according to a study by an international consulting company, they are always the companies that are relaunching it.
50% of European and American companies will adopt outsourcing solutions within procurement operations in the next three years, compared to 22% who are already implementing them as a strategy.
This is a survey conducted by an International Consulting Company through interviews with more than 200 procurement managers, chosen from companies belonging to several sectors in Europe and the United States. The survey reveals that French companies are the most inclined to introduce outsourcing in the near future and that 64% will immediately implement such solutions in 2006.
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 sourcing outsourcing services in the next three years. The area in which outsourcing finds the greatest application is that of processes considered non-strategic, with application hosting and request-to-payment solutions.
Regarding these activities, 43% of respondents are attracted by the possibility of reducing costs and at the same time dedicating more time to managing activities internally. However, 22% of respondents said they were willing to consider outsourcing directed materials before 2006, and 9% said they had already implemented this strategy.
“It is clear from this survey that sourcing outsourcing will become a fundamental requirement for many businesses.
In the future, however, the main challenge will not only be saving on costs; Procurement outsourcing represents a fundamental instrument that companies can use to obtain new advantages in terms of strategy and competitiveness.”
Company size, in terms of turnover, is the main indicator for the current and future use of procurement outsourcing. Of the companies surveyed, 31% of larger companies said they are currently using outsourcing in some areas of procurement 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 those of larger size, that is, those that have already obtained results optimizing internal processes, but which continue to focus on an aggressive cost reduction strategy“.
Methodology
The survey was conducted at the end of 2003 among 219 corporate procurement managers in 14 European countries and the United States, who responded to an online questionnaire regarding existing and future procurement operations.
83% of respondents work in companies with revenues exceeding $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.
