Worlds Collide – Sourcing, Social, Information, Mobile and Cloud

Authored by Mickey North Rizza

The cloud, social, access to information and mobile are driving market forces, and to remain effective, competitive and relevant companies need to embrace them. That particularly rings true for sourcing managers.

Gartner released a report on the impact these forces will have on strategic sourcing in 2013, and in it Frank Ridder, research vice president at Gartner, says that sourcing managers need to better understand “wider IT service market trends” to more effectively do their jobs.

Here’s Gartner’s explanation as to why these four areas are ones to watch –

The cloud is on the rise, which means that sourcing managers need an in-depth understanding of cloud-based options and how they differ from traditional models.

Sourcing managers want access to spend analytics, supplier data and the tools they depend on wherever they go – and that means mobile, proactive alerting and a bigger focus on usability.

Big data is a huge buzzword in procurement and IT circles, and it’s ripe with challenges and opportunities. The challenge: most procurement teams are already struggling to make sense of thousands of line items, contracts and suppliers, but once the data is in one, comprehensive system, you can run more advanced ‘what-if’ scenarios, mitigate risk and uncover new savings. Those are big opportunities.

Social channels continue to change how companies interact with their customers – and now vendors. While it introduces an additional layer of complexity, it also opens doors to new resources.

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