13% of Purchasing Directors consider organisational changes to be one of their top three priorities.*

Indeed, change and evolution in purchasing organisations is a serious concern in a radically changing environment. This organisational questioning allows Purchasing to keep in step with businesses' commercial challenges: keeping close to in-house customers while taking a coordinated approach to the supplier market.

In particular the context of uncertainty (bankruptcy of suppliers, abrupt changes in raw materials prices or exchange rates) is becoming a fundamental factor that purchasing departments must incorporate into their strategies. Faced with such structural changes, many Purchasing functions need to anticipate organisational changes in order to bring high value to the company and mitigate risks.

(*) Source: Purchasing Monitor 2009, “Purchasing, the end of a cycle?”

How BearingPoint brings value 

Aligning the purchasing department with a company’s global strategy is absolutely essential. Therefore it is important to take the time to understand the strategy and then to identify the most appropriate organisational structure.

BearingPoint can help by:

• Building on our wide expertise in organisational transformations, particularly within purchasing departments: we are aware of the issues and levers faced inside and outside the organisation
• Assessing the organisation quickly to take into account its specificities in terms of strategy, culture, skills and resources as well as competitors and supplier/client market
• Providing innovative yet realistic solutions from strategy to concrete implementation, aligned with the company’s global strategy and the reality of the business.