A new survey of 150 CIOs and CPOs shows that professionals in executive procurement jobs are increasingly working collaboratively with their IT counterparts to source new technology. During a week when many Brits with procurement jobs will take an overview of the UK Budget, weighing-up the implications of the Chancellor’s announcements for their profession, the study shows that life evolves in the world of procurement, despite Budget statements.
Conducted by ProcureCon IT and Insights World Business Research, the survey showed that 57% of respondents said that procurement and IT departments were jointly responsible for sourcing IT innovations. 67% believed that sourcing new technology should be jointly executed by IT and procurement teams rather than handled by one or the other. 36% of those polled said that the goals of the two teams in their organisations were only either partially or minimally aligned, and the frequency of coordination varied significantly. 46% believed that the first step to greater alignment lay in increasing the frequency of consultation.
The survey shows that the nature of IT and procurement jobs is changing from within as more organisations seek to hedge their bets on digital innovations. Issues as varied as global interoperability and supply chain cybersecurity increasingly needed to mesh together IT priorities (managing the complex technical specifications of new software) with procurement goals (optimising value in each spend category). The report states: “IT spending is often one of the largest single categories of indirect expense within a business and it takes involvement from both IT and Procurement leadership to ensure that criteria for performance and value are both respected and actively managed.”
The CIOs and CPOs polled understand that procuring the optimal solution cannot be achieved without the technical expertise of IT pros and the contract management expertise of procurement pros. Procurement recruitment agencies may need to look for a willingness to work cordially with IT colleagues in the CVs they assess.
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