Author Archives: Peter Smith
Down the Procurement Pub – with Basware, Coupa, Procurement Leaders and Icona Pop
Actually, I spent some of last night down the procurement pub – a pleasant 90 minutes with an old friend and fellow ex CPO who wanted to pick my brains on procurement software in return for 2 pints of the very pleasant Hogsback Brewery T.E.A. (The brewery, just a few miles down the road from here, is pictured). I could only offer a fraction of what he would have got out of Jason Busch, Pierre Mitchell or Thomas Case from Spend Matters US but maybe I’ll share my very impressionistic and high level view of the “meta trends” in that [...]
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Francis Maude at PASC – select committee digs into UK government procurement
The UK parliament’s Public Administration Select Committee held the final hearing of their investigation into public sector procurement this week, and appropriately their witness was Francis Maude, the Minister with responsibility for the subject. As we’ve said many times, he is more interested in and knowledgeable about procurement than any other Minister we’ve had, and his hour or so on the topic was low key in style but quite illuminating. He got some good questioning from Bernard Jenkin, the Chair, but some of the other Committee members were poor in terms of their lack of any real insight or challenge. [...]
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The Rolling Stones, variable pricing and booking a hotel for the CEO!
We wrote in part 1 about the difficulty the Rolling Stones have had in selling tickets for their gigs in the US, and linked that to a debate about variable pricing strategies and how technology was helping some industries to differentiate better between customers prepared to pay different prices. What implications does this have for procurement people? Well, it highlights an issue around marginal costing and how procurement should be looking to take advantage of those opportunities. It highlights that economies of scale don’t go on indefinitely, and it is often better to be a relatively small buyer than a [...]
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Spend Matters and Zycus Webinar – Putting the Supplier at the Heart of Procurement
We’re pleased to announce a forthcoming Spend Matters webinar, presented in conjunction with the nice people at Zycus. It’s titled “Putting the Supplier at the Heart of Procurement” and it is being held at on June 5th at 5pm UK time (that’s 6pm in continental western Europe, and 12 noon on the East Coast of the US). There’s a Spend Matters Perspectives briefing paper coming out too n the same topic shortly as well. Why Supplier Management? Well, there’s a lot of talk around at the moment about it as a topic, linked to the need for better information and [...]
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From Hubris to High Court (almost) – The Story of Southwest One (Part 1)
(We are delighted to have finally persuaded Dave Orr to write for us, and as a Somerset citizen, he will be laying out the fascinating story of Southwest One over the next few weeks – a story that everyone involved in outsourcing should note with interest… and we’ll tell you a bit more about Dave himself next time). Apart from glorious countryside, hills and moors, rural Somerset is probably best known for a rustic blend of cider, cheese, cricket, the Wurzels and the Glastonbury Festival. Oh….we also split atoms and some whopping new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point are coming, [...]
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Crown Commercial Representatives – 99 Problems (well, 9 issues anyway)
So , what do we think about the UK government’s appointment of new Crown Commercial Representatives? Here are a few questions. Not 99 problems maybe, as Jay-Z would put it, but certainly 9 issues. 1. Is there still significant cost to be taken out of government contracts, or has the first wave of CCR activity generated most of the benefit already? 2. Are the major suppliers going to feel even more victimised by getting set upon by these “heavies”, and less likely to offer any innovation to the government – will they just put “UK Government” firmly in the “cash [...]
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Dark Procurement – ethics and moral dilemmas
(We’re pleased to have another guest post from Dr Gordon Murray, procurement writer, academic and practitioner – see his own excellent blog here). The tragedy of the Dhaka factory collapse, which led to the death of over 1,000 innocent factory workers, has placed some procurement strategies under a cloud. There is a dark side of procurement with moral dilemmas which recognises there is more to ethics in procurement than the CIPS code. Those directly responsible for the supply chain management of clothes with a ‘Made in Dhaka’ label are faced with a question as to whether or not this is [...]
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Second-wave outsourcing – the BBC learns from past experience
At the recent ProcureCon Indirect conference, Jim Hemmington, Procurement Director at the BBC, spoke about the organisation’s experience through what is now a considerable history of outsourcing. Hemmington personally and the BBC corporately now go back 10 years or more in terms of outsourcing some pretty strategic and important activities, ranging from much of the transactional finance and HR, to specialist area such as licence fee collection and transmission services. So what’s interesting is how that considerable experience is now informing their latest strategies for what are second or even third time round outsourcing contracts and competitions. Hemmington passed on [...]
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The NHS Procurement Strategy – a nation (still) waits
So what’s happened to the UK’s National Health Service Procurement strategy? The story so far… (you might want to get a cup of coffee and settle down, this might be a long one). April 2012 At a conference in Manchester, the new NHS procurement strategy is going to be announced. Instead, the excellent Beth Loudon from Department of Health has to explain that top NHS management wanted more discussion with the market, and more “meat” in the strategy so there would be a delay whilst… May 2012 NHS appoints Sir Ian Carruthers to conduct a “call for evidence” to help [...]
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Indirect Sourcing – readers comment on our briefing paper
Our last piece here around the recent Spend Matters / Xchanging briefing paper (“Indirect Category Sourcing Savings: Fact or Fiction?” – download it here) drew some really interesting comments, from some rather eminent procurement professionals. Many thanks to them. I’m going to feature those comments here today, and I’ll come back in part 2 and respond to some of the excellent points raised. You may remember that the research paper suggests that procurement should focus on managing the delivery from sourcing programmes, with a more structured approach and (critically) clearer measurement of benefits, including savings. So here are some of [...]
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Crown Commercial Representatives – male, pale and … very successful businessmen
If you’re thinking that we haven’t exactly been hot off the press with reporting on the appointment of six more UK government “Crown Commercial Representatives”, you’d be right. that’s because I’ve been working out just what exactly I think about it… They’re joining Cabinet Office to help central government manage their largest suppliers, and negotiate further savings, particularly in IT related areas. We understand they are in the main taking over work from current government CPOs, who have been doing this CCR role in addition to their departmental day jobs for the last couple of years. The roles were widely [...]
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Welcome to ProProcure, our new Spend Matters sponsor
Super observant readers will have spotted another new logo in our Associate Sponsor section over to the right of the page. Yes, we’re delighted to welcome ProProcure to the Spend Matters site. We featured the firm quite recently, here, where we described their interesting and niche market positioning. They provide cloud-based software that supports the collaborative procurement of marketing and brand related items, mainly for large multi-national corporates. Their growth demonstrates that meeting specific customer needs is still the number one factor in business success – and their product does just that, for a very particular community and requirement. We’re [...]
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Alex Ferguson – lessons in talent management and succession planning
(This post, written by Gert van der Heijden, was first published in Dutch on our Spend Matters Netherlands site. ) Last week Alex Ferguson, the coach and manager of Manchester United announced his departure after a period of more than 27 years. An icon bids farewell to football. But last year, Professor Anita Elberse from Harvard Business School published a case about the leadership of Sir Alex. This provided lessons to managers in other organizations, not just football. The strength of Ferguson includes his success in developing young talent. From his early days at Manchester United, he started to develop [...]
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ConsultancyONE finally complete – list of successful suppliers on framework published
Hooray! As thousands of management consultants dance in the streets (see picture), the full list of successful suppliers who have gained places on the UK government’s ConsultancyONE framework has now been released. I was expecting some sort of formal announcement, but it just seems to have been slipped out quietly to the providers and with this list on the Gov.uk website. Perhaps the government doesn’t want to draw attention to what has been a somewhat troubled procurement, ultimately requiring 18 months from start to finish. There are 15 separate Lots, ranging through functional consulting, audit, finance and multi-disciplinary work, and [...]
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The new Vampire Weekend album is a classic
Ahead of our normal end of month album review, I just wanted to let you know that: 1. The new Vampire Weekend album, Modern Vampires of the City is streaming on iTunes (free). Don’t know how long that will be available so go and listen now because.. 2. I will be amazed and very, very pleased if there is a better indie / rock / clever pop / uncategorizably genius album released this year. You may have heard the brilliant and catchy single Diane Young already, but there are at least five other tracks up to that high standard here. [...]
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Down the procurement pub – CIPS, the cost of risk management and the big UK / EU debate
So got my latest copy of Supply Management yesterday. I haven’t read all the articles yet, but there is content in this edition that all CIPS members should read. (Some of it is on-line as well of course. ) That includes a description of the new Congress, the body chaired by Melinda Johnson that represents members’ interests to the Institute. I was pleased to see that all the elected Congress delegates have got their email addresses on the CIPS website so members can contact them, although it has been left fairly loose in terms of how exactly that contact might [...]
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- The NHS Procurement Strategy – a nation (still) waits : Simon Walsh said: The Health Care Supply Association ( HCSA) met with Dr Dan Poulter MP - Parliamentary Unde... more
- From Hubris to High Court (almost) – The Story of Southwest One (Part 1) : Dave Orr said: Duh! Sorry. The correct link is http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2013... more
- The new Vampire Weekend album is a classic : Ian G said: I really like Vampire Weekend. Their first album was fantastic, their second was solid and... more
- Down the Procurement Pub – with Basware, Coupa, Procurement Leaders and Icona Pop : Peter Smith said: Daft Punk, Hot Chip, all the same.. you're quite right, changed the article, thanks! I wro... more
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