Global Enabled Supply and Demand Chain Series: Procurement
Despite precipitous market and economic conditions, procurement will make a small, but steady, recovery in 2003.
[From iSource Business, April/May 2003] What exactly is the state of procurement enablement in 2003? While this is a question iSource Business has posed for all the functional areas of our Global Enabled Supply and Demand Chain model (Order/Demand Capture, Sourcing, Procurement, Fulfillment, Logistics, Payment, Customer Relationship Management, Product Lifecycle Management), it's a more cryptic question than ever under the current economic conditions.
A telling analysis specifically about procurement enablement comes from Pierre Mitchell, senior analyst with AMR Research. As he and AMR Research talk to leading organizations about their next-phase investment in procurement initiatives he describes the mood as "cautiously neutral."
"But that's better than cautiously pessimistic," he encourages.
Mitchell adds that the Fortune 1,000s are not worried, or even wondering, about what leading procurement enabler to engage, since they know they can simply source and find the one that will best fit their needs. Instead, what's more critical to organizations today is what they should tackle first in the wide and complex space of procurement management. He finds companies continuing to get more critical and specific on their overall spend. "They're asking themselves,
