Category Strategy – Cloud and Infrastructure Services

This ready-to-use category strategy template offers editable frameworks for internal assessment and detailed industry and market category overviews to assist category managers, procurement professionals, and CPOs in creating an informed category strategy for Cloud and Infrastructure Services (CIS). CIS comprises the cloud (public/private/hybrid/multi-cloud), data center, security, digital workplace, and network services. These services are commonly outsourced, including public cloud, colocation, network security, threat operations, endpoint management, service desks, end-user device support, SD-WAN, and network automation services. Category managers can customize this template with internal category information, such as spend, suppliers, and subcategory overview. They can also use the industry and market insights provided in this template to build a strong supply base understanding. A category strategy’s goal is to create an action plan for effective category management, and this template provides the requisite tools, frameworks, and information to create a robust strategy. Best-in-class procurement organizations effectively leverage such tools and techniques to drive continuous improvements in their categories.