Public sector procurement survey reveals room for improvement but enthusiasm for the future

London – 30th June 2008 – BravoSolution (www.bravosolution.com), the international leader in Supply Management software and services, today announces the results of a survey of more than 100 public sector procurement professionals. The survey revealed they are struggling to implement best practice solutions due to lack of organisational support, but are aware of their poor spend visibility, room for improvement in process efficiency, and need to increase adoption of ‘green’ procurement practices.

Bravosolution investigated the views of 107 procurement professionals, nearly half of whom are from medium-to-large organisations (500+ staff) across many specialisations of public sector, including central and local government, healthcare and education. Key findings include:

•   Striving to improve process efficiency: Only two-fifths of respondents (41 per cent) feel their overall process is either very efficient (8 per cent) or efficient (33 per cent). The remaining 59 per cent feel it’s either inefficient or there is room for improvement – placing respondents in difficult positions since two-thirds of (67 per cent) feel the government efficiency agenda has placed extra pressure to generate cost-savings
•   eSourcing appreciation: Respondents’ views on the effectiveness of eSourcing were overwhelmingly positive, with the vast majority either agreeing or strongly agreeing to statements that it ‘reduces timescales of tendering’ (89 per cent), ‘reduces tender administration costs and effort’ (88 per cent) and provides ‘better access to information for suppliers’ (88 per cent)
•   Spend visibility required: When asked whether their 2008 sourcing strategy has shown marked savings compared to this stage in 2007, nearly half of respondents (45 per cent) don’t know, demonstrating surprisingly poor spend visibility
•   Lacking investment and senior support: Respondents cite ‘insufficient top management support’ and ‘no formal budget’ as the joint main barriers to eSourcing adoption. Other survey options around ‘lack of understanding of potential benefits’ and ‘internal resistance to change’ got low response rates demonstrating the respondents’ willingness to improve
•   Un-sustainable sourcing: Only 1 in 5 respondents (21 per cent) feel their current sourcing strategy is very eco-friendly, whilst the remaining 79 per cent feel there is room for improvement or that they’re not eco friendly at all
•   Good start for collaboration but still a way to go: Although four fifths of respondents (83 per cent) say they are sharing best practice with other departments, few are yet to conduct joint procurement activities to unlock greater cost and efficiency savings
•   Limited web sourcing tools uptake: In spite of an awareness and appreciation of web sourcing tools’ capabilities, in no single category do more than half of respondents always use web-based tools to carry out core procurement functions such as: publishing OJEU contract notifications; collecting supplier responses; managing contracts / tracking supplier performance; and conducting electronic reverse auctions

Nader Sabbaghian, Managing Director of BravoSolution UK, comments: “Whilst it’s encouraging to see respondents’ appreciation of the advantages that eSourcing offers, there is still more adoption of web-based tools required to introduce efficiencies in the procurement process and at the next stage dramatically improve visibility over spend.

“It’s also good to see that procurement professionals feel eSourcing enables better access to information for suppliers, contradicting many past perceptions that technology drives a wedge between buyers and suppliers. As more eSourcing best-practice case studies come to light in the future, the investment and senior support that procurement professionals clearly need will inevitably come.”

BravoSolution figures:
>   12 offices in 8 countries (Italy, France, Mexico, Spain, The Netherlands, U.K, China and U.S) across 3 continents
>   350 employees, continuously growing; 23 nationalities
>   400 clients in 20 countries
>   Supply management software used by over 12,000 procurement professionals worldwide
>   Over 150,000 suppliers from more than 90 countries have been involved
>in Supply Management processes conducted through BravoSolution
>technology, which has been deployed to over 18,000 buyers worldwide