Highlights from the research

• CFOs express relatively low levels of satisfaction with the level of control of indirect spend
  
  
• Over 60% of organisations express disatisfaction with the ability of the indirect procurement function to influence attitudes and behaviour of internal stakeholders
  
  
• Organisations still tend to think of outsourcing indirect procurement activities as a tactical initiative

Current perceptions of the indirect procurement function

Proxima, in conjunction with NelsonHall, ran a research study (involving 120 FTSE 100 CFOs and CPOs from UK, Europe and North America) to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and desired outcomes of indirect procurement to catalyse a common sense that procurement could and should play a greater role in most businesses.

Some of the responses in our study do indicate that indirect procurement in many organisations is perceived to have a role that is somewhat tactical and administrative. Some respondents advised that it can create process blocks and can, on occasion, even be antagonistic to specialist suppliers of the business, particularly specialist service providers.

However, 70% of organisations believe it highly important for the indirect procurement function to act as a strategic business partner. Yet only a minority express satisfaction with the extent to which this happens.

This whitepaper, which is the first in a series of three, explores what procurement can do to  redefine how it’s seen by the organisation.