Public sector procurement professionals are under pressure to achieve two conflicting goals: deliver new and enhanced services while simultaneously managing their spending more closely than ever. These competing priorities put new pressure on procurement professionals to negotiate better contracts and ensure vendors always deliver on their promises. To do that, it’s no longer enough to rely on legacy tools like spreadsheets and the basic modules found in many enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Instead, procurement staff need tools to support modern, highly regulated purchasing processes that are replacing tedious manual systems. Also high on modernization todo lists are enhanced capabilities to foster collaboration among various public sector stakeholders, detailed analyses of vendor performance and techniques to maximize spending power.
Fortunately, a host of new, best-of-breed resources now give procurement departments the foundation they need to achieve practical modernization. But it can be difficult to sort out which technology choices offer the greatest potential to transform procurement and sourcing strategies.
This paper will help procurement professionals assess their sourcing needs. It explains key terminology, such as sourcing versus strategic sourcing, and provides a framework to evaluate which digital innovations address an organization’s specific needs and help leaders make more strategic spending decisions.