Understanding the Sourcing Organisation Maturity Model-from the aspect of technology

The Technology Element

Technology is the underpinning that supports the process and people, so that the organisation can become best-in-class. Without solid technology, Sourcing Organisations can only hope to reach the reactive stage of development. Regarding e-Sourcing software, Andrew Bartolini, Chief Research Officer of Ardent Partners, stated, “If you’re doing strategic sourcing, I think you have to strip out the word “strategic” if you're doing offline sourcing today.” 1 Below is the technology component of the maturity model:

Sourcing Systems

The model shows that at the beginning stages of development, Sourcing Organizations typically use generic technology systems such as Excel and email. Moving to the next steps in the model, they start to store sourcing information in shared folders. This helps, but it doesn’t provide an easy way of finding information, and much of the communication between stakeholders and with suppliers still resides offline in personal emails. At the proactive stage, companies implement e-Sourcing systems. Now they’re able to keep all sourcing information, including communications, in one place. E-Sourcing systems are designed to support the sourcing process so they can be implemented more easily. At the strategic stage, companies have fully implemented their e-Sourcing systems: They manage 100% of their sourcing projects using these technologies. Beyond that, best-in-class organisations have an e-Sourcing system that’s tightly connected to their e-procurement system. That means that once a sourcing project is completed, the newly negotiated pricing can flow seamlessly from the sourcing system to the procurement system, which ensures that end users have the most up-to-date pricing when they buy.

1 http://www.coupa.com/blog/cpo-rising-agile-procurement-requires-e-sourcing

(https://www.coupa.com/pdf/whitepapers/Understanding-the-Sourcing-Organization-Maturity-Model.pdf)