The past few weeks has seen some rather conflicting information regarding the state of the usage of e-sourcing tools and strategic sourcing practices in Europe.
In one corner we’ve got (ex-Aberdeen analyst) Tim Minahan; who recently stated that: »Compared to North American firms, European procurement organizations have been reluctant to embrace online sourcing approaches.« on SupplyExcellence.com.
In the other corner we got Tim’s successor at Aberdeen; Andrew Bartolini; who’s recent benchmark report »Strategic Sourcing in the EMEA« (available for download from Aberdeen.com) found that the top European performers used e-sourcing for an astounding 56.4 percent of their sourceable yearly spend, yielding an average realized savings of 10.4 percent.
Having spent the past five years kicking around the outskirts of the European purchasing market I know for a fact that e-sourcing has been alive and kicking in Europe for quite some time; which (to his defense) Tim quite rightly points out in his post.
June 23, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Using them (e-sourcing tools), yes. How… is a complete different story. Either in USA or Europe!