Procurement Project Management
Project Management in Procurement
Like other business functions before it, the procurement (purchasing & supply) department has also seen its fair share of modernisation and improvement initiatives – mainly around the people and the tools – to improve capability but ultimately to save £££ in an organisations spending budget. The function of the procurement department is seeing change, in areas such as new or upgrades to systems ( eProcurement and e-invoicing), changes in procurement strategies being adopted to improve efficiency through process changes and procurement outsourcing.
Programmes and Projects within the Procurement Department
Arras People can provide procurement / purchasing & supply project management professionals to manage specific procurement programmes or projects, such as new systems implementations or business process re-engineering. Project Managers with specific procurement knowledge coupled with strong project management skills can ensure your projects or new initiatives are delivered successfully.
Arras People can also provide consultants who are able to advise on both the procurement strategies and the implementation of the outcomes – consultants are available on an interim / contract basis.
Procurement Specialists in Programmes and Projects
Arras People can also provide you with specific project procurement experienced candidates where there is a need for a resource to perform as part of a larger project or programme as the “procurement specialist”, particularly projects with large purchasing requirements for goods and services or for particular business critical programmes and projects.
Recruit Project Management Staff with Procurement Knowledge
Arras People has candidates registered with us looking for permanent and interim project management roles specifically within the procurement / purchasing & supply function. Samples of roles recruited for include;
Procurement Project Management Candidates Available Today
Arras People has registered candidates looking for both permanent and interim roles, a significant proportion have skills and experience either in delivering procurement based programmes and projects or are procurement / purchasing specialists who have project management skills
Candidate Overviews from Arras People
- Strategic sourcing and implementation and roll out of e-procurement projects
- eProcurement systems implementations - business analysis, project delivery, testing and training
- GPC - Government Purchasing Cards - fraud prevention project
- Establishment and maintainance of framework contracts (OJEU compliant)
- Service contract management
- Developing, evaluating and rigorously negotiating contractual terms of projects/programmes
- PFI / PPP projects - project management and project support
- Supporting the negotiation process to ensure contractual agreements comply with local and national statutory and legislative requirements
- Controlling budgetary and resource needs of the programme / project
- Developing and agreeing payment mechanism and performance regimes and systems to monitor contractor performance and uplifts
Introduction to Procurement in Projects
Projects will inevitably be dealing with other companies, whether as a result of outsourcing particular tasks, or in order to procure services supplies and equipment. Working with limited budgets, and within both the public and private sector domains, it is essential that projects get value for money when involved in obtaining such services or equipment. This section offers advice on the process of procuring such equipment or services. While each project will have different purchasing plans, a generic set of guidelines offers some basic pointers in what can be a complex field.
The main principles of project management should be applied to manage procurement as a project.
- Establish a team with expertise of procurement within your project, for business critical projects in an organisation consider seconding professionals from the procurement department to enable them to work closely with the day to day project
- Do a skills audit and implement a training and development programme which will help establish whether the team has the skills needed to perform in procurement projects. Implement a skills framework for procurement projects
- Review and revise procedures for procurement and contract management, making sure they provide an adequate set of controls
- Maintain a forward procurement plan
- Always make sure there are systems in place to monitor, which comply with organisational procurement policies, procedures and any legal obligations
- Make use of your purchasing power, set up volume related rebate agreements with your suppliers or service providers
- Ensure relationships with suppliers are managed by monitoring their performance against expectation and delivery, the control of contractual agreements and getting to know and understand the supplier
- Measure and record the delivery of the procurement strategy/plan and the day to day management of its function
"The performance of an organisation's most significant procurement projects usually impacts its financial results. Two established reasons for underperformance of these projects are a lack of stakeholder involvement, and the failure to evaluate and negotiate value as well as price. Modern best-practice methods can address these issues and secure enhanced value for money for your procurement projects."
John Thompson - CEO Commerce Decisions
Procurement PM
Wycombe District Council have worked with Arras People for a number of years; using cost effective project management recruitment solutions to bring on board project professionals on a contract basis. A procurement and tendering project manager was required for a fixed term to drive through a new leisure facility project. Coming on board at the tendering stage, the project manager worked with the council's procurement specialists to manage the OJEC process through to completion.
