Learn What Procurement Executives are Looking for to Help them Achieve their Targets
LUPR Market Research Overview
In May and June 2016, we worked with Chad Eckes to conduct objective market research on current supply management solutions and our prototype LUPR application. Ten procurement leaders participated in phone interviews. This report presents the insights they provided.
Research participants were all in CPO, Head of Procurement roles or directly reporting to the person in that role at large complex organizations that we believe would be helped by LUPR. Industries represented included Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Public Administration. Annual procurement spend at their organizations ranges from $1 billion to $40 billion. Suppliers managed ranges from several hundred to tens of thousands.
Current Supplier Management Solutions Available
Participants shared that their organizations are currently using the following technology solutions:
System Category Systems Cited by Respondents
Spend Analysis Spotfire, Zycus, PowerAdvocate, Excel
Supply Market & Supplier Intelligence All have subscriptions to information services
Sourcing Ariba, SAP SRM
Contract Management Pega, Oracle, SAP, Homegrown
Supplier Performance Management Ariba, Sharepoint, Oracle, Homegrown
Supplier Quality Management MetricStream
Results Forecasting & Tracking Spotfire, Maximo, SAP
Participants rated the technology solutions they are currently using (Due to our relatively small sample size we grouped these ratings by System Category):
Supplier Performance Management stands out as a solution area with relative dissatisfaction. One participant commented, “Our SPM solution is Ariba plus a supplemental system for manipulating data, which is an in-house Oracle database with data coming from SAP, Ariba, and Maximo. It takes a lot of human data manipulation to get what we need, for example, we have to do the dashboards offline then upload them to Ariba. My satisfaction is low because of all the human data manipulation required.” Results forecasting was a second area of relative dissatisfaction, one participant commented: “Results Forecasting is done in Maximo and SAP. Satisfaction is low since we have to get information from multiple places.”
What is Missing in any of the SRM Solutions Currently in Use?
INTEGRATING WITH OTHERS SYSTEMS IS IMPORTANT
-
“Connect to ERP so double-entry is not needed.”
-
“Most information on the supplier information page should come from other systems.”
-
“Integrate procurement systems with the corporate ledger like Sievo.”
-
“Connecting data from other systems (spend analysis, sourcing, etc) will be a challenge due to limited IT bandwidth.”
PROCUREMENT NEEDS A CRM-LIKE TOOL TO MANAGE SUPPLIER ISSUES AND PERFORMANCE.
-
We need a software system to track supplier issues and subsequent improvement activity occurring in email.”
-
“A ‘corporate memory tool’ is needed that provides a single view of all interactions and projects (planned and underway) between suppliers and company staff.”
-
“A single UI for viewing all supplier activity would be extremely useful.”
-
“Issues spark ‘lots of conversations all over the place’. We need all interactions viewable in one place.”
-
“A CRM system is needed to view and manage procurement - stakeholder - supplier interactions that now occur in email.”
-
“Large companies are segregated so they need a system like LUPR.”
BENCHMARKING IS ESSENTIAL
-
“Cross-industry benchmarking of suppliers is valuable, like Angie’s List for home contractors.”
-
“We would start without cross-company benchmarking. Just helping us understand our largest supplier relationships across all global businesses would be very helpful.”
-
“If not an industry benchmark, compare the supplier to others in the same category.”
QUALIFICATION SCOPE SHOULD INCLUDE QUALITY, TECHNICAL, EHS, & ETHICS
-
“Phama companies like ours have a strict qualification process that also includes ethical standards.”
-
“To be relevant in the Oil &Gas industry, LUPR must focus on safety, and technical capabilities as well as quality.”
-
“Suppliers would value inputing their EHS info in one place so all customers can access it.”