Whether your business is new or has been many years on the market, a good procurement service offers a lot of advantages that can be key to its success, so choosing one can be a very serious decision. You will find lots of different models and options along the way, and they all might benefit you in different aspects, so you want to find the one that suits your commerce the best, and for that, you’ll have to be strategic and play well your cards, and we are here to help you do it, so here we show you some ways to find the best procurement services.
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- Think about how much help you need: Many companies offer a wider range than just procurement services, they can also help you with purchasing, for example. Others provide procuring services and nothing else, so that single service is enough if you have a purchasing team. Considerate if you handle a lot of stock, so you need people that work only on that, or your working systems are complex, and you need help with them.
- Indirect, direct, or service procurement?: Besides thinking about how you should also think about what kind of help you need since procurement services can work in different ways. You have direct procurement that deals with the acquisition of goods and materials. Manufacturing companies commonly use it. Indirect procurement works with sourcing and purchasing materials, goods, or services for internal use, and takes care of day-by-day operations. Service procurement is used to purchase external staff and services and deals with procuring and managing a workforce and consulting services.
- Choose between big or small companies: In terms of “size”, we can sort procuring companies into two categories: Large firms, called “multi-tower firms”, and small and specialized providers. As you could’ve imagined, multi-tower firms are big enterprises with renown and have a large reach on the market and business processes; they also have a wider representation globally, and work great for outsourcing procurement, since they are recognized brands. Small firms are usually more niche companies, which means that they are less recognized, but have specialized skills and better responsiveness since their structures involve fewer people, which also creates a more intimate relationship between the company and its clients.
- Assess experience and references: Just like in any other business, experienced companies will have some reputation in the market. Look for providers with years of presence in the industry. You should always be able to ask for references that are related in some way to your needs.
Picking from such a massive amount of options can seem like an impossible task, but when you start dissecting them by type, reach, size, you can start considering the different advantages that each one may offer. In the end, look for the one that suits the most to your business model; this way you won’t have to change your process all the way, on the contrary, the procurement provider will help you make the best out of it, and therefore, the best out of your company.