Purchasing: the final frontier
13 September 2012
The expanding market for outsourced procurement has heightened the debate about whether organisations should hand their buying over to third parties. But, as Liam O’Brien discovers, opinion is still sharply divided
When insurance multinational Willis Group outsourced its procurement to PricewaterhouseCoopers at the end of 2000, the company was conscious it was taking something of a step in the dark.
The management realised that getting rid of its in-house team in favour of four dedicated individuals at PwC in London, some way from its Ipswich base, carried risks. But such...