Procurement directors warm to outsourcing.

The outsourcing bug has hit procurement directors, and, according to a new survey, most of them polled in major industrial countries say they intend to turn to it in the next few years.

The survey by Accenture, drawing from a number of industries across Europe and the U.S., found that the French are actually the most likely to outsource their procurement activities, followed by the U.S. and the U.K. Currently, 22 percent of the 200 procurement directors polled said they are outsourcing that function, most often in non-strategic processes such as application hosting and requisitioning to pay.

"Survey results show that procurement outsourcing is here to stay," said Richard Laub, the partner in charge of Accenture's European procurement practice. "Looking ahead, however, the principal challenge will be to derive more than just cost savings. Procurement outsourcing is a powerful weapon that savvy companies can use to build new strategic and competitive advantages."

Perhaps not surprisingly, company size correlated strongly with an interest in outsourcing. Thirty-one percent of the largest companies polled said they current outsource some aspect of procurement, with another 36 percent saying they plan to do so in the future; the percentages for smaller companies were 15 percent and 34 percent, respectively.