Communication Maintenance & Support Category Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Support and its sub-segments such as Communication Maintenance & Support are at an interesting intersection. Stringency in the regulatory norms pertaining to data protection and cybersecurity has increased compliance and security burden on suppliers. These additional costs have a potential to drive marginal increase in prices across the key geographies.

The supply market has undergone several structural changes including introduction of several new vendors every year, M&As and vertical integration efforts of suppliers. This has resulted in some issues such as erosion of previously established supplier relationships but has also opened new opportunities to onboard new suppliers that offer a solution with better fitment or a wider range of offerings in .

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.

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

Communication Maintenance & Support 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 Communication Maintenance & Support procurement strategy.

For example, Developing a strong understanding of the potential vulnerabilities of service providers can help buyers limit their potential losses and also gives the bargaining power to demand services from more robust measures in the SLA.

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 Communication Maintenance & Support suppliers early in the procurement process.

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