Creating a robust procurement strategic plan helps a company identify possible saving possibilities, reduce unconventional spending, and guarantee policy compliances. There are different ways to tackle a procurement strategy plan, depending on the organization and industry. Below are the steps in creating a successful procurement strategic plan for your company 1. Analyze Organizational Spending The initial step in creating a procurement strategy plan is to analyze what the company buys and its spending pattern in different departments. You can do this by conducting procurement and spending analysis by obtaining information from internal stakeholders, supply partners, and other entities that are present in the procurement process. The spending analysis must be the basis for all work procurement decisions and actions, serving as the foundation for a procurement strategy. An organization can utilize the total cost of ownership or TCO to identify and analyze overlooked or unclassified expenditures in addition to the initial purchase. 2. Determine the Business Needs A procurement strategy plan produces the best outcomes through an understanding of current and future organizational needs. Through the needs analysis, the person working on the procurement strategic plan can align and prioritize strategies across other organization functions and business goals. A company meeting or discussion about recurrent activities and questions about obvious spending methods help to reveal possible saving strategies. A category positioning matrix allows the organization to identify business requirements to develop a procurement strategy. 3. Assess the Market Conditions After an internal analysis to identify the business needs of an organization, it is time to do an external analysis focusing on supply markets and their status. The data comes from direct suppliers and supplier markets. To guarantee that information is relevant, the company must ensure that the gathered information is always recent. There are different methods that an organization can utilize, including scope analysis and Porter’s five forces. 4. Set Clear Objectives and Define Policies After identifying business needs and assessing market conditions, the company must set out a clear vision to achieve. The data from the previous step is the basis to determine the procurement process. Set the information in an order that represents which ones are most impactful. Using SWOT analysis identifies current procurement functions in the organization. After identifying the objectives, create a list of the best practices of procurement the company utilizes. Adapt the existing procurement policy to fit the organizational needs and modify the procurement policy for the organization using the SWOT analysis. The procurement policies established by the company are a means to guide everyone to fair practices involving procurement procedures, including remedies and violations. 5. Outline a Procurement Strategy After collecting and analyzing all necessary information, you can now proceed to develop a procurement strategy. It must list down the goals and tactics to achieve these goals. These goals must follow the SMART-goal setting process. The strategic plan must indicate the methods you plan to use to achieve the defined goals while incorporating new ideas to push for innovations and possibilities. 6. Develop Digital Procurement Strategies and Execute, Manage, and Refine the Strategy Through data collection from previous steps, you can create a digital procurement strategy through editing or revising procurement technologies, processes, strategies, support systems, talents, and skills. The digital procurement strategy allows organizations to spend time with suppliers to form strategies and deploy resources to obtain outside gains to make procuring easier. After completing the digital strategy, the next step is to execute it. It also demands the involvement of other departments, receiving their feedback to track and measure the progress and success of procurement processes.