Developing a New Procurement Function
28th June 2011
By David Morrison, Procurement & Supply Chain.
In the early stages of growing a business, procurement may be a job that’s shared between many people – with each department taking responsibility for their own procurement. This can lead to different parts of the business paying different prices for the same item.
However, as a business grows, it makes sense to have a dedicated procurement function that can take responsibility for purchasing core products and services such as recruitment, utilities, insurance and office supplies.
Creating a dedicated procurement role can deliver significant savings, value improvements and reduced risk. A procurement specialist ensures that your organisation can benefit from best-practice and should deliver significant return on investment, in terms of cost reduction, cash improvement, innovation, improved relationships and reduced organisational risk.
However, without specialist procurement skills and experience, these benefits will be seriously limited. The procurement sector is now highly professional with organisations such as the CIPS providing qualifications at all levels from graduate to masters-level.
More importantly, though, companies must also look for the ‘softer’ skills that can make the difference between a good and a great procurement professional. Effective relationship management, engagement and negotiation skills can easily be overlooked, but are crucial in successfully delivering a procurement strategy in a ‘real world’ setting, and ensuring that the strategy can be maintained without ongoing involvement from the procurement team.
Back to other Blog stories
Leave a Reply
Thames Valley: St Leonard's House, 126 - 130 St Leonard's Road, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 3DG T: 01753 754 333
London: 17 Dominion Street, London EC2M 2EF T: 020 3440 5270