Indirect purchases are still often overlooked as an important performance lever for companies, according to the latest edition of the annual survey conducted by Acxias and Resource Consulting, in partnership with Purchasing Decision.
Nearly three out of four companies (73%) today, according to the 4th edition of the only survey on indirect purchasing, conducted each year on the sidelines of the Indirect Purchases - Digital Meet-up event organized by the purchasing digitalization agency Acxias and the firm Resource Consulting. They were 61% in this case in 2017, and only 44% in 2016. This steady and significant increase reflects the growing interest in these categories and, above all, the need to adopt a specific approach to take account of their particularities.
In summary:
- In eight out of ten companies, indirect categories account for less than 45% of total purchases. And even less than 15% in one in four.
- 17% of respondents agree that support for indirect purchases is not not a priority within their business. But a quarter (25%) indicate that they are the subject of recent actions.
- The information systems - telecoms and the fleets of vehicles are the dominant shopping families. This is followed by capital expenditure (Capex), transportation, logistics, travel and travel, and intellectual services.
- The quality and satisfaction rate of internal users are the first two performance criteria followed by buyers dedicated to these categories. Contractually planned savings come in third.
- The fragmentation and size of the supplier base (68% of citations) top the list of issues faced by buyers, followed by the difficulty of controlling certain categories (62%) and the importance of wild shopping (55%).
- Less than four in ten respondents say they have a e-procurement solution (orders, catalogues, logistics flows) for their indirect purchases, and one in three of a e-sourcing solution (referencing, consultation, contracting). Their utilization rate would also be relatively low.
- Many respondents indicated that they will optimize or invest in their existing information system. e-procurement, contract management and electronic billing are the main areas of work.
- To improve the performance of indirect purchasing management, eight out of ten companies claim to have a audit underway (67 %) expected in the coming months (13%).
All the results and their analysis can be found in the summary document available on the indirect purchases - Digital Meet-up conference website.
Methodology The survey was conducted online between July and September 2018. It is based on the responses of 85 participants, in companies of all sizes and industries, fairly divided between industry and services. Only the public sector is under-represented. Respondents are more than half of purchasing managers (32%) indirect purchasing managers (21%). The remaining ones are mainly among buyers in indirect categories (19%), purchasing managers (8%) then various support functions (purchasing marketing, process and purchasing tools, etc.).