Results Trend Study 2018 - Service Procurement between Demand and Reality

Services are often only considered in the context of indirect purchasing and are subsequently treated like materials. However, not all types of services can be squeezed into the corset of "lean services", which are closely related to the associated catalog system. Where do companies stand in their digitalization process in whose procurement portfolio complex services make a strategic value contribution? We wanted to find out more about this in 2018 and commissioned a survey.

A total of 102 companies, predominantly from the energy supplier, construction and infrastructure, mechanical and plant engineering, and retail sectors, answered the questions in the online survey. The study focused on data quality and the question of the status quo of the integration of data, processes and systems. Even though many hopes are now being pinned on the advantages of an end-to-end integrated procurement process, in the spirit of Digital 4.0, digitalization has by no means yet found its way into all purchasing domains.

Service procurement in the focus of the trend study

In many companies, the procurement focus is still purely on materials and is production-driven - services are often subordinated to these procurement processes. Especially in connection with SAP, workflows of digital systems quickly reach their limits. The structure of the trend study therefore follows the core processes of requisitioning, e-sourcing, processing and service recording as well as invoicing and controlling.