Low-cost and efficient customer orientation is also communication – do good and talk about it

Efficient and effective action is often characterized by many small improvements at different points of the overall process. When there is a central organization such as a SSC and decentral customers, the requisitioners, it is all too easy to find good deeds being done, but not being communicated. The „internal customers“ under the widespread system will undoubtedly be happy about the planned improvements (as in the example) in the IT system – but as a rule, they would nonetheless like to know in advance what headquarters is planning to change. The distance should always be reflected here as well. Requisitioners should be involved in the process right from the start; their good experience can be gleaned at purchasing system congresses, secretary forums, user meetings, and in-house exhibitions. In addition, communications should be issued regularly and specifically for the target groups in newsletters, blogs, or system messages with the aim of demonstrating activity, presence, and customer orientation. Efficiency begins at this point long before the measure is actively initiated and leads to customer orientation when the users know about the measure before they experience/feel them in actual practice.

The practical examples described here show how the combination of efficiency and customer orientation can be lived. The following section turns to a completely different method for harmonizing the two factors: „catalogue-based purchasing“.

Procurement efficiency with customer orientation – catalogue-based purchasing as the key to success!

Customer orientation and efficiency do not necessarily exclude each other as goals. It is definitely possible to realize both of them by skillfully using the right tools. One example from operational procurement can be seen here in the ideal use of electronic supplier catalogues. These are system-supported presentations of supplier products in a format similar to that of the shops commonly found on the Internet. Whereas reported requirements for non-catalogued products are usually too general and make it necessary for the purchaser to contact the requisitioner for additional information, in a catalogue system requisitioners must define precisely what they need, when and from which supplier. When supplier catalogues are used, the operational activity of requirement specification such as product description or allocation to an existing frame contract is shifted exactly where the knowledge required for its execution is actually located, namely away from purchasing and to the requisitioner. Follow-up questions become superfluous, and the related risk of error is eliminated. At the same time, the processing times are reduced and the satisfaction level of the internal customers is raised.