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When we first engage with many of our clients, a common challenge they face is not being able to sufficiently influence a good proportion of buys. In a recent Consultancy Procurement Council survey, our members shared that in only 25% of buys procurement are asked to support before suppliers are invited to provide a proposal.

As a result, savings opportunities are missed, SoWs are not always optimal, and procurement are left feeling on the back foot – typically this is a symptom of insufficient procurement resource. That can mean either not enough people or not enough of the right people (category specific and seniority), or possibly both. So, we see for example, Category Managers spending too much time in transactional activity and not enough time in developing stakeholder relationships. A large majority of our clients are recruiting (and having difficulty) or would like to recruit (but don’t have budget). We’re seeing this across private and public sectors, with both battling with the issue of peaks and troughs – whereby procurement demand is reactive and unpredictable, and it becomes hard to resource plan

Sound Familiar?

This is where a procurement MSP can help and a Neutral Vendor MSP can solve. 

Constellia’s team of procurement professionals assist with Statement of Requirement (SoR) development, supplier identification and Onboarding, managed sourcing, Statement of Work (SoW) development and award, contract and performance management, right through to invoicing and payment. All underpinned by our pre-approved supplier marketplace and Source to Pay platform.

Our fees are supplier absorbed, which means our clients get access to additional suitably qualified procurement resource.

On Demand.

At zero cost.

Not to mention the “onsite” procurement business partner option and estimated savings of 10-20% from our full Neutral Vendor MSP programme.

To see how Constellia’s Neutral Vendor MSP model can help ease your resource challenges, along with many other benefits, drop us an email and we’ll arrange an initial call.

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We all know the crisis at the petrol pumps has been caused by a mix of a supply chain capacity shortage and emotional buying. As a result, we are all paying over the odds for petrol (that is if we can get any – especially in London). I see parallels in the professional services procurement world.

Procurement colleagues are forever reacting to demand and dealing with crisis after crisis.  When was the last time you heard anyone in procurement say, “I’m not busy!”

As demand grows in a post-pandemic environment, I’m seeing more clients talk about the urgent need for resource. In turn, contractor rates are increasing, and procurement consultancies are busier than ever. Add in a general shortage of time and resource, together with stakeholder pressure what you get is rushed procurement. Which then results in missed opportunities such as value for money, compliance and ERG benefits. We are seeing Statements of Work which lack detail and (because of this) risk project failure, and I’ve not even mentioned the IR35 risks all over the place

So here’s my top 10 ten tips which you can implement now to avert a future crisis:

1. Invest in a relationship with a specialised (Professional Services) on-demand procurement resource partner
2. Create an activity catalogue split into units of work
3. Get access to a pre-qualified service provider marketplace
4. Start using a Statement of Work platform which can manage the entire source to pay process
5. Work with stakeholders to make them better buyers
6. Move to a budget based, fixed price, milestone driven model – move away from day rates
7. Collaborate with professional services procurement peers – share specifications, benchmark data and general best practice
8. Develop 12-month procurement activity plans
9. Have a strategic solution to manage your tail spend – its bigger than you think and takes up a disproportionate amount of your time
10. Stop and breath once in a while – allow yourself to think intuitively

You won’t be surprised to know that at Constellia, through membership of the Consultancy Procurement Council, our Consultancy MSP and on-demand solution, we can help with pretty much all of the above. And for number 10, I can share some tips and techniques for mindfulness.

Wouldn’t it be good to change the rhetoric from “I’m (too) busy” to “I’m in control and making a difference”?

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There are plenty of consultants out there looking for a good client to love them, so it perhaps seems strange that clients often struggle to find them.

But they don’t want any old consultant – they want the right consultant. And whilst they can of course find comfort in the arms of a big brand they might want more (the old saying goes “no one ever got fired for hiring xxx” although it would probably be more complete if it included “and they never got promoted either”).

But attempts at online consultant match-making/directory services never seem to really work, and whilst Procurement would be ashamed if they could not tell you who the best suppliers are in other spaces (e.g. who makes the best laptops) they usually dread being asked the question “can you recommend a consultant who is good at X?”.

Why? Because (and Procurement often hates hearing this…) it’s “all about relationships”. Clients are buying trusted advice – and who do you trust? People you know and who have delivered for you before – so you should therefore talk to them first, and look to build not break these relationships, and the value in them.

Of course you should also take a look around and see if you can do better – and if you don’t know any suitable alternate consultants then simply do what you would if you were looking for a builder – get a trusted friend to recommend one.

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