Spend Matters UK/Europe » Peter Smith

Down the Procurement Pub – with Basware, Coupa, Procurement Leaders and Icona Pop

Peter Smith — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:31:29 +0000

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 [...]

Francis Maude at PASC – select committee digs into UK government procurement

Peter Smith — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:35:15 +0000

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. [...]

The Rolling Stones, variable pricing and booking a hotel for the CEO!

Peter Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:31:10 +0000

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 [...]

Spend Matters and Zycus Webinar – Putting the Supplier at the Heart of Procurement

Peter Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:31:16 +0000

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 [...]

From Hubris to High Court (almost) – The Story of Southwest One (Part 1)

Peter Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:41:03 +0000

(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, [...]

Crown Commercial Representatives – 99 Problems (well, 9 issues anyway)

Peter Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:31:03 +0000

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 [...]

Dark Procurement – ethics and moral dilemmas

Peter Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:31:47 +0000

(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 [...]

Second-wave outsourcing – the BBC learns from past experience

Peter Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:33:26 +0000

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 [...]

The NHS Procurement Strategy – a nation (still) waits

Peter Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:28:45 +0000

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 [...]

Indirect Sourcing – readers comment on our briefing paper

Peter Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:31:05 +0000

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 [...]