The buying process of B2B software solutions: A study of buying organizations’ perspectives

Abstract

Digital transformation continues to reshape business operations, making the role of successful technology adoption more significant than ever. This combined with the continued trend to outsource IT solution needs emphasizes the importance of the IT procurement process. Despite this, the topic continues to be underrepresented in academia.

The goal of this thesis was to study the procurement process of B2B software systems including the different phases of the process, best practices, and challenges. The thesis also studies how the existing sales framework of value-based selling aligns with procurement processes in practice. This was done by examining central topics of IT procurement in existing literature combined with an empirical study using qualitative methods. The empirical study consisted of semi-structured interviews which were analyzed using a thematic analysis.

The results indicate that the value-based selling framework is roughly in line with the IT procurement process in practice. Some key questions such as whether to use performance-based contracts remain conflicted. The results also highlight the importance of a formalized and well documented procurement process model. Defining the business needs prior to deciding on technology or requirements also seems to be a common challenge and important focus area for buying organizations. Lastly, the findings also indicate a preference for strategic partnerships with external IT partners, as these enable closer collaboration and more proactivity from the partners, and they also enable the use of a lighter procurement process when procuring new solutions from the existing partners.