{"id":10709,"date":"2021-03-28T23:49:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T03:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/?page_id=10709"},"modified":"2021-04-22T10:45:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T14:45:37","slug":"proactive-procurement-questions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/news\/purchasing-articles\/proactive-procurement-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Proactive Procurement Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 Proactive Procurement Questions<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Is Your Procurement Approach Truly Proactive?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Intuitively, you know that procurement should be proactive, not reactive. But how do you make procurement proactive?<\/p>\n

Proactive procurement means knowing what your organization will buy and planning an appropriate procurement strategy well before the first purchase order needs to be placed. Acquiring this knowledge involves a combination of analyzing spend and interviewing internal customers who are in a position to estimate future demand. Here are eight questions to ask these internal customers as the organization plans for the coming year:<\/p>\n

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  1. What new products or services will our organization be introducing next year?<\/li>\n
  2. What changes to existing products or services will our organization be making next year?<\/li>\n
  3. What products or services will our organization be discontinuing next year?<\/li>\n
  4. What one-time capital projects are going to begin in the next year?<\/li>\n
  5. For capital projects already in progress, how will the demand for purchased products and services change next year compared to this year?<\/li>\n
  6. What operating supplies or equipment that our organization has been purchasing will be replaced by a different type of product (e.g., buying tablet computers instead of laptops, buying cloud storage space instead of flash drives, etc.)?<\/li>\n
  7. (If you notice demand for a purchased product or service has been decreasing or increasing year after year after year) Do you expect the demand trend for this product\/service to continue or to level out next year?<\/li>\n
  8. (If you notice erratic demand patterns for a purchased product or service over a period of several years) The demand for this product and service has been hard to predict based on data alone: What insight can you share on the expected demand for it next year?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Having answers to these simple questions will greatly improve your ability to reap the benefits of proactive procurement.<\/p>\n

    Recommended Reading:<\/b><\/p>\n