The Deloitte Global CPO Survey 2014

The CPO survey results focuses on key procurement topics including market outlook, business engagement, talent, risk and technology. In it, we make a case for steps to broaden capabilities and transform the procurement function into a multi-speed gear box that must be:

·         innovative; bringing insight to the business driven by analysis and input by suppliers

·         rapid; focused on delivering results to the business as they are needed

·         efficient;  investing in the right number of the appropriately skilled people.

Our report explores:

·         Market outlook: the growth that we identified 12 months ago continues, particularly in the US and UK, bringing with it positive sentiment and a renewed focus on corporate expansion.

·         Business engagement: procurement has now largely awoken to the importance of business partnering  yet 68 per cent of respondents describe their internal influence as “mixed”, suggesting they are yet to create sufficient demand for their services or are focusing on the wrong agenda. 

·         Talent: 57 per cent of this year’s respondents state their teams do not have the right skills to execute the CPO’s vision.

·         Risk: the perception of risk is rising however the survey results show just half of CPOs play an active role in the wider risk management process, and their level of investment in risk technologies and processes remains low.

·         Technology: CPOS are keen to invest in technology but are often restrained by challenges of integration, and in particular the enterprise resource planning (ERP) landscape.