Deloitte’s research shows that the purchasing sector is even more complex, entering a new decade facing new challenges and having several strategic opportunities ahead within the company and also throughout the supply chain.
With global supply chains, the risk of disruptions due to political or economic problems is just one of the challenges that will be faced by the purchasing sector. However, there are practices and technologies that help to generate value, reduce risks and meet goals, from digital transformation, related to greater visibility of the supply chain and to the appropriate training for professionals.
Complex challenges
That same survey raised four challenges that companies need to address in 2020:
- External challenge
This means addressing everything outside the company and with which the procurement sector needs to interact. If, in recent years, the sector has seen a series of external risk factors emerge – trade war between China and the United States and fears about a possible economic recession -, to reduce these risks, the sector still needs to develop contingency plans that help to identify opportunities to restructure the supply chain.
- Internal challenge
During the past few years, the purchasing industry has struggled to become an effective and valuable business partner for internal customers, despite this, Deloitte shows that only 26% of companies rate the sector as an excellent partner. Thus, purchasing managers need to continue investing in process automation and must focus on aligning the sector with other departments and also on training professionals.
- Talent challenge
Conquering and retaining talent is not something new for the sector and few managers believe that their teams have the necessary skills to comply with the company’s and purchasing objectives. The procurement area needs to optimize its recruitment, integration and talent management processes to find talent with the skills necessary to meet current needs and those that will come in the coming years.
- Digital challenge
People are more digital, companies are more digital, the world is more digital and the purchasing sector needs to be digitized. Creating a digital strategy is essential to support the goals and needs of the company as a whole.
In addition, the purchasing area needs to be prepared for a new ethical and responsible approach. As a result, visibility and collaboration across the supply chain must increase, whether through technology or other means, the procurement sector cannot remain vulnerable to the various risk factors that exist, just because suppliers do not understand how they relate to customers. its suppliers.
Challenges will always be present in companies and new ones will emerge from time to time. Is your company prepared for them? Talk to us at COSTDRIVERS and discover our data strategy solutions that can help you overcome these challenges.
