Indirect & Direct Procurement: Right Tool for the Right Job!

Too often organisations use the same tools for direct procurement as they do for indirect. It’s time to start using the right tool for the right job.

This post was first published on POOL4TOOL.

Let me start by saying what this post is not about.

It is not about Direct vs. Indirect. It is also not about what is more critical and strategic between Direct and Indirect.

Things are more complex than a Manichean division of Procurement into two categories. If category management was just about that split, we would know it. Wouldn’t we?

This post is simply about common sense!

Serving Different Markets

All the above does not conflict with saying that there are specificities to both components of the Purchase spend. Especially when looking at industrial companies.

One area of differentiation between Direct and Indirect Procurement is related to the market they serve.

• Indirect serves mostly internal needs, a.k.a. the employee
• Direct serves external needs, a.k.a. the customer or the consumer. Though, of course, the difference between B2B and B2C is becoming increasingly blurred.

Both markets have their own challenges.

In indirect, the diversity of internal customers is quite important (travel is an example) and that makes stakeholder management quite difficult.

In Direct, stakeholders are more easily identifiable as they revolve around the product (this would typically be R&D and manufacturing). But consumers are more diverse and volatile, which requires special attention as, in the words of Peter Drucker, “the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer”.

Product Lifecycle

Another difference is the  relationship to the product lifecycle.

R&D and New Product Development (NPD) are intrinsic to Direct Procurement. This is a bit less of a reality in Indirect, even if some indirect parts of the spend are related to complex projects very similar to NPD, for example, real estate and facility management.

Some companies like Apple have very complex projects to manage in that area, for example their new headquarters or their retail spaces. As retail spaces contribute to the overall customer experience, is that Direct Procurement or Indirect Procurement?

Supply chain management and execution is also an area of differentiation, as direct supply chains tend to be more global and complex.

Right Tool for the Right Job

This post is about using the right tool for the right job!

Each area has specificities, so you have to use specific tools and processes for the job. In terms of Direct Materials Procurement, some of the specificities translate into specific capabilities that modern platforms should have, as Michael Lamoureux from Sourcing Innovation explained in a recent post.

The thing is that none of the Indirect tools have all these capabilities. And neither they should, as most of them are irrelevant for a great part of indirect spend. As Lamoureux puts it in the conclusion of his white paper available for download here.

“The fact of the matter is that you wouldn’t use a Chihuahua to herd sheep, so why are you trying to use a mouse to herd cats (which is mission improbable anyway)?”