The role of the purchase as a pure supplier of goods belongs to the past. Nowadays the purchase is more an active creator of the value chain and therefore, essentially involved to contribute to a positive company success. Because of the increased need to the global procurement, the leverage effect of the purchase is gaining importance. In spite of the theoretical high relevance, purchase is practically not always accorded the importance it deserves. In order to investigate how well the purchase department is organized and to clarify possible weak points , a survey was performed. The theoretical part represents the basics of the research topic and the current position. The goal was to provide an overview on relevant areas e.g. term definition, organizational concepts or purchasing strategies. The central base of the second part is a electronic survey, whose results have been complemented by expert talks with procurement managers. The primary target was to illustrate the current state of purchase and to come up with a model of maturity for the purchase.