A new kind of procurement function emerge from the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced virtually every business function to change how it worked, step into new roles, and adapt to extremely challenging market and operational conditions. For many of those functions, those changes – while significant – were short-term, and designed to help them weather the storm.

But, for procurement teams, the pandemic has accelerated evolution for the function – one that was already well underway before COVID-19 hit. It propelled the function’s journey from ‘back office spend optimizer’ to ‘strategic value creation all-star’. And now, there’s no going back.

Over the past 18 months, leading procurement functions have stepped up to deliver business value far beyond simple cost savings and margin optimization. Not surprisingly, their organizations want them to keep delivering it.
As a result, we’re seeing a new kind of procurement function emerge from the pandemic.

During the pandemic, supplier relationships have been more valuable and important than ever. At the peak of the disruption, the right relationship with a strategic supplier could mean the difference between business as usual and completely halting operations.

Leading procurement teams have been building high-value relationships with suppliers for decades, but the events seen in 2020 and 2021 were a powerful opportunity to showcase their value to the rest of the organization. As a result, organizations are now more interested than ever in the other great ways that procurement teams can create value from these relationships.

Exclusive contracts negotiated with suppliers, for example, are a valuable asset for supporting innovation. Through the contracts they help create, procurement teams can build partnerships that have a huge impact on overall business strategy, bringing new USPs into the organization.

As the first point of contact for suppliers, nobody in the business knows what’s happening with those suppliers better than your procurement team. That means they’re exposed to things like new products, new materials, new capabilities, and new offerings before anyone else, all of which can be used to drive commercial, product, and innovation strategies.

The leading teams of today aren’t just filling orders and signing invoices for suppliers – they’re partnering with them strategically. Now, businesses are waking up to the implications that have for innovation, and harnessing procurement teams’ potential as innovation drivers.

Source: https://www.globaltrademag.com/procurement-evolved-the-new-characteristics-of-post-pandemic-procurement/