CASE STUDY / CIT Y OF MELBOURNE
COVID / ADVERT
during a pandemic collaboration The power of
“Meanwhile one of our smaller providers, an Aboriginal-owned company that supplies a lot of our branded items, told us they had a massive shipment coming in. They told us that because of the development work we’d done with them to build our relationship, as well as the fact that we were a people-facing organisation, meant we had first refusal on these products. Hearing that we were being put first was huge for us.” This was still at the point that there was a constant flow of people visiting the city’s Town Hall, libraries and community centres. “We had a real responsibility to get back to the supplier quickly about precisely how much sanitiser we needed so that it could get the rest out to other customers. It also meant we were able to help supply our own providers, such as the Salvation Army who do a lot of work with people experiencing homelessness. In the end, we procured 10,000 face masks and 15,000 hand sanitisers.” As services such as libraries and recreation centres temporarily closed, the City of Melbourne was able to redeploy many of its casual workers into employment at one of its cleaning suppliers. “It shows a true partnership – coming together for the benefit of everyone to keep the city clean.” The city advises anyone pondering the merits of an SRM programme to stop delaying and get one underway. “The main thing is to just get in there and do it. There are so many reasons not to even start, but we’ve demonstrated that you can do it – even with a pandemic in the way. If anything, SRM is enabling us to get through it rather than being an extra burden.”
We’ve demonstrated you can do it – even with a pandemic in the way – if anything, SRM is enabling us to get through this
and category managers, with mixed experience, to perform. Professionals in the centralised procurement function were put through intensive State of Flux training so they could “speak that language around SRM within the team and wider organisation”. The next stage was training for 40 staff to help deliver the benefits of the programme. The organisation hopes to have a source-to-contract tool in place some time this year to automate many SRM activities and manage them consistently for suppliers. Meanwhile, a lot of the measures have been about formalising processes and procedures. “For instance,” says the organisation, “we’ve collected performance data in the past but we were sporadic in how we managed it. Where suppliers provide multiple services across the organisation, we’re now able to pull all that data together.” And performance was the first thing it focused on. Next was supplier risk management, for which it developed a separate framework and looked more deeply at its supply chain. Then it moved on to governance, financial and commercial management, as well as innovation. “From a journey perspective, we’re part way through. SRM continues to evolve all of the time,” says the spokesperson. The level of governance depends on the type of supplier, with strategic suppliers subject to a greater level of management. “We’ve put a lot more emphasis around our expectations, and innovation has become a more formalised and robust process. New ideas are funnelled through to see which will fly,” they add. And the current situation with Covid-19 is expected to drive innovation in a different way. “A lot of organisations are looking at how they structure themselves internally – what the working structure is and how to deliver services. Everything has been shaken up and is being re-imagined, so we’ll start to see what comes through.”
A word on speed
In the experience of the City of Melbourne, the only way anything happens with speed is if you first have executive buy-in. Without it, everything is an uphill battle, they say, from getting the initial framework approved to beginning work. Its executive team was on board from day one and it is fortunate enough to have had almost 100% support, which has enabled it to act quickly. And while it admits speed isn’t often the first thing you associate with local government, those with private sector experience say it’s been even better than some private businesses. “The executive team has taken it on faith that value will come and hasn’t insisted on immediate proof to continue with the programme. This has given the team time to demonstrate the benefits,” it says.
Effective and agile collaboration with suppliers has never been so important. State of Flux can support you in running 360 degree reviews and joint account planning workshops to create measurable outcomes with your strategic suppliers.
Return on investment
Progress on the programme was suddenly interrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, although the time and effort invested has already proved invaluable. “At the start of the pandemic, it was next to impossible to get your hands on hand sanitiser,” says the spokesperson. “One of our bigger suppliers for example, couldn’t get them to us and we realised we weren’t considered strategic to them.
enquiries@stateofflux.co.uk srm.stateofflux.co.uk/2020-report
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2020 GLOBAL SRM RESEARCH REPORT
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