Whitepaper Wednesday - Ten Steps To Lower Procurement Costs

Welcome back to another installment of Whitepaper Wednesday here on the Purchasing Certification Blog. This week, I'll be reviewing a whitepaper entitled "Ten Steps to Lower Procurement Costs in Life Sciences" from SciQuest and Archstone Consulting.

While the whitepaper purports to be focused on the life sciences industry - one of SciQuest's target markets - the core advice in this whitepaper is really applicable to procurement in any industry. While the whitepaper starts off discussing the economy's impact on the life sciences industry and introduces strategic procurement, the whitepaper is built around those 10 steps to lower procurement costs.

I won't steal the whitepaper's thunder and reveal all 10, but I will point out some of the more powerful tips, such as:

1. Mine Value From Segmentation: "Identify categories (or sub-categories) where there has been significant market change and where new opportunities for cost savings may exist."

3. Eliminate Sacred Cows: "Increase spend under management by obtaining a commitment from senior management to pursue 'sacred cow' categories and to manage other categories that are currently outside of procurement’s responsibility."

4. Build-in Best Practices: "With resource constraints, it’s not uncommon for an organization to still have purchasing practices in use that were created 5, 10, even 15 years ago. Thoroughly review your procurement processes to ensure they are still relevant."

7. Mitigate Supplier Risk: "Ensure that you have back-up suppliers for critical commodities; source alternate suppliers for all categories that have the potential to take on a more strategic role in your supply chain; ask for an audited bill of health; [and] seek information from third-party organizations, such as Dun & Bradstreet, that provide viability reports."

If you find these suggestions to be stimulating, you should get your hands on your own copy of the whitepaper from SciQuest's Web site.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
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