The purchasing function has begun to assume a higher profile during the last global recession, when the top management began to worry about how much value and savings were hidden in the materials and supplies that companies need to buy to carry on its business.
In fact, for a business-type, purchases may affect 50% to 75% of the annual turnover, so it is obvious that even modest reductions in a cost base that can have a very significant impact.
So if a company has costs for the purchase of 60% of its sales with a profit of 3%, a 3% reduction in spending for purchases has an 'effect on the total value of an' increase of 60% of turnover.
Today, despite the fact that few executives who still see the purchasing function as it was twenty or thirty years ago (a pure cost center from mainly administrative responsibilities), the majority of companies still continues to underestimate and not optimize it to the best of his ability
Many times we think that the exclusive pursuit of new markets and new business opportunities is the only solution to increase profitability while you might get the same result just with a more careful and professional management of the purchasing function.
There is no single strategy for the management of purchases, but from time to time be studied solutions specific to the type of company and product that you must supply.

The potential purchase is divided into:

1. Prices / suppliers
2. Product / innovation
3. Organization and methods of purchase.

Prices / suppliers:

• Materials with low value or standard: the price negotiation is the master methodologies of e-procurement or the line auctions could be among the most effective tools today to get the best results.
• Materials bottleneck (bottleneck) is important to security of supply with suppliers to create better long-term relationships with detailed planning and precise on the timing and quantity to be supplied
• Materials related to corporate profit: purchases of equipment, components or complete; the procurement strategy must seek to obtain the best possible result with a customer / supplier relationship marked by systematic competition.
• Strategic Materials: it is more desirable setting in the customer / supplier relationship closer to that partnerschip to boost competition.

Product / innovation:

The purchasing department has evolved to take part in the development of the product already in the design phase and in this case it is important that those who hold the purchasing function has adequate technical preparation.
In this way we will be sure that the new product (or renewed) will also be immediately competitive on the market.
The training technique allows acquisition system to discuss at the same level with the technical departments and be an active part in the development of the project and the choice of materials and components.

Organization and Methods

The surprise should be an important element in the management of a deal to purchase then it is desirable that the management methods of purchase may change over time.
The methodologies of purchase that from time to time may be adopted (but not limited to) are:

• E-procurament: that the line auctions; requires the availability of an information portal and is more useful for the products more easily standardized.
• Tender: requires technical skills and ability to prepare an adequate technical specifications.
• Scouting: looking for suppliers with a focus on emerging markets and the innovative technological products that the market offers many times. 

The more the global market gets, the higher the value added that the purchasing function guarantees to the income statement of the company thanks to a clever search for suppliers in emerging countries "low cost countries".
Attention then the research spending reduction must also be accompanied by an equally effective action selection, qualification and control of partners / suppliers identified: that from a perspective of simple "global sourcing" to switch to an application of "global partnerchip "It 'important fact that they also correspond to the cost of product quality and punctual service; every purchase to be considered positively completed must:

• Correspond to the technical requirements defined by the technical departments of the contracting
• Arrive on time without delays
• Arrive in quality or respond in a manner faithful to the technical specifications drawn up and in accordance with the best design characteristics and in accordance with the rules of the specific sector.

As can be seen that the purchase has become a complex activity that requires high skills and varied.
Unfortunately the system is disappearing characteristic of our industrial districts where most of the vendors were residing within a radius of no more than 20-30 km from its seat; globalization is carrying us towards new challenges that cause us to get out of the local logic but with new incentives and more and more interesting.

a) Manager-time: subject to proven and highly qualified which also operates at the level of general management taking responsibility for the results contractually defined. The time manager carries out actions aimed at strengthening the company, including through mentoring and coaching of SMEs, transfer of good practices and technical and administrative management, the corporate reorganization; may also contribute to the successful reduction of momentary criticality. This subject is part of the undertaking for a period of time.
b) Consultant for internationalization: the figure shown with specialized qualification in the field of internationalization of enterprises. This professional performs: support the company in specific actions of internationalization as the selection and identification of markets; select particular partners for marketing; the supply and productive collaboration; the search for and identification of production sites, the market penetration programs by sector and / or country for business combinations, incoming trade missions abroad and foreign operators, the use of financial instruments Italian, EU and international support internationalization. This person is not an employee already included in the business organization on an ongoing basis.
c) Consultant for corporate strategy: Figure out activities such as this assist the company in the process of growth through a careful analysis of the various business areas and through the opening of new markets, the competitive repositioning, differentiation, the development of its key strength, the reengineering of business processes, the development of new policies for the management of human resources, marketing, and financial, with the aim of guiding the choices that may lead to a revision of the business idea, the diversification of business activities, strategic alliances and partnerships of purpose, organizational restructuring and management, the pursuit of efficiency and processes of industrial restructuring. This person is not an employee already included in the business organization on an ongoing basis

This translates into a different role depending on the dimensional characteristics of the structure considered: - in the case of a complex organization, the energy manager will be a leader at the helm of a group of people mainly extraction technique; - in the presence of medium-sized business will be a figure with expertise in energy management framework as possible; for companies and organizations of small size it will be an external consultant with expertise;
In the third case the management part will be limited, although this; energy accounting and the preparation of feasibility studies are generally professional tasks, but hardly a consultant can interfere with internal company procedures. The first case is the one in which it is theoretically necessary that the energy manager is a technical, as it must be essentially a high-level managers, supported by skilled specialists, able to effectively influence on energy policies business. Due to the nature by insiders of energy aspects, however, a technical profile may be preferable in this circumstance. The energy manager, therefore, consumption verification, through ad hoc audit or, if available (and it is a key aspect for effective management of energy) through the reports produced by remote control systems, remote control and automation. He worries then optimizing consumption by proper adjustment of the systems and their proper use from the point of view of energy, to promote behavior by employees and / or the occupants of the structure energy-aware and propose investments to upgrade, possibly able to improve production processes or the performance of related services.
Another function that often covers the energy manager is to purchase electricity and other energy carriers. Clearly in this case is to reduce the costs of purchase, possibly by promoting the proper management of electrical loads in order to avoid power peaks that entail higher costs. Among the less common options, but useful, there is the opportunity to work with the purchasing department to promote procedures that promote the so-called green procurement (green procurement) and the purchase of machinery characterized by low energy consumption and therefore low operating costs (life cyclecostanalysis - LCCA).
Among the major difficulties faced by the energy manager in the performance of its functions include: often the need to deal with non-technical people - both in terms of business decision makers, and that of their colleagues responsible for other tasks - which requires the ability to expose in terms simple technical concepts; the need of having to communicate with other business functions, and to understand the point of view of different profiles, in that the energy itself is a horizontal theme, which involves those who buy electricity and other fuels, but also machinery and devices, those who is responsible for the maintenance of the systems, those who design buildings and facilities, who writes the specifications of the tender, legal offices, and so on.
To solve so winning the first point is mainly requires personal qualities, the second is the involvement and commitment of top management, who must create the conditions for the energy manager can operate at its best and has the necessary cooperation. One way to answer this is to adopt a system of proper business management. Without the money, the energy manager is an ideal figure that it must have a solid foundation of efficiency, investment appraisal and legislation and markets, possibly combined with communication skills; a non-trivial mix and achievable only over time, through experience and continuous training. Needless to observe at this point as this professional as well as to perform a precise provisions of law ('art. 19 of Law 10/91) required for certain organizations becomes a strategic role in the competitiveness of any company even not falling within the regime of obligation required by law.

that for decades have become accustomed to working successfully in international contexts but I am referring to small and medium-sized enterprises which in the past have formed the backbone of our economy but are now struggling to maintain the leading role of the economic development because they are unprepared in making this transition to the globalized economy.
This means that not only must be prepared to move their business horizons to new markets always but we must also know how to seize the opportunities that the global market can provide in the field of procurement and optimization of production costs.
There needs to be a cultural leap that allows us to understand the history and culture of peoples sometimes very far from ours because it is from this point that you can also trigger a profitable development of the business aspects, I believe it is necessary to recover those skills introspective who have made such great Venice in centuries past.
You have to know customs and practices and how to approach the problems, there are rules to the practices in dealing with such a deal that vary widely from country to country.
All these aspects require a study and a special sensitivity that do not always find today within our companies; it is probably for this reason that most of the financing provided by various government or institutional bodies to promote and develop the process of internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises remain largely unused.
In this regard, we recall cheSimest for example, the financial public - private owned by "CDP" and Confindustria Padova who have recently signed an agreement to promote the internationalization of enterprises in the Veneto supporting them in initiating strategies for entry into the markets: well according to the latest figures amounted to only 20% the percentage of Veneto enterprises that currently exports steadily, while the markets that offer the greatest opportunities are still little-known example.: Angola, Thailand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia. In addition to a cultural problem knowing how to move in a profitable way on the international markets also requires organizational skills and the initial investment is not always profitable immediately; In this regard it would be desirable in the future that were formed more and more business combinations of vertical or between subjects who do not make the same product, but between those who can integrate the production. There has to be a company that is the driving force for other aggregated to provide a foreign customer a complete package and winning with a significant reduction in the risk of the enterprise, however, present in this type of initiative.
In this delicate process of development now obliged if you want to see the future with confidence, businesses must be supported by appropriate staff prepared and chosen within their organization or outside.