Procurement Managers See Pressure to Reduce Costs Ramping Up

For 2016, companies are expecting to see business uncertainty and risk increase, along with greater struggles to grow revenue.

According to The Hackett Group Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader Chris Sawchuk, this adds pressure to reduce costs. At the same time, he says, procurement leaders need to balance this with other more strategic priorities, like becoming a better strategic business partner.

This is challenging, because for 2016, procurement operating budgets are expected to increase by just 1.1 percent, and staffing will only grow by 2.2 percent. So procurement can only afford to fund its highest-priority initiatives.

“One clear differentiator we saw in the research this year was the recognition of the value of improved market intelligence,” says Sawchuk. “Procurement leaders are realizing that higher-quality information can help them drive greater business value. Big data has been a game changer when it comes to customer analytics, offering an unprecedented ability to quickly model massive volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources. But procurement's lack of maturity in market intelligence is a significant obstacle that must be overcome.”

The Hackett Group's 2016 Procurement Key Issues research is based on results gathered from executives from nearly 180 large companies in the US and abroad, most with annual revenue of $1 billion or greater.

A complimentary version of the research is available for download, following registration, at this link: http://bit.ly/1VViQ6v.

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