Radio Tower Market Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Telecoms and its sub-segments such as Radio Tower are at an interesting intersection. The cut-throat competition in the category is compelling suppliers to go aggressive on their pricing structure and increase their spend on sales and marketing activities. As a result, most suppliers are feeling a pressure on their margins and trying to offer higher margin value added services to have a better control on their profitability.

In a bid to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded technology space, suppliers are now focusing on creating industry-specific specialized products. Buyers see this trend as an opportunity to procure more targeted solutions and are developing internal capabilities to identify and leverage innovations in the supplier base.

Global market is facing a shortage of professionals with requisite skills and training. Minimum wages and stringent regulations are compelling suppliers to increase their employee expenses which are expected to have an inflationary impact on buyer's procurement cost.

Trends like these and many others discussed in this report are necessitating a relook at the way Radio Tower is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

Sometimes, procurement functions are unable to timely alter their practices while responding to market conditions. Industry experts acknowledge that periodically reviewing procurement best practices and adopting learnings from across procurement categories can help procurement teams respond to market needs in a more agile way. This report combines our experience of other categories with Radio Tower procurement insights and hand picks best practices that can work for category managers delving in this market.

For example, Needs of buyers can vary depending on the industry where buyers operate. For instance, buyers from the financial services industry give high importance to regulatory compliance and data security, whereas buyers from the e-commerce industry prioritize high throughput, low response time, and high scalability. Hence, service providers with a strong knowledge of the security, compliance, and governance needs of buyers' industries and a proven track record of performance with respect to these aspects should be prioritized.

Investing in benchmarking studies not only helps category managers to improve their knowledge about market pricing or billing rates but also in negotiating with suppliers. In fact, this holds true for all technology procurement sub-categories.

Procurement functions should develop custom processes to gain better visibility and involve Radio Tower suppliers early in the procurement process.

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