25 Ways to Improve your Procurement Team
How to Improve your Procurement Team
25-Step checklist for improving your Procurement Team, so they go from Business Lurkers to Business Wizards.
1- What do people in your Business think of Procurement?
Find a way to reliably find out - through conversations, polls during company town halls, email and slack surveys.
Whatever the feedback is, dial in on the negatives and positives and look to improve.
2- How easy is it to use Procurement in your Business?
Can someone in your Business engage with Procurement with a couple of clicks from any location in the world?
Are they then guided through raising a new request for assistance?
If not, you probably rely on myriad comms channels to raise requests. Improve this and find one easy-to-use method for engaging with Procurement (e.g. an intake solution, standalone like Omnea or through your Procurement Tech platform).
3- Can you identify, within your team, how your Procurement process could be slowing down the Business?
If yes - use the above points to dial in on this weakness and fix it. Make sure you ask the entire team, including the quieter introverts (they probably have the best view on this).
4 - Does Procurement have that Pesky Seat at the Table? - eugghhh vomit
I hate this phrase. I'm just using it as I know so many people identify it, and I want your attention. But there is a valid point here. Is Procurement a leader within the Business? If not - why not? Ask why, improve, and get that leadership position.
5 - Do you know how many Suppliers you have?
If not - why not? You may need a solution like a Gatekeeper that can tell you this in seconds.
If yes - well done.
6- Do you know how many Suppliers you have?
Jeez, I was going to copy and paste the above, but that sounded dull. Instead, I thought I'd share my intentions with you, so you can laugh at my incompetency and lack of copywriting wizardry to re-word the above here. But you get it. It would help if you had a solution like Gatekeeper.
7- Is the Procurement Team happy?
Doesn't matter what your role is within the Procurement Team. If you think anyone in the team is unhappy, bored senseless from working in Excel and constantly hammering the suppliers on cost until they go out of Business…then speak up. Or are you part of the problem with this Dinosaur thinking?
8- Are there any Procurement Dinosaurs?
I had to fit this in somewhere. Despite knowing they could, these outdated procurement pros don't want to change, which would deliver considerable upsides to the Business. Many of these Procurement Dinosaurs are transitioning out of Business and now offer a lot of "cost-cutting" consultancy offerings. Be wary of their insidious views.
9 - Do you Contract Manage?
Seriously, Do you Contract Management tho?
Too many don't - it's painful to see as a Procurement Contract Manager nerd. The amount of value locked up in those contracts is RE-DIC-K-U-LUS. Start using Contract Management, pre and post-signature, to deliver significant value to your Business.
10 - Do you prioritise relationships with your most important suppliers? You probably should.
11 - Have you considered a Supplier Relationship Management programme? It could be a good bet if you have a high priority to segment your suppliers.
12 - Have you digitised all of your hard copies of documents?
13 - Have you digitalised all of your Procurement and Contract Management processes?
14- Are you making use of AI yet? AI sourcing will be massive - I like what Globality is doing there.
15 - Are you monitoring your Supplier Credit Scores always and forever?
16 - Are you monitoring your Supplier Cyber Scores always and forever, and every day (gotta make this post sound different to 15, right).
17 - Is ESG part of your agenda in Procurement yet?
18 - Have you implemented ESG criteria into your RFX?
19 - Is your team well-trained?
20 - Does your team have the digital competency required to succeed over the next few years?
21 - Is the Procurement team aligned with the Business?
22 - Does Procurement always have KPIs/OKRs that ensure alignment with the Business?
23 - Is your Procurement Tech Stack aligned with the entire Business?
24 - Are you bringing in fresh (young) talent into Procurement - apprenticeships, graduates etc.
25 - Bring a "we can always do better" mindset to the Table each day.
Woh- that was one heck of a list to write. I could have added more.
But I'll leave the rest to you.
What would you add to the list?
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