Expanding Procurement Outsourcing: The Path to Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency

Innovation is not just about developing and leveraging state-of-the-art technology.  It comes in all shapes and sizes: it’s creative thinking and change that can impact your processes or even your management system and style. This particularly succinct graphic, adapted from the book Ten Types of Innovation, clearly identifies the major categories for business enhancement and improvement: process, product, delivery, and financing. Drill further and uncover how innovative changes to service performance, channels, and customer experience (and more) can add value to your offerings. Having been aware of these business elements for years, SDI has been sure to implement our fair share of key changes.

But what if you don’t have time to read lengthy essays or scan endless books on the importance of innovation? No problem. In recent months, Matt McFarland, a blogger at The Washington Post, posted a short, clever and, yes, innovative video that purports that the United States is suffering from an “innovation deficit.” It’s not just a buzzword anymore:  it’s a major concern. The research informing McFarland’s blog was funded by various organizations, including the Council on Competitiveness, National Science Foundation, and NASA. Even if time constraints prevent you from gleaning all the facts that this four-minute video, here’s what you need to know (and it’s quite simple).  It is critically important to invest in great minds, research, and new ideas. Let’s move on to global expansion.

EuropeanCEO, a quarterly print and online publication catering to C-suite executives in 28 European countries, recently published a case study on implementing a global expansion strategy. This quote, from Alexander Fernandes, CEO of Avigilon Corporation, does an excellent job summing it up: “People in other countries have similar needs to people in your home country, so why limit yourself?” Of course, we also should not forget the cultural and business advantages of leveraging competent resources in global regions and emerging markets. Fernandes also continues by recommending CEOs grow slowly and don’t expect expansion overnight.

Is Africa the hottest target market?

Hot off the presses from Everest Group, a major supplier of market intelligence, is the Outsourcing Annual Report. This report indicates that companies in emerging markets like Africa are seeing huge increases in local companies relying on outsourced services. SDI’s expansion into South Africa will not only increase our exposure to new markets and skills, but also swiftly integrate with our current processes and platforms for accelerated results. What does all this have to do with procurement outsourcing?

That’s pretty simple, too. Access to skills is one of our key drivers to expand, while innovation opens up new trains of thought. That translates into cost savings and enhanced delivery services for all of our clients.