We interviewed our Senior Procurement Team; Alan Knott, David Murdoch & Peter Hewitt, to find out what challenges and opportunities 2022 brings for procurement and it’s leaders, and why the Tessiant teams sheer talent, wealth of retail experience and senior expertise best places us to offer tailored procurement solutions and help organisations navigate their way through.
What difference / impact do you hope to bring to the procurement space through the new practice?
There are many organisations who are crying out for high quality procurement transformation and procurement delivery capability. The Tessiant team have a wealth of hands-on experience to do just that, operating across all levels of the corporate world and across the whole spectrum of industry sectors and spend categories. We not only bring with us excellent commerciality to ensure that third party arrangements meet the long term needs of the business but also an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the need for procurement to manage third party risk across the entire spend portfolio. This is why we focus on the full lifecycle of supplier relationships to ensure that the arrangements put in place on day 1 are maintained and continuously improved upon throughout the life of the contract, announced Alan.
I bring over 15 years experience in indirect procurement, primarily in retail settings. In that time I have always delivered innovative solutions, excellent stakeholder engagement and significant incremental savings, expressed David.
I am able to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table across both GFR and GNFR areas, to be able to show clients the value that focused consultants can bring to their bottom line and helping them deliver their targets quicker and more successfully, said Peter.
What opportunities and challenges do you think 2022 will present for procurement and procurement leaders?
Procurement is increasingly playing a more prominent role in ensuring businesses get maximum value from their supply chains and solution providers. As we move out of the pandemic, new geopolitical and environmental challenges are presenting themselves and the role of procurement to ensure that third party arrangements are robust, maximising value and mitigating risks has never been more important. Not only are supply chains being challenged as never before but so too are the costs of doing business. A strong procurement function is essential to ensuring that business needs continue to be met by the supply base as efficiently, sustainably and cost effectively as possible. This isn’t just about maximising business profitability, procurement also ensures that supply side risks are managed, that suppliers work to the environmental and social responsibility standards expected by businesses, and that the full potential of partners is realised to the benefit of all parties. We are also seeing a rapidly changing technology environment full of disrupting advancements in tech capability. A well-informed Procurement team should be in a position to help to advise on market developments and the potential benefits to businesses working with IT functions to commercialise those opportunities and develop partnerships with third parties to encourage ongoing innovation and mutually beneficial opportunities, said Alan.
David claimed with costs increasing across many areas, more clients than ever will be looking to save money and drive down costs. They will also want to reinforce their green credentials and simplify their supply chains if possible. They may also wish to look for UK suppliers rather than relying on overseas suppliers, thus reducing risks involved with Brexit for example.
Peter expressed procurement should be more than just value, it should be about providing an agile, responsive service to any organisation, being innovative in its solution to deliver procurement results faster. It should ensure sustainability is at the heart of everything it does, it should be using the latest technologies to deliver transparent, efficient and visible procurement processes and ways of working. Risk management is often overlooked but is a key piece of modern procurement as is having fully visibility of the end to end supply chain from source to end consumer. This allows an organisation to maintain control of it’s supply base and see problems before they become an issue.
Based on your previous experience and wealth of expertise, what strengths do you think you will bring to the table within this new procurement practice and it’s projects?
Peter went on to say, I have 25 years of experience, and end to end knowledge of the procurement process from sourcing through to final contracting and deployment of goods and services. I manage people exceptionally well, procurement is a service where people management is critical to keep stakeholders and suppliers on side through-out a project. I work quickly and can deliver high complex tenders in fractions of the time. An example previously being a new warehouse and automated picking solution for a massive retail brand in less than 9 months from starting the exercise to signing contracts. It was highly complex, high risk and a very technical set of requirements and solutions across multiple suppliers and categories.
Alan said, I have led procurement teams across many different industries for many multinational organisations. Not only have I had tremendous success in delivering substantial ROI to business bottom lines but also in transforming procurement functions from being transactional functions to becoming established business partners. Focused on maximising value from third party relationships in a sustainable way, driving innovation and change, and being a valued partner to other functions within the business to commercialise and risk manage the relationships they wish to establish with third parties.
David expressed, I can bring considerable experience across a wide range of procurement categories, and always deliver excellent benefits to clients in terms of hard savings and other areas such as improved payment terms, cost avoidance, improved contract terms etc. I have very strong analysis and stakeholder engagement skills and look for innovative solutions to drive benefits for clients.
Conversations about procurement and supply chain strategy must go beyond cost moving forward – what are your thoughts?
Whilst reducing cost is often paramount, the balance between cost, value and other areas such as sustainability, cost of sourcing and distribution for example must always be considered to review the total cost, explained David.
Alan went on to say, procurement isn’t just about saving money (although it is one of the first benefits a business investing in procurement would seek to achieve). Procurement is now recognised as being key to managing risks of all kinds, not just commercial risk, in third party relationships and doing so throughout the lifecycle of that relationship. Moreover, procurement is becoming a recognised catalyst and advocate for change, particularly in technology led categories of spend, bringing market development and supplier innovation to the table and maximising the value of those partnerships.
Peter declared, it’s absolutely correct. Procurement is too often judged on costs whereas I was bought up to replace cost with value. Procurement drives the value agenda, but it can also bring market knowledge, innovation, visibility and control to a business. It can highlight areas of improvement and areas of risk. Effective procurement can be the difference in companies going forward or going backwards – it’s a vital part of any organisation but few too firms fully understand the value proposition that procurement brings to the table.
So, why choose Tessiant for procurement?
Tessiant is staffed by consultants with market knowledge across every sector, to deliver for clients and ensure their success. We are able to respond quickly to any request, we are experts in our industry, we work with clients the way clients want us to work and we deliver the results our clients expect to see, said Peter.
The Tessiant network is an extremely experienced and knowledgeable network of seasoned procurement practitioners who have honed their skills through a mixture of hand-on corporate roles and consultancy. They don’t just talk a good game, they execute and deliver what they propose and can demonstrate this through years of delivery experience. The profiles of the network speak for themselves and they represent great value for money when compared to other consulting organisations, stated Alan.
Tessiant are a small close knit community of experts who work closely together at all levels to drive the best results for their clients. In my work with Tessiant, the management team also support the Associates to give the best results. Overall the wide range of experience offered by Tessiant and their associates is a very strong advantage for any client, announced David.
To find out more about our brand new procurement practice, discover the wealth of experience and expertise our senior procurement team bring with them and explore some of our previous procurement projects visit www.tessiant.com/procurement/
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