Digital Procurement Survey 2020

Digital procurement continues to be one of the most important topic for Turkey. Digital transformation of procurement has higher priority status compared to companies in Europe; data analysis and visualization are the first priorities of digital procurement roadmap in the next two-years for Turkey...

 

In consequence of our intensive works during the pandemic we, as PwC EMEA, are pleased to share with you the third result report of the Digital Procurement Survey, which we conducted to gain more insight into how widely and successfully new digital technologies are used in purchasing. As an inseparable part of purchasing and supply chain management, digital applications affect almost all purchasing and supply chain management processes at a higher rate and with an increasing acceleration compared to the past. We thank very much the purchasing professionals in Turkey that provided valuable contributions by high-level participation with 73 answers for this survey, which involves more than 400 answers from approximately 30 different countries in the EMEA region. We, as PwC Turkey, will continue to develop best practices and sample solutions at every stage from strategy to implementation in the field of purchasing and supply chain management including digitization in the line with the prominent and changing balances during the pandemic period...

Dr. İsmail Karakış


   

Key takeaways:

Digital transformation remains a major challenge for purchasing departments:

  • Process digitisation remains the third strategic priority, and is regarded as a driver of agility and resilience.
  • Cost reduction and supplier sourcing are the top two priorities. They enable companies to meet their objectives of securing external resources and improving financial performance, which have been particularly exacerbated by the health crisis.
  • The COVID-19 crisis has led to a change in strategy by purchasing departments: more than 60% of them have reconsidered their priorities in response to the crisis. Cost reduction and risk management were favoured in the short term while, in the medium term, process digitisation and supplier sourcing were reprioritised in order to prepare for the future.

The digital transformation of procurement processes has been steadily progressing over the years:

  • The level of increase in digitisation has exceeded 2017 targets, demonstrating purchasing
    departments’ commitment to digital transformation projects, as well as the growing role of
    digital technology in the purchasing function. This trend is set to intensify over the next two years, thanks to significant investment by companies of all sizes.

The digital transformation of procurement practices offers various short-term development perspectives:

  • Certain digital use cases – including procure-to-pay, source-to-contract, and data analysis
    and management – have become the basis for the digitisation of the purchasing function.
    They are the most commonly used today and represent the highest investment intentions
    for the next two years.
  • Use cases that are currently not widely used – such as smart sourcing/relocation sourcing,
    risk management and virtual purchasing assistants – are expected to gain traction, with the number of users within purchasing departments set to double over the next two years. Such use cases will enable them to respond to the new challenges of agility and resilience.
  • The COVID-19 crisis has tested the resilience of both the digital tools available to purchasing departments, and digital transformation roadmaps. European roadmaps have been consolidated, while in Africa, two-year investment intentions have been significantly redistributed both upwards and downwards, in direct correlation with the digital use cases that were lacking during the crisis.

Making optimum use of digital solutions generates significant performance gains within purchasing organisations:

  • On average, 79% of purchasing departments say that they have seen improvements in business performance and organisational benefits as a result of deploying a digital solution. This is especially true in companies where the solution is strongly taken up by users and its features are used in full.

Key success factors for digital transformation projects

  • Key success factors for digital transformation projects, adapting procurement processes to the chosen solution and investing heavily in change management are identified as major factors, while the choice of technology or integrator are less important.
  • Purchasing departments share a common view on the crucial role of business process transformation in the success of a digital deployment project. Time spent on process redesign and change management will bring more value to a digital transformation project than the technical aspects of choosing the solution and the integrator.

Close up on Turkey

In Turkey, supplier sourcing and SRM is the second strategic priority and Turkish purchasing departments appear more likely to invest in digital transformation compared to Europe

  • Cost reduction, both in Turkey and in Europe is still the most important strategic priority for more than half of the purchasing departments. 
  • In Turkey supplier sourcing, innovation and digital transformation have higher priority than in Europe while talent acquisition and development have a lower priority. 
  • Risk management standing out especially in the uncertainty of COVID-19 crisis, which increased the importance of agility and to be resistant, is the 4th strategic priority in Europe while it is much less prioritized in Turkey.

S2C digitisation and supply chain traceability are the two most prominent digital solutions used by purchasing departments in Turkey

Purchasing departments in Turkey have advanced digital application compared to other companies in Europe in the fields of supply chain traceability and digital marketplaces. 
However, purchasing departments in Turkey have improvement areas in digitization of purchase to pay (P2P) processes and data analysis and visualization, which are ranked top two in Europe.

Contact us

Tolga Baloğlu

Tolga Baloğlu

Advisory Services Partner, PwC Turkey

Tel: +90 212 376 5365

İsmail Karakış

İsmail Karakış

Supply Chain Leader, PwC Turkey

Tel: +90 212 326 5365

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