Results of Big Data & purchasing in relation to the process & systems

For the purchasing process, the respondents are asked to define their purchasing processes to one of the four characteristics of chaotic, standardised, digitalised or automatized. Each respondent describes their purchasing process in reality and how it should be according the

63 structure. To compare the results to a purchasing maturity level, the respondents are asked to position their own purchasing department to a maturity curve. The purchasing maturity model that is used, is not one as mentioned before, but a simplified version with 5 levels; 1) basic, 2) defined, 3) foundation, 4) advanced and 5) extended174_{. To see how these processes}

and maturity levels are related to each other, see table 16 below.

Company How the process feels How the process is Maturity level A Chaos Standardised, partly

automatized

2) Defined

B Standardised, work with Van Weele.

Standardised 3) Foundation

C Digitalised Digitalised 2) Defined

D Chaos Partly digitalised Between 1) Basic and 2) Defined

E Standardised, work with Van Weele

Standardised Between 2) Defined and 3) Foundation

F Chaos Partly digitalised 1) Basic

G Outdated Partly digitalised 2) Defined

Table 16 Overview structure of the process related to purchasing maturity level

Based on the results could be said that the purchasing process of the companies A, D, F & G, feels for the purchasers as chaotic or outdated. That is also reflected to the maturity curve. They score on 1) basic or at maximum 2) defined. Conversely, companies B and E reflect their purchasing department as standardised and mentioned the model of Van Weele175_.

Company F mentioned in the results also the model, but that model was not implemented yet. When the purchasing department is standardised according the structure of Van Weele, they are higher on the maturity curve in relation the other departments. Noteworthy, it is not related to the differences between public and private company structures, since company B is a private company and company E a public company. Further, the overview shows that the digitalisation is under development within the purchasing department. Each respondent gave examples about their status of digitalisation. The first step is mentioned as saving all the documents on a digital server. The online part is not yet the most important part, the companies are even struggling with the digitalisation of their information. Next to that, in each interview, the respondents have a negative feeling by the huge number of different steps in the process the purchase order has to go through, for there is an approval. They mentioned for example that with less bureaucracy, more structure, more LEAN processes, and the removal of all additional steps, the procedure will lead to a faster and a more efficient

174 _{See Irfan Sabir & Irfan (2014), 52-55.}

64 process. Even company E agreed that there are too many steps, what leads currently to a process of more than one year.

Another part of the second dimension, are the systems that are part of the purchasing process. In the interviews, each respondent could name their systems which are involved, both the company specified systems and as well as the standardized systems. Overall, there were no respondents that reacted that their systems are perfectly working and integrated together. That should probably be related to the low maturity scores. Companies D and G have an ERP system, but they see also points for improvement. Where company D mentioned that they do not know all the possibilities the systems offer, and see many white spots. Company G adheres to that. The use of a solid integrated ERP system is one thing that the other respondents should add for a better use of systems. Besides all the different systems, the way in which all the information and documents are saved, is also diverse. Where company A works totally in the Cloud, companies B, E, F, and G have different systems for the whole purchasing process. Sometimes was mentioned that companies have still a part of paperwork integrated in the purchasing process. Paper in the process could by risky, since they have experienced that papers are lost, damaged or wronged.

Further, the use of Big Data integrations in the process is different for each respondent. To determine where and how the Big Data applications are integrated in the purchasing process, the interview included also a question to determine their own position on a Big Data Maturity model for a comparative view. As model is chosen for the Big Data Maturity Model of Radcliffe, as mentioned before as model 9 in table 6176_{. This model is chosen due to the clear}

visualisation of the curve in a picture. This model has six different levels; 0) in the dark, 1) Catching up, 2) First pilot(s), 3) Tactical value, 4) Strategic leverage and 5) Optimize & Extend. In table 17 below is an overview of the maturity levels, given by each respondent.

Company Big Data Maturity level A 3) Tactical value

B 3) Tactical value

C Between 3) Tactical value and 4) Strategic leverage D Mostly 0) in the dark

E Between 0) in the dark and 1) Catching up F Between 0) in the dark and 1) Catching up G 1) Catching up

Table 17 Overview Big Data maturity levels

65 As seen in the table, there are little differences in the given maturity levels. Company A has a lot of data and uses it in the process. Their use of data could be called Big Data and is related to the third level maturity. Company B and G monitor their processes, but use mainly the historical purchases for further processing. It is all with human decision making, because they make still the decisions. Surprisingly, without the integration of Big Data, company B scores a third level. Company C uses data in predictive decision making, where they make prognoses about the population growth for example. It is not clear for the respondent how big the volume is of the used data, and if they are using normal data or Big Data. The variety and velocity are in line with the characteristics of Big Data. Company C is a public municipality where their purchases are mostly related to the inhabitants, and it should be helpful to know the prognoses. Therefore, it is to clarify why they scored between the third and fourth level. In contradiction, the other two public companies, company E and F mentioned the restrictions as result of the public procurement tender, as mentioned before. Since every supplier is on the same level, historical data makes no sense. The only part where they see options for adding data should be in the specification phase, as mentioned by Van Weele. There is it possible to optimize the procurement order, based on Big Data. Finally, company D mentioned that the use of Big Data is far away, they just grown up from the Stone Age and have still difficulties with even small data. It is not surprisingly that they positioned themselves as level 0) in the dark. Overall could be said that the lower maturity levels are related to the systems which are involved within the purchasing department, and also the use of data in the processes.