Category Archives: Procurement good practice
Better procurement – a simple tip
Here is a cast iron tip to improve procurement process and performance. I guarantee (or your money back) this will work. And please note – it may seem obvious but my feeling is this doesn’t happen as often as it should. Before you send out an tender, RFx, PQQ or similar document, electronic or otherwise, to potential suppliers, get someone who isn’t in procurement, or involved with the specific procurement, to have a look at it. They need to be a sensible and reasonably smart business person, but they don’t need to be in procurement or sales for that matter. [...]
[More...]
Comments (0)
Supplier networks – a lively webinar promised tomorrow!
We probably don’t write as much as we should about the giants of the procurement software world, such as SAP / Ariba or Oracle. That’s partly because we tend to get more excited about exciting, new, innovative firms (not that those mentioned can’t be just as innovative). There’s also an element of those giants not being quite so concerned about getting a mention here perhaps compared to a start-up that can’t afford to sponsor Formula One or a golf tournament to get some exposure! But this week we’re covering SAP / Ariba following their recent customer events. And we’re going [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
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 [...]
[More...] Comments (1)
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 [...]
Comments (4)
Indirect Category Sourcing Savings: Fact or Fiction?
We told you the other day about our new research paper available for download here (free on registration). It is titled: Indirect Category Sourcing Savings : Fact or Fiction? Delivering Credible Benefits from Sourcing and Category Management Programmes I’ve co-authored it with Ed Cross, Managing Director of Xchanging Procurement Services, and in our two previous posts on the Paper, available here and here, we looked at the issue of savings credibility, then how procurement and sourcing programmes benefit from a strong focus on what we call programme and delivery management. The final section of the Paper looks at how Xchanging [...]
[More...] Comments (7)
Supplier Management – David Atkinson asks what you might be giving away to suppliers
We looked last week at the general thrust of the excellent article from David Atkinson’s Four Pillars website . Today, let’s look in more detail at his core argument. As we said last time, he started with the example of staff from the large accounting firms working for Government on tax issues. Does this give them an advantage when they return to their firms – and do they have in effect a conflict of interest when they are working for the Government? But he then extends the argument into the private sector environment. If we’re engaged in a suppler relationship [...]
Comments (0)
David Atkinson on supplier management and tax avoidance
We’ve featured David Atkinson here before, our friend and ex Rolls-Royce procurement executive and now procurement adviser, thinker, and educator. He has that unusual combination of real CPO type experience along with a very enquiring mind and the desire to really think about procurement, and that blend informs his writing very successfully. * He’s just published a really excellent new article on his Four Pillars website – you can read it here. In it, he manages to go from the current debate in the UK around large firms using tax avoidance / evasion methods, to asymmetry in buyer / supplier [...]
Comments (1)
Value Procurement – is this the next big thing? Bill Young and the issues with Category Management
In our coverage of the recent ProcureCon Indirect event, we commented on the “confusion”, or at very least lack of consistency of approach, shown by different presentations given at the conference. Some fundamental questions suggested themselves. Is category management being superseded by more business-focused procurement strategies? Is the role of procurement purely to support the business or is there more to it that that? Coincidentally, just as these debates were going on, Bill Young wrote an excellent piece for the Procurement Leaders website. It’s very thought provoking and picks up on some of those points exactly. (Young was a senior [...]
Comments (0)
Procurement recruitment – detailed experience or fundamental skills?
We have probably all seen advertisements for procurement roles that say something like this. “Must have at least 5 years experience of working in the Pharma industry (Primary care trusts / aluminium widget industry / whatever) . Must know 7 step category management, six sigma and lean processes. Must be a graduate with MCIPS membership essential”. Now often the salary for this amazing person is then around £25,000, which does raise some questions, but it is not the money that we’re talking about today. And if you talk to recruitment firms, you will find that it is usually the employing [...]
[More...] Comments (2)
BravoSolution Real World Sourcing – slides available from contract management session
I’m afraid Guy Allen and I have a sad announcements make – after recent events (see the Telegraph report here – please do click, it is worthwhile!) we may not be able to bring the BravoSolution Real World Sourcing events to Saudi Arabia in 2014. The result might be all too predictable.. However, you can now download the slides from last week’s session – “Generating real value from your contracts” which was, perhaps not surprisingly, all about certain aspects of contract management. We looked at why procurement should take the lead on contract management, and how to start building a [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
More on our new research paper – Indirect Category Sourcing Savings : Fact or Fiction?
We told you the other day about our new research paper available for download (free on registration) here. It is titled: Indirect Category Sourcing Savings : Fact or Fiction? Delivering Credible Benefits from Sourcing and Category Management Programmes I’ve co-authored it with Ed Cross, Managing Director of Xchanging Procurement Services, and in it, we look at how procurement and sourcing programmes benefit from a strong focus on what we call programme and delivery management. That in itself has a number of components, and we’ve identified three key areas. One also addresses the issue we discussed last time, that of the [...]
[More...] Comments (1)
BravoSolution Real World Sourcing – Generating real value from your contracts
We didn’t pick the best day for our latest BravoSolution Real World Sourcing events. Yesterday, the day of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, found 40 of us fighting (well, strolling perhaps) our way through the barricades and police presence in London (see photo, after the main event). We were headed to the second of this year’s series, with me talking about “Generating real value from your contracts”. So particular thanks to everyone who came along and made it as usual a stimulating session with plenty of audience involvement. It is of course a huge topic – it’s a bit like saying “today’s [...]
Comments (0)
Reverse auctions – Don’t tell the suppliers!
(We’re pleased to feature a guest post from Jonathan Rollason, an ex CPO, CIPS Past President and now director of Purchasing Auctions). I have always been fascinated by the psychology of purchasing – when do you know you’ve really got the best deal for your company? A few years ago I became CPO of a major financial services company and was keen to make my mark quickly and show that purchasing could make a major contribution to profits. I called in suppliers where we spent over £250,000 a year and explained I was looking to improve service levels and reduce [...]
[More...] Comments (1)
Seal Software seminar – risk management through the contract lifecycle
We featured Seal Software a few months back, and indeed wrote a research paper for them at that stage titled “Getting to grips with Contract Management”. Their “contract discovery” software is truly remarkable, in that it enables you to find and capture key points from contracts stored anywhere in your organisation’s computer files and folders – contracts you may not even know existed. It greatly reduces the time taken to get to grips with the contract population, automating to a large extent work that was historically highly labour intensive. So on May 7th, from 3 pm till 5 pm, I [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
CIPS Surrey Branch, April 25th, Horses for Courses – see you there
Good grief, is it that time already! I have only just realised that we’re less than two weeks away from my session at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Surrey Branch meeting. Surrey is my “home” CIPS branch, and I understand that the branch network has been going through something of a renaissance, so I hope we will get a decent attendance. The event is titled “Horses for Courses” (spot the topical supply chain reference…) and is being held next Thursday, 25th April, 6.30 – 8pm, at in the YMCA in Guildford, which is handily located just across [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Marketing Services procurement – Marketing directors want close contact with procurement
(We’re delighted to have a guest post from Catherine Lawrence, Senior Category Manager, Professional Services and Marketing; and Graham Copeland, Sales and Marketing Director, both from leading outsourced service provider, Xchanging Procurement Services.) Xchanging recently surveyed major firms across a number of sectors, including consumer goods and IT sectors. We asked over 50 senior marketing executives how they felt about procurement and what they wanted from their procurement colleagues and functions. We wanted to find out what procurement departments are doing to add value today and what they could be doing to add value in the future. The results [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : Ian Taylor said: So is it time now to reinvent the OGC? Things do go around. That's the Office of Governmen... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : life said: It's obviously not just Francis Maude either - there's not been a lot of demanding / infor... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : PlanBee said: Why does the public sector need to make things up? Its redefining the role I have done for... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : Peter Jones said: Maude could start with a dictionary or this extract from Bristol Council - either way he h... more
Spend Matters Compass research is based on a year-long editorial calendar, exploring bigger picture areas and issues
Next Level Sourcing and Commodity Management
New Paper P2P and Working Capital
Services Procurement Innovation
ERP Procurement and Spend Management Applications
Spend Matters Perspectives research is focused on targeted topics that impact specific areas in procurement
