Procurement challenge

Procurement

In today’s climate of volatility and global disruption, business leaders who prioritize procurement can achieve significant competitive advantage. Our procurement consulting experts help clients establish efficient operating models—powered by AI and analytics—to beat inflation, meet sustainability standards, strengthen supply chain resilience, and more.

With hundreds of procurement projects completed across industries and geographies over the past five years, BCG’s procurement consulting team—named a worldwide leader in operations improvement consulting services by IDC MarketScape—helps companies chart a course to buying differently and in a better way. They blend deep sector-specific knowledge with expertise in both traditional and new procurement best practices, as well as digital transformation.

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BCG Ranks as a Worldwide Leader in Operations Improvement Consulting

BCG was named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Operations Improvement Consulting Services 2023–2024 Vendor Assessment due to our focus on fast, measurable impact through execution and more.


BCG’s Approach to Sourcing and Procurement

Building relationships remains important to sourcing and procurement, but personal experience must be balanced with a rules-based process that uses digitization—such as AI-powered and analytical solutions—to speed up outcomes and reduce costs. Creating value requires enablers and a strong data foundation. To implement an effective digital procurement strategy and take full advantage of the opportunities that digital offers, BCG helps sourcing and procurement leaders define the core value that their function brings to the organization.

To identify the investments needed to create value, through increased savings, quality, speed, innovation, sustainability, and risk mitigation, we examine your organization’s strategic priorities and assess its digital maturity, including opportunities to unlock approaches that combine AI, technology, and human capabilities.

Using our extensive library of client use cases to speed our work—and tapping into the complementary capabilities of INVERTO, a BCG specialty business that focuses on procurement and supply chain management—we then select and run use cases that match your specific needs. The results help pinpoint technology interdependencies and anticipated pain points, which in turn helps shape your custom digital roadmap. To turn that roadmap into reality, we work with BCG X to develop and deploy user-centric digital solutions, address users’ needs, and help generate value.

USING AI TO BUILD NEEDED SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE

THE NEW PARETO: FOCUSING ON SUPPLIERS INSTEAD OF CATEGORIES

Our Client Work in Sourcing and Procurement

Turning GenAI Concepts into Scalable Success

BMW has launched a major transformation initiative, leveraging GenAI to streamline procurement tasks, rethink processes, and improve supplier interactions. As an extension of our existing partnership around AI, BCG and BMW are now partnering with AWS, BCG X, and BCG Platinion to ensure a secure, scalable integration of GenAI.

 

Change Management Is Inherent to Our Procurement Approach

Change management is critical to ensuring that procurement becomes a source of competitive advantage. It is integral to almost all of our procurement projects. To ensure that results are swift and sustainable, we work side by side with your teams so that they are clear on what procurement achieves in savings, sustainability, and competitive advantage. We are here to answer questions, integrate team-specific needs, and overcome pain points.


How BCG Works with Organizations to Reach Sustainability Milestones

Suppliers must comply with comprehensive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) legislation and directives. But meeting requirements isn’t enough. Leading companies across industries are already pushing beyond mere compliance, and are working to CO2-positive supply chains and socially responsible procurement. To deliver value through sustainable operations, our procurement consulting team supports companies in:

    • Translating company targets into supplier targets
    • Defining relevant measures
    • Building the abatement curve with a clear business case mindset
    • Setting up relevant measurement systems
    • Integrating sustainability into procurement’s target operating model and KPI set
    • Upskilling procurement teams and suppliers to accelerate Scope 3 decarbonization efforts through our Supply Chain Net Zero Academy
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    Profit from the Source: BCG’s Book on The New Role of Procurement

    To succeed in challenging times, CEOs must do the seemingly impossible: capture cost savings while achieving additional competitive advantages, including innovation, sustainability, and resilience. CEOs can do all of this by taking what may seem like a surprising step: empowering their procurement function to liberate new value from their top supplier relationships.

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    Explore Our Insights on Procurement

    Unlocking Value Through Digital Procurement

    How do companies elevate procurement from an administrative operation to a generator of strategic value? BCG's Wolfgang Schnellbächer discusses unlocking profit through digitization of the procurement function.

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    Seven Forces Reshaping Procurement

    To support their company’s strategic decisions, procurement leaders should monitor a wide variety of trends that affect supply availability and costs.

    Meet Our Procurement Consulting Leaders

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