Industry Survey reveals the 2012 Procurement Pulse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 8, 2012 -- Science Warehouse, the leading provider of procurement software solutions and one of the fastest growing companies in the UK e-business sector, conducted a nationwide survey, in association with eWorld Purchasing & Supply, to investigate the procurement pulse of UK businesses. This industry survey revealed that the number one driver for an organisation’s procurement function in 2012 is cutting costs (84%), but 85 per cent plan to invest in procurement capability to achieve these reductions.

Steve Kerridge, Science Warehouse managing director, said: “Economic uncertainty and on-going government austerity measures are affecting investment in both the private and public sectors. Whilst factors such as quality of supply and financial control are amongst the most important value drivers in procurement, cost cutting will be the number one priority in the year ahead. However, it was interesting to see that the majority of organisations also recognise the importance of investing in their procurement capability in order to deliver long term savings.”

With cutting costs and increasing value remaining a key focus for procurement, many organisations ranked spend control and visibility (51%) highly in their long term strategy. Many organisations have already driven out considerable savings from their procurement activities, so the focus will be on more complex areas of spend and a more intelligent procurement function. The survey highlighted this with professional services being selected as the highest priority spend category by over a third of respondents (37%). In order to address these more complex categories more advanced procurement solutions will be required this year.

However, cost cutting is only half the story, for organisations to deliver real value for money it can often be a difficult process. The balance between building a long term value-based procurement function while simultaneously delivering short term cost savings, needs to be delivered with the right procurement people and solutions on board. One key trend Science Warehouse envisages in 2012 is a requirement for enhanced business intelligence with organisations wanting higher quality and more granular spend data to help them identify future cost saving opportunities.

The survey, which covered a wide range of sectors from Manufacturing to Pharmaceuticals and Biotech, illustrated that whilst procurement is delivering real results the potential for future savings is considerable with only a third of respondents reporting a saving of more than £1 million in 2011.

Overall, the Science Warehouse results indicate that 2012 will be another year in the spotlight for procurement. Our survey covered a broad spread of organisations from those with an indirect spend of under £500,000 (24%) to in excess of £10 million (36%). These organisations will overwhelmingly be investing in procurement capabilities and will be expecting to see significant returns. Effective procurement solutions will be critical in ensuring that projected savings are delivered on time this year.

To request a copy of our first set of results please click here

www.sci-ware.com/survey.cfm