Just as orchestra musicians without a conductor will struggle with the coordination and expression of a complex piece of music — siloed sourcing, where individual departments or business units procure their own technology, misses the opportunity for an efficient, harmonious procurement strategy.

Without a centralized “conductor,” larger companies end up with a mix of redundant and/or incompatible technologies. As each department negotiates separate contracts and shells out different amounts for the same technology, it’s the company that pays the price. 

Break Down the Silos in Your Company 

Sure, silos have benefits, such as fostering positive team relationships and the aggregation of expertise, but they are generally considered harmful to business health and growth. A lack of communication between departments results in inefficiencies, duplicated efforts, or lost collaboration and innovation opportunities.  

Silos can create challenges in getting a complete picture of a company’s operations and can often foster an “us versus them” mentality, decreasing morale and damaging company culture.

With centralized sourcing, you promote collaboration and knowledge sharing across departments. When all departments use the same business solutions, it becomes easier for employees to work together and share information, leading to increased productivity and better decision-making. 

Advantages of a Centralized Sourcing Approach

Centralized sourcing means having a dedicated team or department responsible for sourcing technology solutions for the entire organization. This approach has several advantages:

• Smart purchases and better budgeting: All technology purchases are aligned with the company’s overall strategy and goals.  
• Stronger negotiating power: By consolidating buying and negotiating power, the company can get the best deals from vendors.
• Standardized infrastructure: IT teams are enabled to standardize and secure the company’s technology infrastructure, which can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ensure compliance.

MSPs Further Strengthen Your Procurement Strategy

Perhaps you’ve decided to move to centralized sourcing, or you’ve already got a centralized program, but it’s inefficient, and your departments have tended to “go rogue” in frustration. Partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) can further strengthen your product procurement strategy and bring everyone back in line; selecting an MSP with close OEM partnerships can deliver negotiated pricing, special discounts, and incentives.

Using an MSP for technology procurement will help you manage and reduce product and operational costs and meet your sustainability goals. You’ll reap the benefits of a single-source provider who can help streamline your procurement processes and, most importantly, deliver the best technology solutions for your business. 

Managing Assets

To help with making informed decisions about purchasing and replacement, an accurate IT asset inventory is crucial. An MSP can help you set up IT Asset Management (ITAM) to provide a comprehensive framework for managing your assets throughout their lifecycle, from acquisition to disposal, and ensuring they are always up-to-date and functioning optimally.  

Besides helping with budgeting, calculating depreciation, and forecasting, ITAM also aids in compliance with regulatory standards, identifying potential security risks, preventing unnecessary purchases, and identifying underutilized assets. 

A Trusted Procurement Partner

By adopting a centralized technology sourcing approach, businesses can achieve compliance, standardization, and cost savings, ultimately staying competitive, efficient, and thriving in today’s fast-paced business world.  

Compucom’s experience implementing solutions across various industries has given us the expertise to make product recommendations and map out a best-fit technology solution for your situation. We’re not going to push products that don’t fit your needs because, quite often, an ideal solution is a mix of different technologies. Our focus is delivering complete technology solutions — meaning the right products that will work best in your environment, backed by the right services, to provide the best user experience.