As consumers we are acutely aware of how easy it is to make the wrong decisions in relation to household expenditure and thestrain this puts on our bank balance.  We can see the immediate positive financial impact of making small changes to our day to day expenditure, such as switching utility providers, opting for the most cost effective transport options and minimising waste.

Small business owners should take the same approach to their operating costs and in turn large corporations need help inadoptingthismind- set and applying it to large scale business operations. Enormous savings can be made across all business sectors, with larger businesses quickly realising the financial benefit of increased efficiency across procurement, since savingsmade by simply controlling running costs and avoiding waste will equate to a sizable percentage saving across the overall company expenditure.

Utilising a procurement specialist to give guidance on processes, technology and people gives larger businesses the optimum tools to roll out cost effective successful business operations,enablingthem to keep costs down, without compromising on efficiency or quality across products and services.

Ian Dagg, Director of Procurement Consulting at Xoomworks says “Increasing spend under management and greater compliance from a low 20% to a high 80% will equate to hundreds of millions in reduced financial leakage andgreater control across enterprises. All procurement functions would like to add more value to their organisation.  Depending where you are on your journey, you are likely to require different types of support to deliver this change. This year alone Xoomworks has saved enterprises millions across all areas of procurement including savings to individual business of £2.8m p.a across logistics, £5.6m pa across IT Hardware and $45m savings on call centre services.

Supply relationship management (SRM) already drives 45% of the total procurement value for top performers, but businesses need to implement the complete procurement process from sourcing, through contract management, supplier and stakeholder relationship management, to purchasing, invoicing and payment to realise optimum returns of a truly efficient procurement function.