Refocusing Your Procurement Practices to Maximize Resilience and Agility
SIG summarizes the results of its survey of 100 sourcing professionals and their solutions to thriving in the new business world by reshaping procurement practices.
Resilience & Digital Transformation are on the Procurement Executive's Agenda
The SIG survey provides help for procurement teams in three main areas:
- How to assess the procurement process beyond traditional cost savings
- Procurement performance metrics
- How digital transformation of procurement helps organizations achieve social and financial objectives
Companies are increasing the expectations they set for their procurement and supply chain teams in order to encourage changes that will improve the agility and resilience of their strategic sourcing processes. Procurement teams must react quickly to changes, make rapid decisions as inputs change, and ensure that they incorporate their objectives for sustainability and compliance in their sourcing processes. This white paper summarizes the changes that procurement and sourcing teams are making to digitize their processes and thereby boost agility and resilience.
However, because resiliency is “not built” in a vacuum, simply investing in technology to “automate” will not enable you to create a smarter supply chain. Investing in developing your people and your relationships with internal and external stakeholders (see above graph) to help better understand individual and collective risks will enable you to leverage the right technology to optimize resiliency and agility successfully.
FAQ
What is SIG?
Sourcing Industry Group (SIG) is a membership organization that provides thought leadership and networking opportunities to executives in sourcing, procurement, outsourcing and risk from Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies and the
advisors who serve them. SIG is widely known as a forum for sharing “next” practices and thought leadership through live networking events, virtual forums, and a comprehensive online SIG resource center (SRC) developed by and for professionals in sourcing and outsourcing. The organization is unique because it blends practitioners, service providers and advisory firms in a non-commercial environment. SIG is also the parent organization for SIG University, which offers a one-of-a-kind certification and training program for professionals and executives seeking deep expertise in sourcing and governance for themselves or their teams.
SIG also publishes the Future of Sourcing, which provides unrivaled digital content for the opinion-formers and decision-makers at the heart of the outsourcing space.
To learn more about SIG, visit www.sig.org or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.
advisors who serve them. SIG is widely known as a forum for sharing “next” practices and thought leadership through live networking events, virtual forums, and a comprehensive online SIG resource center (SRC) developed by and for professionals in sourcing and outsourcing. The organization is unique because it blends practitioners, service providers and advisory firms in a non-commercial environment. SIG is also the parent organization for SIG University, which offers a one-of-a-kind certification and training program for professionals and executives seeking deep expertise in sourcing and governance for themselves or their teams.
SIG also publishes the Future of Sourcing, which provides unrivaled digital content for the opinion-formers and decision-makers at the heart of the outsourcing space.
To learn more about SIG, visit www.sig.org or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.
What are some of the changes procurement and sourcing teams are making in order to address changing market dynamics and business priorities in real time?
In order to improve resilience and agility in their strategic sourcing processes, the majority of respondents claimed that they are engaging with suppliers live in order to build trust with them. The second most common method of reacting to changing market dynamics and business priorities was to add redundancy to the supply chain, such as backup supplies and more inventory holding. Third, sourcing teams are creating an advanced sourcing center of excellence (COE). Fourth, companies are adding capacity to their sourcing team through additional direct resources and hires. Fifth, they are adding capacity to the sourcing team through service provider engagements. Only a few companies replied that they have made low or no commitments to improving sourcing agility.
What are typical barriers for companies as they seek to improve their sourcing strategy?
The number one barrier are change management issues, such as getting support to make digitization improvements to procurement and sourcing projects. Companies also report a lack of adequate resource to implement popular digitization solutions, as well as the cost of implementing sourcing and procurement automation. Other barriers include a lack of buy-in from business executives, poor access to reliable/up-to-date data, and that these improvements are too time-consuming.
