Procurement Intelligence : Category Intelligence

“I am pleased with the information and analysis you have provided in the category report. This has really added weight to my category plan.”

IT Category Manager, U.K.-based Financial Services Firm

Category Intelligence Solutions

Actionable market intelligence tracking the evolution of procurement categories

With globalisation and technological advancements, procurement categories and supplier business models are evolving rapidly. Therefore, category managers today need to adopt a pro-active approach to category planning based on actionable market intelligence. As a result, they require access to comprehensive and timely insights to create effective sourcing strategies. They also need relevant updates on category developments to spot early warning risk signals and minimize supply chain disruptions.

While most responsible organisations today realise the importance of having category strategies and intelligence mechanisms, they seem to limit these efforts to their direct procurement categories. Even though a disruption in services from any Indirect procurement categories such as IT, Finance, HR, Facilities, Logistics, etc. can also cause significant liabilities for clients, they continue to neglect these categories because these categories do not constitute significant part of their spend and the frequency of engagement with these categories is less. At the same time, clients find it challenging to monitor these categories because they are not a part of their value chain, and they lack proper understanding of that category.

Our proprietary secondary research database of more than 5,000 online sources, coupled with our ability to gather on-ground insights and expert opinion, allows our experienced analyst team to track category trends and best practices, and produce customised market reports for any category. Insights from our research currently act as critical inputs to the strategy development process of more than 100 direct and indirect procurement categories worldwide.

Category Strategy Development

Pure Research leverages its vast database of secondary research sources, highly experienced analysts, and critical inputs from industry experts to assist category managers in understanding the supply market landscape and develop effective category plans. We also help them in identifying new and niche suppliers, and also in identifying market trends well in advance so that the category heads can plan for the future. Apart from market intelligence, our experienced analyst team shares category specific best practices – in the form of case studies sourced from companies worldwide – with clients looking to improve or expand their procurement practice.

Category Intelligence

Once a category plan is developed and sourcing strategy is defined, it is important for category managers to closely monitor all the variables that can impact the plan. These variables can include – pricing changes, entry of new players, consolidation within the sector, regulatory changes, macroeconomic changes, and technological developments, among others. Our team works as an extension of the client’s buying organization to monitor all these developments across your direct and indirect procurement categories, filtering out the noise from the relevant news, and delivering actionable insights to category managers in the form of sector reports, periodic newsletters, annual updates, among others.

Category Strategy Development

  • Category plan development
  • Benchmarking of Incumbent Suppliers and Peers
  • On-demand support on new procurement initiatives
  • Identification of new category trends
  • Procurement best practices research
  • Country & cost analysis

Category Intelligence

  • Category Reports
  • On-going category monitoring
  • Monthly category specific newsletters
  • Regulatory and macroeconomic watch
  • Commodity price monitoring
  • Expert interviews on trends and forecasts

Category Strategy Development

  • Category plan development
  • Benchmarking of Incumbent Suppliers and Peers
  • On-demand support on new procurement initiatives
  • Identification of new category trends
  • Procurement best practices research
  • Country & cost analysis

Category Intelligence

  • Category Reports
  • On-going category monitoring
  • Monthly category specific newsletters
  • Regulatory and macroeconomic watch
  • Commodity price monitoring
  • Expert interviews on trends and forecasts