Market research firms come up short on procurement outsourcing
02 Sep 2010
Source: Spend Matters
It never ceases to amaze how consistently US market research firms come up short in defining and capturing what makes up the procurement outsourcing or procurement BPO market writes Jason Busch in his recent blog on Spend Matters. In Busch’s view there seems an almost arbitrary line between whether or not software providers and consultants - and consulting revenue - should be included as part of the buy-side outsourcing catchall. He writes that this is a huge mistake, as in practice, there is no grey area between having constituents outsource a function and result versus subscribing to or buying a software or service. Which means, outsourcing requires that an external partner take on the responsibility for not only providing the potential of an outcome (e.g., identifying savings, providing the potential to reduce maverick spending, etc.) but the actual delivery of the result.
For this reason, Busch has a difficult time understanding how the firm, Marketsandmarkets, explains the scope of procurement BPO in a recent report in the banking sector. He concludes by saying it appears Marketsandmarkets is continuing in a tradition of obfuscation rather than helping to clear the BPO air for CFOs, CPOs and CEOs to make better outsourcing decisions and to decide for themselves whether a services-enabled or full-blown BPO approach is right for them.
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