according to a study by an international consultancy firm, an increasing number of companies are resorting to outsourcing.
50% of European and American companies will adopt outsourcing solutions in the procurement sector within the next three years, compared to 22% that already implement them as a strategy.
This is the result of a survey conducted by an international consultancy firm through interviews with over 200 procurement managers, selected from companies operating in different sectors in Europe and the United States. The survey shows that French companies are more inclined to introduce outsourcing in the near future and that 64% will implement such solutions by 2006.
This is 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 intend to introduce procurement outsourcing services within the next three years. The area in which outsourcing finds greatest application is that of processes considered non-strategic, such as application hosting and requisition-to-pay solutions.
Regarding these activities, 43% of interviewees are attracted by the opportunity to reduce costs and at the same time dedicate more time to managing in-house activities. However, 22% of respondents said they would be ready to consider materials outsourcing by 2006, while 9% said they had already implemented this strategy.
“It is clear 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 reduce costs; in fact, procurement outsourcing represents a fundamental tool that companies can use to obtain new advantages in terms of strategy and competitiveness".
The size of the companies, in terms of turnover, is the main indicator regarding the current and future use of the procurement service provider. Among the companies surveyed, 31% of the larger ones said they currently use 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% intend to implement them in the future.
"The companies most inclined to implement procurement outsourcing solutions are the larger ones, i.e. those that have already achieved significant results in 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 procurement managers of companies in 14 European countries and the United States, who responded to an online survey regarding currently implemented and future procurement operations.
83% of respondents work in companies with sales revenues exceeding $500 million, and 67% of companies have five or more operations execution centers.
The companies considered operate in the manufacturing, telecommunications, sales, services and public sector sectors.
