Global organizations are increasingly outsourcing logistics and procurement functions to take advantage of the extraordinary list of benefits it offers for their businesses.
As a business owner, dealing with the intricacies of procurement and logistics can be confusing. Without proper oversight and management of these business functions could lead to significant problems for your business.
What is the solution?
Understanding how these functions impact your business is the ideal starting point – it enables you to see the bigger picture and make decisions that will impact the wider business positively.
Procurement
What does your business do? Do you manufacture goods? Are you a service provider? No matter what industry you operate in, procurement will be an integral part of the supply chain.
Procurement is the part of your business that buys in goods or services. It involves price negotiation, inventory and quality assurance – and it usually accounts for more than half of your company’s costs.
Logistics
There are two sides to logistics. One is procurement logistics; where these two departments work hand-in-hand to ensure you have the products and services you need to create your final product.
The second is the storage and delivery of the final product to its end user. Logistics ensures the products you and your customer need are delivered safely and securely to their final destination.
Why are procurement and logistics important?
The global economy continually evolves as do market trends and organizations must keep up to stay relevant and capitalize on these changes.
Keeping up with these trends requires agile procurement and logistics teams who can adapt to changing requirements quickly and ensure delivery meets expectations.
To ensure that the delivery of goods are on time and within their budget, businesses need to plan their procurement and logistics very carefully. These roles are specialized and as such it has become a common practice for companies to outsource these processes.
Outsourcing procurement and logistics
There are several reasons why global organizations are outsourcing procurement and logistics. The primary reasons for outsourcing these functions is because they aren’t revenue driving departments and to drive operational efficiency – but these aren’t the only reasons.
Other reasons that businesses regularly outsource procurement and logistics include:
- Saving time – allowing onshore teams to focus on critical business objectives
- Adding expertise and experience
- Scalability and cost effectiveness
Many business processes don’t need to be performed in-house and in most cases, it can be much more affordable and efficient to have a third party execute these tasks.
Ideal outsourcing tasks include, data gathering, compliance tracking, accomplishing simple contracts or electronic procurement tasks. They’re not a big part of the core strategies of the business and are easily outsourced.
Outsourcing procurement and logistics functions is a win-win situation. It enables business success by:
- Freeing up time from repetitive or time-consuming tasks
- Adding emerging technology, such as new systems or software
- Providing highly-skilled professionals with abundant expertise
Outsourcing logistics and procurement with Cloudstaff
Cloudstaff is a global outsourcing company that can provide you procurement and logistics staff who will exceed expectations and deliver your goals. Our professional staff are highly skilled in a wide range of procurement, logistics and other support roles.
With a talent pool featuring thousands of qualified procurement and logistics candidates, we have the staff you need to achieve success. Contact our team today to find out more.