I hope that you have enjoyed the article “True Procurement Transformations, Part I.”

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As I wrote in the article, procurement transformation “means different things to different people” and I proceeded to list things that will change in a “true” procurement transformation.  What I didn’t do was contrast what a procurement transformation is versus what it isn’t.

So, I will use this blog post to list some of the things that are sometimes referred to as “procurement transformations” but are merely “tweaks” to the procurement function if done alone.  Here are those examples of procurement tweaks:

• Realigning responsibilities so that buyers’ work is assigned based on new criteria (e.g., category, internal customer, supplier, etc.)
• Implementing one module of a procurement technology suite (e.g., spend analysis, eSourcing, eProcurement, etc.)
• Creating a separate team to focus on procurement projects while leaving an existing team intact with no change to their responsibilities
• Taking on one new area of focus (e.g., supply risk, global sourcing, vendor collaboration, etc.)
• Pursuing non-traditional categories (e.g., marketing, fleet management, travel, etc.)

If you are only engaging in one of these bullet points, I mean no disrespect.  Certainly making improvements in one facet of procurement is better than continuing to do “business as usual.”  I am only saying that it may not be proper to label that activity as a procurement transformation.

Part II of the article coming soon!