By Nikita Saharia Chaturvedi
In essence, procurement functions have been distilled in most establishments, contrary to the organizations severely operating the old fashioned way; reliant heavily on photocopiers and abundant filing cabinets of day by day fading contracts in order to get the job done.
The procurement subcontracting market has advanced knowingly since 2013 since Horses for Sources propelled its first Blueprint, casing 14 service providers, The firm recently published its Blueprint on Procurement as a Service, which looks at how the market and service provider capabilities have evolved since 2013, and evaluates 18 different service providers on elements of execution and innovation.
This new report looks very meticulously at the fruition of procurement services from its legacy outsourcing roots in lift and shift mega-deals, together with strategic sourcing consulting, to the progressively available As-a-Service solution models offered nowadays. The latest HfS Procurement-as-a-Service Blueprint describes the transition of service providers into the As-a-Service economy, Doug Fullenkamp, Vice President of Business Development at Xchanging, tells My Purchasing Center in the podcast, What the Blueprint on Procurement as a Service is All About. “Horses for Sources is a research firm focused on global business services, digital transformation and outsourcing, and publishes in-depth research called Blueprint Reports, which look at various business practices and innovations,” Fullenkamp says.
“Xchanging was promoted this year from a ‘High Performer’ to the ‘Winner’s Circle’ in recognition of the recent transformation in our procurement business, and our transition to an ‘As-a-Service’ provider. I know you spoke briefly with my colleague, Dave Bowen, about this transformation a couple months ago.” To listen to the interview with Bowen, download the podcast Xchanging Introduces Procurement as a Service.
Talking specifically about Procurement as a Service, there has been a major shift in the business landscape over the past few years in companies in the hunt for services over products – some people are calling this the “as a service economy.” The procurement industry is no exemption.
Procurement as a Service fundamentally syndicates people, technology and knowledge as a managed service. Procurement is profoundly relied upon to supply bottom line upshots, but it habitually faces exterior compressions like globalization, skills gap and nonexistence of capability. Procurement as a service can aid, dismiss and accomplish some of these stresses, since PaaS solutions can be attuned reliant on where a company wants supplementary provision. PaaS also helps commerce manage the intricacy of the procurement process and relieve interior staff of its load, consenting them to emphasis on their core business goals, Fullenkamp adds.
Planning ahead, procurement mavens should be equipped for superior technology implementation all around. This is the cloud era, and on-demand technologies are being espoused at an unbelievably debauched rate by businesses of all sizes. To elaborate on this, Fullenkamp says, “At Xchanging, for example, we’ve already invested millions in the development of MM4 – a seamless procurement platform that combines sourcing, purchasing and intelligence in a single, end-to-end procurement solution. The technology is available to customers on a PaaS revenue model. The investment has already been made – customers simply need to share the benefits. PaaS makes it easy for the customer, and as long as vendors can continue to make the job of procurement less cumbersome and more productive, I imagine the demand for PaaS will only continue to grow from here.” Listen to the My Purchasing Center podcasts: What the Blueprint on Procurement as a Service is All About Xchanging Introduces Procurement as a Service.
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