Procurement and Sourcing

Cost pressure is a direct threat for many companies today, fueled by recent high inflation and price volatility.

We leverage our deep industry expertise and a data-driven approach to help clients identify cost-saving opportunities, mitigate risks and derive value from their supplier relationships. 

PwC is known for its innovative, tailored, client-specific strategies that ultimately enable organisations to achieve competitive advantages and sustainable cost reductions. Our strategic sourcing solutions encompass spend analytics, market and internal analysis, vendor evaluation, negotiation strategies and implementation. 

• Strategic sourcing: a systematic and data-driven approach to optimise procurement processes, reduce costs and enhance supplier relationships, for long-term value and competitive advantage      

• Speed sourcing: developing a sourcing strategy focused on quick wins and capturing value
  

• Zero-based budgeting: support in budget development from scratch, challenging existing cost needs to optimise future spend
  

• Value engineering: support in reviewing existing specifications to find cost reduction opportunities while maintaining quality standards

Procurement operating model (or procurement excellence) design is a crucial element in the effective management of an organisation's procurement function. It involves structuring and aligning the various components of the procurement process, from strategy and governance to execution and technology, in a way that best supports the organisation's objectives.

• Strategy: determine the scope of service, vision and strategy, and procurement roadmap.

• Processes: define and optimise E2E process maps up to task level.

• Organisation: from processes, we establish an organisation structure including governance, roles and responsibilities, accountabilities and dependencies with other processes.

• Technologies: selection of tools and technologies that support the processes and organisation.

• Information: determine what is needed to make informed decisions and how to measure success, e.g., master data, KPIs and performance management, etc.

• Resources: identify which capabilities and talents are needed in the different roles of the organisation.

We support procurement organisations in unlocking sustainable value and bottom-line impact through the consideration of net-zero, sustainable value chain, and circular economy risks and opportunities, and their implications in terms of required transformation.

• Sustainable procurement diagnostic to assess as-is ESG maturity and define a high-level roadmap:

  • identify the materiality of ESG regulations on (procurement) organisation

  • define sustainability KPIs.

• Apply PwC's sustainable sourcing framework to realise concrete results:

  • identify and secure future material gaps

  • reduce carbon footprint

  • optimise total cost of ownership.

• Digital solutions:

  • third-party risk management framework

  • value chain decarbonisation toolkit to onboard Tier+2 suppliers 

  • alignment of systems, tools and processes to be fit for CSRD reporting.

Many of our clients are seeking answers to key procurement questions: What aspects of my procurement function should I digitise? How can I use AI for procurement? Should I choose a best-of-suite or a best-of-breed procurement solution?

Our experts help find answers to all such questions. Our team of experienced professionals partners with clients to support digitisation of all aspects of S2P processes. Over the course of many successful projects, our global experts have gained valuable experience that can be leveraged at any stage of your digital procurement journey.

• Digital procurement strategy development: develop a digital procurement vision and strategy supported by an initiative roadmap.

• Digital tool(s) selection to choose the optimal and best solutions available.

• Implementation: working in full collaboration with the technology partner to support clients to successfully implement tools and change management.

Risk management

We support our clients to mitigate supply risk, ensuring that organisations can navigate supply chain disruptions, market fluctuations and unexpected challenges.

• Risk and strategy identification: identify the most significant supply risks and mitigation strategies, in collaboration with our client.

• 3rd party risk management: mitigate risks throughout the end-to-end lifecycle of the relationship with third parties.

Agile procurement

Implementing an agile procurement organisation and way of working enhances business flexibility, prioritises outcomes, accelerates decision-making and saves time, compared to traditional forms of procurement organisation. Our approach is built around four key building blocks: structure, strategy, people and tools.

• Organisation structure: inclusion of more flexible roles that can be allocated different responsibilities depending on individual skills and the business needs.

• Procurement strategy: more frequent and intense collaboration between procurement and business stakeholders to enable a more rapid response to changing requirements.

• People: delivering training in different skills sets so that people can be deployed to multiple areas in procurement, and to cultivate a dynamic culture.

• Digital and technology: implementation of digital tools to get accurate and timely data and insights, enabling faster response to disruptions.