CASE STUDY / CABINET OFFICE
ENGAGEMENT / ADVERT
SRM leaders run regular voice of the supplier studies Contact us to run your next voice of the supplier which will help you: understand where you are as a customer of choice versus key competitors, focus on the key SRM improvement areas, provide an internal case for change, and provide a regular benchmark for the success of your SRM programme.
To reduce risks, they must be better managed by both parties. Improving the nature of relationships can ensure problems are discussed earlier and resolved more quickly. We believe if both parties see a return in value, then the contract will perform better. We might expect some savings from the programme, but it is not about reducing the price of contracts,” Duckworth says. In addition to working with each department to advance SRM programmes for their strategic suppliers, the Cabinet Office also runs a Strategic Partnership Programme for the largest common and critical suppliers across government. These aspects of SRM are linked. Where the department has chosen a supplier to work with on SRM, that is connected to the Cabinet Office’s partnering programme. “During the second phase of the programme, the Cabinet Office will introduce its SRM governance model to five more departments, starting early next year. It will run in parallel to the first phase which will continue into 2019 when the programme will begin to accrue tangible results”, Duckworth says.
between evolving operational needs and the contract start to emerge. Effective management of supplier relationships can help address this but it demands a good connection between commercial and operational functions and the supplier. We believe this can be brokered by SRM, he says. “Trying to bring many strands of the supplier relationship together and articulate why we’re trying to do this in a way that gets the entire department to buy in is an area we need to focus on and it is a challenge,” Duckworth says. “The Cabinet Office does not say where the value lies, this needs to be determined by the department involving both the commercial and operational functions and of course the supplier. We have to make sure that is built into what we are aiming for. If SRM is seen as only being of benefit to certain factions then it will not gain the department and supplier-wide support necessary for it to succeed.” Despite the pressure on government departments to stay within tight spending limits, the primary goal of the SRM programme is not to reduce costs, he says. While this is always welcome, the programme’s primary aim is to minimise risk and maximise operational performance improvement under suppliers’ contracts. That comes not only through actions on the suppliers’ side, but also in departments interactions with suppliers.
Improving the nature of relationships can ensure problems are discussed earlier and resolved more quickly. We believe if both parties see a return in value, then the contract will perform better.
Driving value and reducing risk
“Like most SRM programmes we have set our sights on finding incremental value; to see what else we are missing. We are looking for innovation to drive value and to reduce inherent risk in some arrangements. We are talking about strategic suppliers in complex arrangements.
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STATE OF FLUX
2018 GLOBAL SRM RESEARCH REPORT
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