Control Systems Market Procurement Intelligence Report

Business practices within Control Systems market are heavily influenced by changing trends across the category as well as within the broader Operation of Industrial Facilities market. As market presence of companies become global, there is a growing preference towards service providers who can provide services seamlessly across the globe and have excellent understanding of local regulations and culture.

Suppliers have historically gained handsome margin-on-margin by sub-contracting a part of their work to another contractor. However, Buyers are now delving deep into the business models of suppliers and negotiating hard to avoid further sub-contracting. In cases where it is imperative to sub-contract, category managers are employing should-cost models to keep supplier margins on sub-contracting to the minimal.

Suppliers are shedding the category expert tag and moving up the value chain to offer an integrated approach to their services. With this new approach, suppliers can offer a wide portfolio of services and position themselves for large contracts that go beyond just Control Systems.

As a result, category managers need to closely monitor the Control Systems procurement trends and identify changes required in their procurement environment for the category.

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Control Systems. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Buyers require industry-specific services to effectively operate their production facilities. Thus, they should opt for service providers that can offer customization and bring in years of experience in serving the needs of that industry.

Investing in benchmarking studies that help category managers enhance their knowledge on pricing or billing rates of suppliers allows them to not only save costs, but also negotiate better with suppliers. For example, while negotiating for bundled services, they can save significantly on a single service by cross-verifying rates quoted by suppliers against industry benchmarks.

Buyers must ensure the participation and collaboration of all related cross-functional teams (procurement, electrical, engineering, and housekeeping) in category management and planning activities. This is crucial, as these teams will be the primary end-users of the services offered by suppliers, and this step will ensure consistency in services.

Control Systems procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Control Systems procurement. Some examples include: