In today’s rapidly transforming PO market, service providers are required to keep pace with the latest tools and techniques to drive superior business outcomes. One such powerful tool is analytics, which accelerates growth of businesses through its multifold advantages ranging from drawing insights from the past to forecasting the future. With the current scenario providing amenable conditions for adoption and application of analytics, it becomes an even more powerful force for several markets including Procurement Outsourcing (PO). In this research paper, we explore the evolution, application, and future of analytics in the area of procurement, along with the factors facilitating its operationalization in this field. Membership(s) Procurement Outsourcing

Procurement, once considered a back-office function, has seen a lot of changes in the last couple of years, with enterprises centralizing and streamlining entire processes, adopting strategic and collaborative approaches with suppliers, and outsourcing to leverage third-party expertise. However, most of these changes are focused on indirect procurement. The direct spend space has seen fewer changes due to enterprise reluctance to outsource a core function, and, therefore, remains riddled with inefficiencies, resulting in huge areas of untapped opportunity. This is where third-party technology and process expertise can help, by mitigating these concerns and guiding enterprises on a transformation journey to innovate direct spend management. This paper explores the intrinsic differences between direct and indirect procurement and discusses challenges in direct spend management. It highlights the benefits of tapping into external expertise, as well as current adoption drivers. Finally, it discusses the key issues for CPOs to consider when planning to outsource direct spend. Membership(s)   Procurement Outsourcing