Aberdeen Group,Procurement,benchmarking,best practices,supply chain

Aberdeen Group expand Sourcing & Procurement benchmarking and best practices research

19 Nov 2004 | (News)

As part of its continuing commitment to providing actionable and value-driven research to the global business community, AberdeenGroup has announced plans to expand its sourcing and procurement capabilities in 2005.

"Globalization, procurement automation, outsourcing, and rapidly changing supply market dynamics have simultaneously elevated the procurement discipline and increased supply management challenges," said Tim Minahan, Aberdeen's senior vice president, supply research and strategy. "Faced with these dynamics, procurement executives must improve the skill sets of their teams, adopt new sourcing, compliance, and supply management strategies, and improve systems infrastructures to drive continuous improvements in supply costs and performance and to deliver strategic value to the enterprise. AberdeenGroup strives to provide the relevant and actionable research procurement executives need to prioritize and execute the right supply management strategies."

"The evolution of supply chain management and the need businesses have for a meaningful flow of relevant information on related issues made the expansion of our sourcing and research capabilities a natural goal for the coming year," said Jamie Bedard, Aberdeen's president and CEO. "We plan to hire several new researchers devoted to sourcing and procurement, expand our ongoing benchmarking and surveying of the sector, and debut a series of Supply Management Best Practices Workshops in regional markets across the country.

Bedard further indicated that these workshops are reserved exclusively for supply management executives and are designed to address their issues of concern. "These workshops are indented to be intimate, hands-on workshops focused on trading practical lessons learned and fact-based research insight," he said.

Dates and locations of the Supply Management Best Practices Workshops include:

Boston -- 2/17/05

Atlanta -- 3/10/05

San Francisco -- 4/7/05

Chicago -- 5/5/05

New York City -- 6/9/05

In the course of its research, Aberdeen has examined sourcing and procurement practices at thousands of enterprises, including benchmarking supply management operations at more 2,500 enterprises year to date. These efforts have recently included the examination of spend compliance management practices at more than 125 enterprises and benchmarking of over 100 enterprises through Aberdeen's Contract Management Center of Excellence. The firm's continued commitment to examining supply management best practices and trends drew support from leading enterprises that have relied on Aberdeen when analyzing their own purchasing processes.

Christie Breves, vice president of procurement for Alcoa, said: "Alcoa has a formal structure for measuring procurement effectiveness and we use Aberdeen research to enhance this benchmarking. They report on the procurement tools which are best-in-class, the viability of those solutions and their providers, and which companies are deploying those solutions most effectively. This has helped us to streamline our benchmarking process and focus on solutions and companies from which we can benefit the most."

Johnathon Baker, director, supply chain strategy, of Delta Air Lines said,. "Delta has used AberdeenGroup research to benchmark our supply management performance and as a good indicator of technology-enabled sourcing and procurement strategies," said

"Aberdeen Research has provided value to me by allowing me to stay current and learn the latest purchasing practices in addition to serving as a source for networking contacts, purchasing thought leadership, and strategy," said James L. Polak, director, general purchasing, of PPG Industries, Inc.

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