by Daniel Ball, Marketing Director, Wax Digital
27. February 2008 12:56
Procurement effectiveness isn’t all about centralising contracts to secure best price, as evidenced last week by Tesco who revealed plans at the National Farmers’ Union conference to sell £400m of locally sourced products in its UK stores during the next year.
The retailer has upped its local sourcing targets as a response to the demand from consumers for fresh products that also make a contribution to the local economy.
"More customers want produce that is fresh and contributes to the local economy,” a spokesman for the company remarked. "They want to help local farmers and to know how the product has been produced.”The same principles apply, albeit for different reasons, when looking at eProcurement. Central contracts are great for widely available commodities such as stationery, but especially in a large, geographically distributed organisation, the ability to incorporate local suppliers is essential. Users can benefit from national or internationally negotiated rates across some goods and services, whilst leveraging local supplier relationships where it makes economic, practical or even environmental sense.
