The Hackett Group

What Are the Top 10 Procurement Focuses for the Coming Year?

In response to the challenges of the modern procurement landscape, organizations are stepping up their transformation efforts, implementing modern technology, developing new capabilities, and adapting their operating models. This report summarizes the key issues that procurement teams are facing, and how they are responding to these issues.

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What are the top 10 key issues facing procurement leaders?

The Hackett Group’s Key Issues Study identified the 10 most important goals in the procurement agenda creating a call to digital action that includes:

  • Improving procurement agility
  • Elevating the role of procurement 
  • Enhancing third-party risk management capabilities

Download this report now to dive into the top 10 priorities of CPOs, including how to accomplish critical objectives.
 

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One of the top priorities of procurement leaders is to improve the agility of the procurement process through simplification, empowering decision-making and calculated risk-taking, digital processes, and streamlined governance.

Another high priority is to elevate the role of procurement business partners to one of business enablement leaders who can develop and maintain strong relationships. Procurement teams are also prioritizing the enhancement of their risk management capabilities across a broader range of risk exposures, mitigating risk at deeper levels of the supply chain, and implementing continuous risk monitoring throughout the supplier life cycle.

In times of such great uncertainty, procurement must provide stability to the enterprise through spend cost reduction and supply assurance. As expected, supply risk management has emerged as the procurement function’s second most important objective.
Laura Gibbons and Nicolas Walden, The Hackett Group

FAQ

What are the top 10 procurement issues for the year?

The 10 key procurement issues are (1) reduce spend cost, (2) reduce supply risk to ensure supply continuity, (3) act as a strategic advisor to the business, (4) accelerate procurement digital transformation, (5) improve procurement agility, (6) modernize procurement application process, (7) align skills and talent with changing business needs, (8) improve analytical and reporting capabilities, (9) enable corporate sustainability goals, and (10) increase spend influence. For more detail, see the Key Issues report from The Hackett Group.

What are the top 10 calls to digital action for procurement leaders?

The 10 most critical actions and accomplishments for procurement leaders are (1) stability, (2) relationships, (3) modernization, (4) digital transformation, (5) skill gaps, (6) operating model, (7) agility, (8) risk management, (9) data and insights, and (10) influence. For more detail, see the Key Issues report from The Hackett Group.

How are procurement leaders modernizing their procurement application platforms?

Modernizing procurement platforms encompasses consolidating, upgrading, and migrating the technology supporting the procurement function, which is essential for efficient processes, customer-centric workflows, and user-friendly interfaces. Technology tools will enable agile behavior and free up time for strategic work. Procurement is halting investment in legacy or on-premise solutions, while 29% and 22% of organizations plan to grow cloud-based core procurement applications and best-of-breed solutions, respectively. This indicates a widespread move to digitally enabled procurement operations.