New research by eProcurement provider Wax Digital reveals that procurement is just as vital for SMEs at it is for large organisations, with formal procurement processes serving an equally critical role in helping them reduce costs, keep control of spend and eradicate labour intensive processes. The research conducted with both procurement professionals and other management in 260 UK businesses asked what the tipping point was for introducing procurement into their organisations. The results were as follows:-

• 75% said procurement was needed once a company reaches a £50M turnover

• 77% claim to need procurement by the time it has 100 supplier contracts

• 72% said once 500 invoices per month are being processed, procurement was necessary.

Rising costs was the most common reason for first introducing procurement, cited by 68%, followed by inefficient and labour intensive processes for 45%, and increasing business risk for 30%. 48% of businesses said they ended up implementing procurement reactively in response to a negative situation compared to 31% who said that it was a positive and proactive step forward.