Purchasing Policy and governance:​
An organization's purchasing strategy and policy should be derived from the organizational strategy, which in turn is based on internal and external analysis. A good purchasing policy is distinguished by: SMART objectives, focus and clear choices so that everyone in the organization knows what is expected of him/her.​

The design of the purchasing organization largely depends on the size and complexity of what is purchased and on the maturity of the purchasing function. Immature purchasing functions are characterized by an administrative structure and are often organized in a decentralized manner. More adult institutions focus on price and costs (commercial orientation) and are often organized more centrally. The most mature purchasing organizations are focused on value creation. There are company-wide standards and reporting lines and implementation takes place as close to the business as possible.​

Primary purchasing processes​
Every organization has processes for ordering products and services and having them delivered. More professional organizations order under contract as much as possible and manage contracts and suppliers selectively. The most mature purchasing organizations perform category management and look together with the business owners for several years and at a strategic level to what is needed.​

• Category management focuses on setting up and executing a long-term sourcing strategy (make yourself, outsource, hire, do together) and looks 3-5 years ahead. This is done per purchasing category, which makes it possible to respond better to the specific characteristics of the supplier market for that category. The aim of category management is to maximize the added value and minimizing risk, impact on people and the environment and costs.
  ​
• ​Source to contract focuses on drawing up a tender strategy, conducting market surveys (RFI), issuing tenders/tenders (RFP), selecting the best supplier and concretising the approach and plans in order to subsequently be able to identify the supplier. to contract.​Check it out IT value Contract management model
• ​Contract and supplier management focuses on the situational management and management of (the performance of) contracts and suppliers in order to ensure that you get maximum value for money during the entire life cycle of the contract cq the relationship with the supplier.​View the IT value sourcing model
• Request for payment focuses on the call-up of goods and services under existing contracts, the receipt, quality control/declaration of performance and then the handling of invoices.

Supporting processes​

• Personnel management focuses on drawing up and executing the strategic, tactical and operational personnel plan, including the plan – progress – assessment cycle based on a personal development plan and result agreements and the associated training plans.
  
• Knowledge and information management focuses on making the right knowledge and information available about internal customers, the market and our own processes.
• Performance management focuses on defining, cascade, monitoring and adjusting based on (critical) Performance Indicators. Procurement specific parts of this function are reports on supplier performance and purchasing expenditure.
• Digital support is about making tools available for conducting auctions, tenders, contract management and management, supplier management and the order to payment process. ​

See also us research to the e-procurement software market.