How low services-spend visibility and generic tools hamper procurement performance

Organizations spend tens of trillions of dollars a year globally on services. It’s no surprise why: The world is shifting from a goods- and manufacturing-based economy to one where outcomes are delivered “as a service” – whether that’s traditional labor, complex services (e.g., outsourcing, professional services) or even the outsourcing of goods production through contract manufacturers. In sum, services account for an average of about 50% of spend on third-party suppliers, ranging from 20% to 80% depending upon industry and specific organization.

To address this, Spend Matters and global Sourcing Industry Group (SIG) conducted a survey of procurement professionals to start to answer this and other related questions. In this Spend Matters PRO brief, we take a specific focus on a section of results as it relates to services spend influencers. The analysis examines the varying perspectives of respondents with high and low services spend influence, using their divergent pain points and approaches to this mega category as a method to unveil applicable lessons for driving better services spend performance. It also explores the types of technologies each group currently uses to address different types of services spend, as well as each group’s relative level of satisfaction with their current toolsets.

 

Contributors: SIG, Spend Matters
Categories: Whitepaper
SRC Type: All Outsourcing, Outsourcing, Sourcing Management, Third Party Management