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In an increasingly competitive environment, suppliers are now seen as an important source of innovation. Long-term partnerships enable companies to access the knowledge of suppliers to optimize their business. "Procurement 4.0" is one of the concepts that come to the fore when talking about digitalization of business processes. The major aim of this research is to discuss a conceptual model of "Procurement 4.0" and its potential to rethink the management of supplier relationships, which will be one of the main future tasks of procurement. The paper is based on a factual-analytical research approach that serves to continuously specify and supplement the elements of the frame of reference: Two challenging concepts, "Procurement 4.0" and Supplier Relationship Management, are merged to contribute to the fact that purchasing is indispensable as an "interface" within a global supply chain to reap the benefits of digitization. The factors that prove to be obstacles to digital supplier relationship management along the digital supplier journey-e.g. lack of guidelines, approaches or tools and a lack of understanding of the importance of long-term relationships-are reflected within the identified technologies of digital transformation. A comprehensive analysis of the given situation within digital supplier relationship management in Germany is provided. The most important digital supplier touchpoints are discussed in order to develop a traditional supplier relationship towards a digital relationship management. Thus, this paper succeeds in illustrating how the innovative concept of a supplier journey can be implemented in practice to counteract the future, entrepreneurial challenges.

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This research paper has to do with internal marketing, an innovative strategy employed to improve information flow between departments and increase employee satisfaction and, consequently, customer satisfaction. The research question examines different strategic approaches and measures used to develop a process through which departments can position themselves in a more attractive way within their companies. The methodology used is a detailed secondary data analysis with the use of all of the different managerial approaches that have been developed to date. Furthermore, a method that describes how unpopular departments can improve their position within the firm, is developed. To derive this catalogue of possible measures, expert interviews were conducted with procurement experts. The qualitative results show that there are only a few approaches available for internal marketing, although there are also a number of measures from marketing itself that can be applied to the specific requirements of internal marketing. An explicit example has been developed that shows how a procurement department can improve its standing.

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