- Annual budgets and projected revenue
- Economic forecasts
- Commodity indices
4. Implement the Right Tools
There is no way you can manage such massive data manually; doing it will prove it to be unsafe and time-consuming, and the effect will be slow. Decision-makers require timely and pertinent insights to make their calls.
A suitable software solution provides visibility. A dedicated spend analysis tool identifies opportunities, enhances team effectiveness, adds value, and reduces errors and costly mistakes.
Accenture’s four-part blog series on digital procurement captures this well: “Digital procurement gives decision-makers better visibility, reduces risk, and boosts compliance—ultimately increasing spend under management and driving more value for the business.” In part three of the series, the authors highlight five key elements to consider:
- Data: Internal and external data impacting every aspect of the organization.
- Technology Toolbox: Software tools that leverage data for insights.
- Intuitive User Experience: Ensuring tools are user-friendly and accessible.
- Skills and Talent: Critical knowledge and skills brought by team members both inside and outside of procurement.
- Policies, Procedures, and Operating Model: Detailed plans for how responsibilities will be executed.
5. Establish Procurement Policies
This is the stage where new policies, procedures, and operating models are agreed upon and implemented. It’s an excellent opportunity to review and adjust existing processes to align with the new approach.
Rather than rigidly enforcing processes, focus on communicating the benefits and opportunities these changes bring to stakeholders. Maintain flexibility and monitor policies closely, discarding any that cause more issues than they resolve.
6. Set Procurement Priorities
Procurement is inherently dynamic, with an ever-evolving list of sourcing opportunities. Reliable spending data, once cleansed, classified, and categorized, will reveal areas of opportunity.
When the most critical areas of spend are addressed in action plans, underperforming sub-categories can be identified and targeted. Low-value, high-volume transactions can be flagged for further attention.
Ensure shared understanding and support by aligning and agreeing on priorities with stakeholders. Develop attainable goals and objectives within a defined timeframe. Specify the operations, strategies, and tactics needed to meet those goals, such as e-auctions, strategic sourcing initiatives, renegotiating contracts, and streamlining processes.
7. Determine Success Metrics
Tracking supplier and procurement performance creates opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation. By measuring, monitoring, and reporting on supplier and category performance using pre-determined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), you foster a performance-driven environment where individuals are engaged and accountable.
Ensure these measures are aligned with business KPIs to maintain a unified direction and deliver meaningful business impact.
8. Execute and Refine
A strategy is a living document that must adapt to changing internal and external circumstances. Instead of being fixated on the initial document, view it as a starting point. As you execute your plans, you will gain valuable insights.
Use stakeholder feedback to refine the strategy. Leverage data and insights to enhance your strategy and the effectiveness of your actions. New opportunities may arise that are more promising than those initially identified, necessitating the reprioritization of projects and timelines.
Various Procurement Strategies
There are numerous ways to enhance procurement performance within your organization. Some strategies emphasize cost reduction, while others aim to improve overall value or minimize risk. Regardless of the approach, all procurement strategies target one of four fundamental elements of effective procurement.
Risk Management
Risk-reduction strategies aim to secure transactions and finances. These strategies may include:
- Using security questionnaires for new vendors
- Implementing dual controls in the purchasing process
- Conducting security and legal reviews of new contracts
- Ensuring vendors hold proper certifications and insurance
- Performing regular procurement audits to detect discrepancies
- Avoiding paper-based invoicing and payments
Strategic Sourcing
The global procurement team helps the farm identify a competitive supply base that can successfully bid and execute an international contract. Strategic sourcing—a pool of vendors is reduced to the minimum to ensure contracts can be maximized and ensure security. Some are following a strategy of a smaller number of long-term suppliers in order to reduce the complexity of sourcing goods and products that involve cost-saving opportunities. A method of avoiding a supply chain disruption in 2023 the top performing strategy in the recent survey is to create more resilient partnerships with vendors.
Sustainable Procurement
This tendering is about waste reduction, energy-efficient goods, and leading environmental practices from our suppliers. Global shortages and environmental damage are turning the focus on sustainability in the supply chain. Key takeaways from Amazon’s 2022 State of Business Procurement study: More than 60 percent of survey respondents rank sustainability in purchasing practices as a top priority. The ways to do that may be to improve sustainability:
- Minimizing inventory warehousing and transportation needs
- Implementing green technology solutions where possible
- Purchasing recycled or eco-friendly products when available
Supplier Lifecycle Management
Managing vendor relationships from initial purchase to off boarding ensures safer and more effective procurement outcomes. By evaluating suppliers throughout the vendor lifecycle—from initial sourcing to contract negotiation and execution—companies can ensure contracts remain compliant and competitive. This approach also helps build more robust, mutually beneficial relationships with partner vendors.
Building a solid practice of procurement techniques in these areas has a compounding effect on procurement outcomes. Rather than focusing on a single aspect of procurement, such as cost-cutting per item, these strategies consider the total cost and value of procurement practices and vendor partnerships to deliver the best overall benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Procurement Strategy?
Your procurement strategy means how you go about your procurement. This explains not only your governance plan but also your procurement manual.
What are the Three Main Procurement Strategies?
Procurement is a critical operational process developed around purchasing goods & services. The three most important types of procurement are:
- Direct Procurement: Items purchased to be directly consumed or sold within a product.
- Indirect Procurement: The purchase of services and goods that aid the operations of an organization and are not core to the organization’s business.
- Strategic Procurement: The accent moves more about the big picture and is concerned with the long-lasting process of adding value to what’s hired throughout than for procurement.
What Goes Into a Procurement Strategy?
It focuses on selecting the main parts of a purchase in the commercial enterprise and offers cost with the aid of optimizing procurement strategies. This includes specifying what needs to be bought and how much you are spending on procurement, formulating a procurement plan, and working closely with suppliers to obtain the best value.
What type of procurement strategy do you pick?
Choosing a procurement strategy depends on factors such as purchase timing, budget, TCO, and risks. The typical results of the procurement strategies are falling prices, risk minimization, and organic growth.
What are the Pillars of Procurement Strategy?
A solid procurement process ensures efficient organizational functioning. The procurement team focuses on the following five pillars:
- Price: Ensuring competitive pricing for goods and services.
- Quality: Maintaining high standards for purchased goods and services.
- Delivery: Ensuring timely delivery of goods and services.
- Timeliness: Meeting procurement timelines to support organizational needs.
- Satisfaction: Achieving stakeholder satisfaction with procurement outcomes.