Satellite & Earth Communication Systems Services Category Procurement Intelligence Report

Several macro changes in the dynamics of overall Telecoms as well as Satellite & Earth Communication Systems Services procurement trends are poised to change the business practices and procurement thumb rules. A balanced approach to procurement of Satellite & Earth Communication Systems Services has emerged, where buyers with multiple locations first outsource at individual locations and gradually move to standardize and consolidate the services across facilities.

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.

Category managers need to take note of the potential of these developments and reassess the changes required in their procurement practices.

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 Satellite & Earth Communication Systems Services. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Category managers must explore opportunities to integrate planning and management activities of categories using analytics, to gain better control over category spend. This will also allow them to consolidate their supply base easily, as well as to segment suppliers based on requirements and spend on each supplier.

Buyers should set a baseline against which the performance of suppliers can be benchmarked along with setting measurable/quantifiable KPIs. Defined KPIs provides suppliers with clarity on the scope. Besides setting standards for operations, pricing, and performance, KPIs must provide tangible goals in terms of the quality of solutions.

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.

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