SAP Fieldglass Report: Procurement to Play Increasingly Important Role in Organizations

Services procurement and external workforce management leader to discuss best practices at ProcureCon Asia 2016 conference

SINGAPORE, May 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Procurement plays a critical role within organizations, and its importance will continue to increase, according to a report underwritten in part by SAP Fieldglass, the global cloud technology leader in services procurement and contingent workforce management. WBR Digital's "Challenges in Asia-Pacific Procurement" report surveyed 100 senior procurement executives from leading multinationals in the Asia-Pac region.

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Overall, 24 percent of respondents said procurement already occupies a high place on organizations' agendas, with the chief procurement officer having a seat on the board, and 56 percent predicted procurement will progress toward making board-level decisions over the next three years. Only a fifth of respondents saw procurement's importance remaining secondary within organizations.

"Procurement has moved far beyond its former role as a transaction-based entity to be more strategic," said Toni Jackson, director, SAP Fieldglass APAC. "The fact that its influence continues to grow positions procurement well to drive change at a fundamental level."

The report, co-sponsored by SAP Fieldglass, included a series of key findings relating to organizations' initiatives to make procurement more efficient. They include the following:

• Procurement's value within an organization is measured by managed spend as a percentage of total spend, followed closely by contract compliance.
• The biggest challenges respondents face relate to budgetary constraints, followed by time constraints and a lack of both resources and internal expertise.
• The most significant skills gap in current procurement teams was cited in contract management (52 percent), followed by contract selection and legal (51 percent) and risk analysis.

"There is technology in the marketplace that helps tackle the challenges the respondents shared," Jackson said. "Vendor Management Systems (VMS) help manage services procurement programs by simplifying many processes, including sourcing, collaboration and contract negotiation, management and evaluation, invoice approval and spend management. Our VMS customers realize cost savings from 8 to 12 percent in the first year alone."

Jackson will speak at ProcureCon Asia 2016 on the topic of "How to Elevate Your Service Procurement Practices." She will discuss ways to successfully manage project-based services – to create consistent processes across categories, do a better job of measuring quality and increase visibility.

ABOUT SAP FIELDGLASS
SAP Fieldglass provides the industry's leading technology for services procurement and external workforce management. More than 400 of the top global businesses leverage SAP Fieldglass' intuitive, cloud-based services solution to gain visibility into its external labor, project-based services including Statements of Work (SOW), independent contractors and additional flexible talent pools.

The SAP Fieldglass VMS is used by organizations across all industries and geographies to achieve total workforce visibility and ultimately maximize cost savings, worker quality, compliance and program efficiencies. Procurement and HR professionals from companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto and Rio Tinto partner with SAP Fieldglass to develop sophisticated talent and spend management strategies necessary to create best-in-class workforce programs. For more information, visit www.fieldglass.com.

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