629: Benchmarking Services Procurement w/ Kelly Barner and Philip Ideson

“Services are relationship-based from a procurement perspective, whether that means the relationship procurement needs to have with the business to be successful or the relationship the company has with the service provider.” - Philip Ideson.

This week’s episode of the podcast provides a behind the scenes look at Art of Procurement’s ongoing research into services procurement - research that everyone in our listening audience and social following is encouraged to participate in. 

Management of services categories has changed substantially in recent years, driven by the rise of contract work, freelancing, and contingent labor. With an increasing number of professionals working remotely, the barriers to accessing external talent are undergoing yet another adjustment.

In this conversation, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner talk through some of the data points that form the core of the survey, sharing their perspective on the business outcomes and procurement processes in question.

Procurement organizations in all industries and geographies will want to benchmark themselves against the following themes covered in the survey, which only takes 5-7 minutes to complete:

• Ownership over ‘make v. buy’ decisions related to talent and staffing needs
• Procurement’s consultative role in the process for establishing service specifications
• How companies decide which services are strategic - and which are not

Links:

• The 2023 Services Procurement Survey 
• Philip Ideson on LinkedIn
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to AOP’s This Week in Procurement