Water Treatment Chemicals Category Procurement Intelligence Report

Several macro changes in the dynamics of overall Operation of Water Supplies and Distribution as well as Water Treatment Chemicals procurement trends are poised to change the business practices and procurement thumb rules. Historically, suppliers have sub-contracted a fair portion of their work and earned attractive margins, thereby increasing the cost of buyers. Buyers are now scrutinizing the service models of suppliers in much more depth to identify potential for sub-contracting and negotiating hard to avoid cost escalation on account of sub-contracting by employing should-cost models.

Supplier evaluation and performance management is now being driven by select KPIs that serve as hard evidence to support cost reduction. Suppliers of Water Treatment Chemicals are developing targeted KPI matrix that help with actionable data on their performance and cost savings they achieved for the customer.

Suppliers are no more just the experts in Water Treatment Chemicals. Many are moving up the value chain and offering integrated services that go beyond just Water Treatment Chemicals. This new business model helps buyers on multiple counts, such as fewer suppliers to manage, cost savings arising of volume buying and long-term strategic partnerships with a chosen few suppliers that maximize the ROI and allow for strategic optimization experiments.

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

Water Treatment Chemicals procurement best practices are moving towards a level of sophistication which is typically seen in traditional procurement categories. Category managers now have an attractive opportunity to adapt the best practices seen within this category as well as those being leveraged in other non-related categories. This report summarizes the best practices picked from across multiple categories that could work well for category managers involved with Water Treatment Chemicals procurement strategy.

For example, Cost saving opportunities may reduce exponentially in relation to the time left for current contract to expire or required timeline to start the engagement. Therefore sufficient interval should exist between initation of new procurement and expected start date of the new contract for Water Treatment Chemicals.

Buyers need to employ robust should-cost models and total cost of ownership models to aid Water Treatment Chemicals supplier selection and pricing negotiations.

Buyers should properly evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of suppliers' safety process before onboarding them. Suppliers should be required to provide details data on workplace safety KPIs and accident statistics to complete their safety evaluation. This process can reduce accident related risks in the buyer's operations and reputational risks that arise from industrial accidents.

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