News
Thursday 29. September 2011
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| Buyers relying on Internet expertise |
| Can Web platforms displace the classical purchasing consultant? The debate is getting under way |
| Lars Reppesgaard Hans Becker is rebuilding, and that's going on with some noise: The purchasing consultant from Oberhaching near Munich wants to get away from the classical consulting company – towards a Web company which is to become a central contact point for any purchasing information. Kind of a consultant google – and he makes an aggressive pitch for his info platform with lines like these: "Get rid of consulting: Hans Becker Horizon makes external purchasing departments dispensable", he urges. And: "After all, the tool knows as much as an entire consultancy. But the tool only needs one to operate: You!" The Horizon platform went online in August. The staff members of purchasing departments are supposed to access so much know-how that they no longer need to hire consultants to buy maintenance services for elevators, the production of a TV spot or a cleaning crew. Becker has two Internet customers until now. Today, digital tools facilitate the work in many purchasing departments: "In purchasing, IT tools helped minimize expenditures very much", says Oliver Kreienbrink, Divisional Manager at the consultancy Kerkhoff Consulting. "Processes are very lean already in everything not directly part of the core value added." Ordering has long since been online It's perfectly natural not only that procurement solutions providers such as Onventis support all steps from ordering to purchasing controlling, but also that sourcing software is used from providers like Ariba which help with supplier selections. For a long time already, orders are not only made for office supplies and standard machine parts. Marketplaces like Techpilot meanwhile digitally connect customers even with individual manufacturers. Hans Becker Horizon now wants to supplement the range of digital purchasing tools with another facet: He wants to use virtual consulting via the platform to replace consultants hurrying in three-piece suits through the German republic. On Becker's site, buyers can now click through categories such as logistics or facility management; they can obtain information about cost areas such as distance heating, elevators, or sanitary equipment and – fed with practical tips – they can start their own tender invitations. On the Internet, customers obtain project plans and get information about the procedure. Only in emergencies, consultants will help by e-mail or telephone. If virtual consulting works, clients can save quite a bit. Annual fees of EUR 3,000 to 5,000 are to replace consultants' hefty daily rates. For Becker who founded his consultancy 20 years ago, this model would still have its benefits: In recent years, many companies have built up their purchasing departments – which also means they are less willing to even additionally hire consultants. "We thus needed a new way of making our know-how available", says Becker. For him, it goes without saying that such knowledge will continue to be in demand. "No industrial buyer can have simultaneously detailed knowledge about 50 highly differentiated cost areas such as maintenance services for elevators and pencils." It's questionable whether such offers will be able to catch on and gain acceptance. It's true that experts see a certain benefit in centrally providing information for industrial buyers and their work at virtual contact points. "Buyers must permanently analyze their markets. That also includes checking information platforms as an auxiliary for its possibly useful value", says Holger Hildebrandt, Senior General Manager of the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik (Federal Association of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics). But: There are many tender invitation platforms and informational platforms for buyers – from supply-markets. de and Crealogix Ceps all the way to Xing groups or expert sites at the portal Competence-Site.de. Specialized social networks also developed into attractive information exchanges – such as forumbeschaffung.de for buyers in the free economy, or beschaffernetzwerk.de for buyers in public authorities. Users can there set up own profiles and exchange information with colleagues about subjects of their trade. But will software or Web portals actually make real consultants superfluous – as Becker promises confidently? Kerkhoff consultant Kreienbrink makes a dismissive gesture and says: "No matter how good it is, there will be no software that can entirely replace the exchange between buyers and consultants". Negotiating skill is what counts Ronald Bogaschewsky is also skeptical – he has the chair for Studies in Business Management and Industrial Management at the University of Würzburg. "Among the most important tasks in purchasing are supplier management and the development and utilization of worldwide procurement sources", says the professor. "Both have much more to do with good insight in human nature, with social skills, relational management, negotiating skills and similar things than just with tools and techniques you can learn from books."
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