In the org charts of French SMEs and mid-sized companies, the sales function and the finance function generally occupy the top. The purchasing function is often relegated to an administrative role, folded into logistics or general services, with no strategic autonomy. This implicit hierarchy, inherited from a time when purchasing was an essentially transactional activity, is a handicap today. For industrial or trading companies, purchases can represent fifty to seventy percent of revenue. One margin point gained on purchasing is equivalent to several points on sales. And yet the function remains underinvested.
The hidden cost of scattered purchasing
- In most of the SMEs we support, purchasing is in practice scattered among several players
- The managing director negotiates strategic contracts
- The production director orders raw materials
- The IT director handles technology purchases
- The human resources director handles purchases of services
- The administrative director handles general services
- Each of these purchases follows its own logic, with its own vendors, its own terms, its own processes
This dispersion has measurable consequences. Volumes are not consolidated:
- the same product category can be bought from different vendors by different departments, without benefiting from the economies of scale that consolidation would bring.
- Negotiated terms are disparate: one department obtains significant discounts, another pays the list price, without anyone making the connection.
- Contractual obligations are poorly monitored: volume commitments not met, renewal options forgotten, review clauses not activated.
The hidden cost of this dispersion is generally estimated at between five and fifteen percent of total purchase volume. For an SME that buys ten million euros a year, that is between five hundred thousand and one and a half million euros quietly evaporating.
Consolidation as a strategic act
Consolidating purchasing in a single information system is one of the transformations with the highest return on investment for SMEs and mid-sized companies. Not because it brings an administrative gain, which is marginal, but because it reveals savings levers that were invisible.
The first revelation is that of volumes consolidated by vendor. When all orders go through the same system, you see for each vendor the total annual volume, its progression over time, its share of the overall basket. This consolidation transforms the negotiating position. A vendor who thought it supplied fifty thousand euros a year discovers itself to be a strategic vendor at three hundred thousand euros consolidated across all departments. This revelation justifies renegotiating terms in line with the real volume.
The second revelation is that of overlaps between categories. One department's IT purchases may intersect with another's. Office supplies, technical consumables, transport services can often be consolidated into framework contracts rather than scattered across one-off orders. These consolidations release substantial savings without degrading the service provided.
Sovereignty of sourcing
Beyond economic optimization, consolidating purchasing raises the strategic question of sourcing. What share of my purchases comes from French vendors? What share from European vendors? What share depends on players outside the European Union? This question, which may have seemed secondary in the years of quiet globalization, has become crucial in the current context.
- The supply chain disruptions seen since 2020 brutally reminded us of the fragility of sourcing too concentrated in Asia
- Geopolitical tensions make the evolution of transport costs and customs duties unpredictable
- Societal pressure favors local purchasing for environmental reasons and to support the national economy
For French SMEs and mid-sized companies, building sovereignty into purchasing decisions is no longer an act of activism. It is a discipline of resilience. It does not mean excluding international vendors, but identifying critical dependencies and organizing backup solutions. It may mean accepting an immediate extra cost on certain purchases to gain supply security that has real value. In any case, it requires visibility on the actual origin of the products and services purchased, which comes through a unified information system.
Approvals as a governance tool
A key dimension of Odoo's Purchase module is the management of approval workflows. Depending on amounts, categories and vendors, an order may require the validation of a manager, a director, or even a committee. This validation, which seems an administrative burden, is in fact a major governance tool.
In a growing SME, the shift from uncontrolled purchasing to structured purchasing is an important moment. As long as the company is small, the owner directly validates every significant expense. Beyond a certain size, this direct validation becomes impractical, but the absence of a replacement mechanism creates drift. Purchases multiply without a framework, vendors diversify without rationalization, financial commitments accumulate without control.
Odoo's approval workflows let you define the rules explicitly: who validates what, from what amount, within what deadlines. This explicitness turns a diffuse discipline into a structured practice. And it frees the owner from a mental load that could become paralyzing.
Developing strategic vendor relationships
For strategic purchases, the vendor relationship goes well beyond the transactional dimension. It is long-term, involves mutual trust, and can justify deeper cooperation. Following these strategic relationships is a job in itself.
In Odoo, each vendor has an enriched record that consolidates all interactions: orders placed, volumes per period, negotiated terms, delivery performance, observed quality, returns and disputes. This structured memory transforms the quality of the relationship. Annual negotiations are prepared with objective data. Possible breakups are handled with lucidity. Partnerships are cultivated with discernment.
A transformation to put at the top of the agenda
Professionalizing the purchasing function is one of the most far-reaching transformations an SME or mid-sized company can undertake. It requires sponsorship at the highest level, a clear definition of responsibilities, team training, and an information system that matches the ambitions. For French executives who want to strengthen the resilience and profitability of their company, it is a project to put at the top of the strategic agenda.
ANOR supports this structuring by combining economic analysis of the purchase basket, Odoo configuration, and change management.