According to a study by an international consulting company, more companies are always outsourcing.
50% of European and American companies will adopt, within the next three years, outsourcing solutions in the field of procurement operations, compared to 22% that have already implemented them as a strategy.
This is a survey carried out by an international consulting company through interviews with more than 200 procurement managers, selected from companies belonging to various sectors in Europe and the United States. The results of the survey show that French companies are the most inclined to introduce outsourcing in the near future and that 64% will immediately implement such solutions within 2006.
They are followed by British and American companies with 58%, Italian companies with 42%, while in the rest of Europe 39% of German, Austrian and Swiss companies plan to introduce purchasing outsourcing services within the next three years. The area in which outsourcing finds greatest application is that of processes considered non-strategic, in which there are application hosting and requisition-to-pay solutions.
With reference to these activities, 43% of respondents are attracted by the opportunity to reduce costs and at the same time dedicate more time to managing internal activities. However, 22% of respondents said they are ready to consider materials outsourcing within 2006, and 9% have already implemented this strategy.
“It clearly emerges from the survey that procurement outsourcing will become a fundamental requirement for many companies.
In the future, however, the main challenge will not only be to save on costs; Procurement outsourcing represents in fact a fundamental instrument that companies can use to obtain new advantages in terms of strategy and competitiveness.”
The size of the companies, in terms of income, is the main indicator regarding the current and future use of procurement service providers. Among the companies interviewed, 31% of the largest ones have stated that they currently use outsourcing in some areas of purchasing and 36% plan to do so in the near future. In contrast, only 15% of smaller companies use procurement outsourcing services and only 34% plan to do so in the future.
“The companies most inclined to implement procurement outsourcing solutions are the largest, that is, those that have already obtained significant results by optimizing internal processes, but that continue to focus on an aggressive cost reduction strategy.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted at the end of 2003 among 219 procurement managers from companies in 14 European countries and the United States, who responded to an Internet survey on implemented and future procurement operations.
83% of those surveyed work in companies whose sales revenue exceeds $500 million and 67% of companies have five or more centers for carrying out operations.
The companies considered operate in the manufacturing, telecommunications, sales, services and public sector sectors.
