Valvoline and Heineken Explain How They Leverage BPO to Deliver on Marketing's Revenue KPIs


Marketing teams now have one thing in common, no matter the industry. They are being held increasingly responsible for revenue.

In response to the added stress, marketing departments everywhere are turning to their procurement teams to introduce capabilities they cannot provide themselves. This practice is known as business process outsourcing (BPO), and global brands see the need to turn to procurement partners to expand upon their in-house resources to achieve this requisite ROI.

That's why WBR Insights and HH Global partnered to explore the business strategies your peers are using to better understand BPO trends in procurement. We surveyed 100 procurement and marketing professionals to find that there is a gap in how these teams are collaborating--more than half (56%) of marketers currently report their relationship with procurement as average or below average.

Bridging Departments and the Future of BPO

Marketing teams are increasingly held responsible for revenue and marginal gains. That's why procurement professionals must help them both reduce costs and add capabilities they require to succeed.

Traditionally, alignment has been a challenge. In order to achieve those efficiency and performance goals, procurement teams are turning to BPO as a cost-effective means to adopt or improve upon requisite capabilities in marketing.

Valvoline's Strategies for Managing External Print Procurement

Maree McMinn, Procurement Manager of Marketing IT and Supplier Diversity at Valvoline, has contributed to strategies for managing print procurement. That's a top-three concern among respondents to the study.

She comments on the challenges associated with aligning external print procurement and creative execution. According to McMinn, "When you start looking at all these things as they line up, you have got to have a broader strategy around how you connect the people and the solutions to a process that allows you to execute more efficiently.... Let the creative team be creative and stop having to chase print."

According to the study, 41% are already implementing BPO in print procurement for marketing execution. An additional 42% of respondents reported that they plan to outsource their print procurement capabilities in the future.

Heineken Mexico Highlights BPO Benefits to Organizational Stress and Time Commitment

Marketing teams are realizing the addition of a procurement component to their new responsibilities is an asset. Outsourcing capabilities that once fell on less qualified shoulders internally frees up opportunities for more creativity and strategic thinking.

Our last word goes to Erik Lopez, Procurement Manager at Heineken Mexico. According to Lopez:

"Companies are leaning more toward external procurement services as they're brought to the realization that they need more simplicity, visibility, and control. For me, it's something that the people internally in the organization can use to be more focused on their everyday activities. On the procurement side of needing that simplicity, visibility, and control, it's also about lowering the cost in the overall activities of the company."

For more information on procurement and marketing execution of BPO, download the free report in the ProcureCon Marketing media center.