Aberdeen Group recently conducted a survey on strategic sourcing. Sharing company-level perspectives on strategic sourcing, results from 121 respondents are reported in a new study entitled, Strategic Sourcing: The Future is Now. This report covers trends in strategic sourcing and where Best-in-Class organizations are going with strategy and technology.
Key takeaways for the report (directly quoted) are:
- More than three quarters of Best-in-Class organizations (78%) consider strategic sourcing a critical or prominent role.
- Seventy two percent (72%) of All Respondents indicated that their top business pressure in 2013 is the corporate mandate to reduce cost and increase savings
- The aligning of sourcing activities for the whole of the organization will be a top action for 2013 for 55% of the Best-in-Class organizations.
- Key strategic initiatives will focus on the collection and alignment of essential data through standardized reporting on average for 86% of the Best-in-Class.
- Essential technology for the coming year will focus on eSourcing (68% for Best-in-Class vs. All Others at 45%), and fully automated sourcing process that use a common system company-wide (36% for Best-in-Class vs. 9% All Others).