New study from The Hackett Group seeks answers; looking for participants to share insights
Atlanta April 1, 2005 The Hackett Group, a business process advisory firm and an Answerthink company, has launched a new study to capture performance metrics and best practices on global procurement sourcing from low-cost regions. The first phase of the empirical study is available to any interested participant as a short online survey.
Hackett said the study will enable it and participating companies to gain insight on what makes companies mot successful in their efforts to acquire goods and services from low-cost regions. The study examines the cost savings and improvement (or degradation) of operational metrics in global sourcing, as well as the associated practices that overcome global sourcing barriers. One key area of focus will be best practices surrounding international procurement offices (IPOs).
"While some companies have aggressively moved to a low-cost, global supply sourcing strategy and reaped significant benefits, others have merely dabbled in low-cost country sourcing, often because of the perceived negative impact on the supply/value chain and other risk factors," said Hackett Senior Business Advisor Pierre Mitchell. "With this study, we will generate performance metrics and identify the correlating best practices that help companies get global procurement sourcing right, and use it as a way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their procurement operations."
Mitchell said the online survey takes no more than 30 minutes to complete. It is also available as a downloaded spreadsheet file for completion and submission via e-mail. Phone interviews are also available upon request.
The research will provide the starting point for an ongoing global sourcing benchmark, and results will be integrated into Hackett's knowledge base of world-class performance data. For qualified companies, The Hackett Group said it will also conduct this study as a cross-divisional benchmarking project so companies can benchmark their global sourcing performance across their business units as well as to the external firms studied in this research.
The Hackett Group has already conducted research on the sourcing of internal business processes to internal shared service centers and external outsourcing both utilizing on-shore, near-shore and off-shore models. The current global sourcing study extends this research beyond internal operations and into companies' supply bases, where the majority of costs often lie.
The Hackett Group conducts best practice research, benchmarking and advisory services. The firm derives its metrics from 3,300 benchmark studies over 13 years at more than 1,865 companies around the world, including 93 percent of the Dow Jones Industrials.
For more information on the current state of the sourcing market, see the article "The Analyst Corner: Sourcing" in the June/July 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
