Strategic purchasing plays an important role here. In the best case, all important data on alternative suppliers should appear at the push of a button. Big data can make a significant contribution here if certain requirements are met:

"Data on relevant suppliers, hard and soft facts must be stored in the system. Commercial eProcurement solutions can already do this. Those who put big data on top of it benefit from more transparent and efficient processes in purchasing. ”

Martin Zauner, procurement expert at Phoron Consulting

However, reality shows a different picture: Especially in machine and plant construction, data is only partially available and inconsistent. Because Excel tables are often still in use. There is no uniform procedure. Therefore, the introduction of an efficient tool for supplier sourcing is the first step in order to later be able to implement big data in purchasing.

This is the path that a global special machine building company has chosen and has chosen Beyond.Procurement from the Phoron solution package for purchasing. Here, product groups have been standardized and reorganized into assortments. An additional web interface enables suppliers and buyers to communicate better, for example by processing order confirmations online. The reaction rates were thus reduced. The data quality improved considerably through the use of the supplier portal and the existing EDI solution. So a basis was created in order to be able to better implement Big Data analyzes in strategic purchasing in the next step. With the help of the maintained master and document data as well as the knowledge and analytical skills of the employees, targeted summarization on product groups or assortments can be carried out. Change management plays a crucial role. Only when all employees are convinced that data analysis can support purchasing can operational and strategic purchasing be improved through the use of big data.