only way to successfully address this misconception is to adopt a client-centric approach.
What do you see as the most important ingredients for success in achieving these benefits? The main success factors are: · Market knowledge (i.e. the ability to know how to search the market to meet our requirements). · Collaboration with end users during all stages of the assessment of suppliers’ proposals and delivered products and services. · Collaboration with suppliers on a transparent basis, with structured communication and an overall assessment of the technical and quality specifications of the product or service. Overall, what is your view on procurement having a customer centric-role when dealing with internal users / stakeholders? A typical perception that a procurement function may be required to disprove within the organisation is that it will purchase cheap products and services while degrading factors such as quality, flexibility and variety. End users are typically very knowledgeable in their fields and they may have reservations about the results delivered by procurement. The
By regarding internal users as customers, procurement puts itself in a better position to add value. The first message we should send is that “procurement intends to ensure the level of quality that is defined by the user at the best possible market price. We do not buy something which is just affordable”. The second message should be that “procurement does not replace, nor claim the experience and expertise of the internal users’ domain, but it seeks to work collaboratively to combine the user’s knowledge as a subject expert and procurement’s capabilities in negotiation, supplier assessment and supplier selection”. The experience of collaboratively working with end users shows that when the cross-functional collaboration is honest and the objectives of all parties are mutual, the roles are often reversed. As a result of internal collaboration, people learn the “secrets of each other’s art”, and users end up negotiating and insisting on the commercial elements of a contract, while procurement focuses on the quality aspects.
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