By Guest Blogger Matthew Parker
Do you remember Bambi, the lovable Disney deer?
Do you remember the smoke in the forest?
The trumpeting of the hunters’ horns?
Do you remember the terror she experienced as she was chased through the woods, her life in danger?
Are you worried that YOU are being made a target?
Are you being hunted by a procurement team?
Procurement is becoming more and more important to many companies. They are busy creating procurement teams. And companies that are too small to justify a procurement team are being targeted by procurement outsourcing firms.
So what is procurement?
Procurement is the term given to strategic purchasing. Procurement typically works through measuring the total cost of acquisition, not just the final price on the invoice. So procurement measures the cost of the purchasing process and the efficiency of the supplier as well as the price. There are a number of different processes that procurement uses. And few of these processes are typically used by print buyers.
Companies used to rely on buyers, not procurement. A buyer had an excellent technical knowledge of their sector. Buyers also had a big contact book. And that contact book was important. It was the tool that allowed them to choose the right supplier every time. Or so companies thought.
Companies began to question the role of the buyer
The buyer wasn’t always clear about why they had chosen a particular supplier. Or chosen a particular price. But companies wanted to know how that choice had been made.
Then choices were reviewed. And it became clear that not all buyers had made the right choices.
Procurement allows companies greater clarity
The procurement team will always have a clear audit trail. This audit trail allows companies to see why they have ended up with the purchasing solutions that they have. Management love the systems that procurement teams use.
So procurement teams are on the rise. And procurement teams are on the hunt for targets. Print is one of those targets.
But, let’s face it, procurement doesn’t always get it right
Procurement still needs specialist knowledge. The knowledge of the print buyer is still vital in today’s procurement world. However, the role needs to develop to include procurement skills.
Procurement skills enhanced my role
A few years ago my job changed dramatically. I was given a new manager. My new manager knew nothing about print: he was from the construction industry. But he knew about procurement. And he was happy to teach me some new skills.
Learning procurement skills allowed me to create better supplier relationships. It helped me expand my job role. And it allowed me to manage my buying strategy. If I had ignored this opportunity my supplier relationships would have suffered. I would have achieved less in my job role. And I would have begun to lose control of buying strategy.
My experience can be the same for all print buyers.
Print buyers are busy people – how can they find time to practise procurement?
One of the key concepts of procurement is that purchasing can be made more efficient. With the right systems in place, using procurement methods will create time for you. Much of the time consuming day-to-day operational purchasing should become un-necessary. And as well as more time you should gain more job satisfaction and improve results for your company.
Procurement offers better results for your company and great opportunities for you.
Here’s how my company benefitted from procurement
One of the procurement initiatives that I developed in my last job was to create a new supplier management system for my company’s suppliers. The system made the suppliers realise that they were being measured. So they improved their performance. It also highlighted issues before they became problems. So we spent less time fire fighting and dealing with problems. And finally it gave us the time to discuss how we could work more efficiently. So we saved costs. And we didn’t change the prices that the suppliers were charging.
The suppliers said that they learnt a lot from the exercise. And my relationship with the suppliers also improved: I wasn’t just ringing them up when I had problems.
You can improve your results from suppliers too
The most important thing is that you begin to educate yourself on print procurement, not print buying. There is a lot of resource to study: the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply offers lots of information. Or you can have a look at my website. It is not difficult to learn the basics of procurement.
Once you understand a few procurement strategies, create a procurement plan for your print buying. It doesn’t have to be long: you can just list three or four strategies on a piece of paper, together with how you will implement them.
You may well also find that, as your print buying becomes more efficient, you have more time. You may wish to spend this time becoming involved in other channels as well. Perhaps you ought to target other opportunities (I will discuss this in my next article).
With procurement skills, the print buyer can become the hunter, not the hunted. Now is the time to get rid of the threat of being chased down like Bambi.
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About Matthew Parker, Director Print & Procurement
Matthew has had over twenty years experience in buying all sorts of print. He as worked at many different companies of all sizes and from many market sectors. Amongst other roles, Matthew headed up print purchasing at Future Publishing, one of the UK’s leading consumer magazine publishers, achieving significant reductions on a multi-million pound spend every year.
Download his free e-book: “Ten common print buying errors and what to do about them”
Follow him on Twitter
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Related articles
- Procurement costs ‘are set to rise’ (premierlinedirect.co.uk)
- Procurement Market System (essaysuk.wordpress.com)
- Procurement News from Spend Matters UK: Round-Up (spendmatters.com)
- Got Vision? — Taking Procurement to the Next Level (spendmatters.com)
- Gradually and then Suddenly (procurementchronicles.wordpress.com)
- Supplier Diversity: There’s an Easier Way (spendmatters.com)
