Executive Summary

Procurement Outsourcing (PO) has emerged as an efficacious method to generate value for in-house procurement. It started out as an activity focused on cost and spend reduction, but has now evolved into a tool to harness strategic value as evident by the robust growth of this US$2.1 billion market. One of the components of an end-to-end PO strategy is outsourcing of category management, which is a key value lever for any procurement organization to achieve its strategic goals. However, category management itself is an overused term and often misinterpreted not only in terms of what it represents but also in terms of what it aims to achieve. Add to it the concept of outsourcing category management and the story becomes even more interesting.

Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the various aspects of category management outsourcing across the following themes:

• Value proposition of category management outsourcing
• Key market trends
• Current and future landscape
• Emerging opportunities
• Critical challenges and best practices