Back to Basics: CPOs Highlight the Importance of Stakeholders for Maximising Sourcing ROI

Practitioners gather at BravoSolution events to share lessons learned about colleague engagement

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The UK’s top procurement practitioners put technology on the back burner to focus on improving stakeholder buy-in and sourcing processes at the Real World Sourcing series, hosted by BravoSolution, the spend analysis and strategic sourcing company.

Purchasing and supply chain expert Guy Allen, and Peter Smith, Managing Director of Spend Matters UK/Europe, led the discussions. Here are the top ‘back to basics’ takeaways for procurement executives:

• Sourcing success starts with honest conversations. It is too easy to blame other departments for disregarding negotiated savings. The better strategy: communicate procurement’s cost-cutting vision companywide and engage stakeholders on their sourcing needs. Then, buyers gain real insight into why current contracts don’t meet company needs, the suppliers that departments would rather work with and how the procurement process can be improved.
• Launching a new category takes more effort and strategy than most believe. When launched properly, new categories allow procurement to make their mark by uncovering long-hidden savings and inefficiencies. Yet, too many companies rush into new category offerings without weighing business-critical considerations and external factors. To ensure success of a new category, procurement teams must consider the end-user needs, who can best manage the category and what this means for suppliers.
• New technology cannot fix what you aren’t doing properly. Too often, procurement attempts to fix inefficiencies by launching a new tool. But before any new technology is brought to the procurement team, the CPO must have a plan to engage users and drive adoption. If not, the ROI significantly suffers.

The Real World Sourcing series continues in the fall, and the theme will shift to proper assessment and measurement of the procurement function. Below are the remaining 2012 dates and topics:

• 5^th September 2012 – Assessing the Procurement Function
• 17^th October 2012 – Measuring Procurement's Performance
• 28^th November 2012 – New CPOs – the First 100 Days

Venue: The Salle de Fete Private Dining Room, Kettners, 29 Romilly Street, London W1D 5HP

Time: 11.00 a.m. to 14.30 p.m., including lunch. A limited amount of space is available for each session. To register and for more information, visit BravoSolution.co.uk.

About BravoSolution

Supply management executives are now, more than ever, under pressure to deliver more savings, develop and manage strategic supplier relationships, accelerate procurement cycles, and maintain process excellence. Confronted with these diverse yet consistent challenges, CPOs and sourcing professionals must seek tailored solutions that deliver rapid ROI to their business.

BravoSolution offers leading software and services to fit the needs of today’s sophisticated supply management organisations. Our services organisation, one of the world’s largest teams of professionals dedicated exclusively to sourcing and procurement consulting, delivers lean, targeted services to support strategic sourcing and procurement initiatives. Our industry leading software toolkit supports the full supply management lifecycle across myriad industries, geographies and business models.

As of today, over 50,000 procurement professionals in 60 different countries are benefiting from BravoSolution’s technology and services – unlocking tangible benefits such as increased process efficiency, decision support, cost reduction, improved process governance, greater quality relationships with vendors and the ability to share, understand and act upon the wealth of sourcing-related data held within their organisation.