Indirect Procurement Leaders News

Press Release - ProcureCon Indirect 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:45:00 +0000

PRESS RELEASE

Date of Issue: 8th January 2013

For Immediate Release

Revamped agenda unveiled for ProcureCon Indirect 2013 meeting

ProcureCon Indirect, Europe’s premier indirect procurement conference, returns to London on 16th – 18th April, promising three days of networking, benchmarking and debate among 300+ of Europe’s leading indirect procurement leaders.

Building on the success of last year’s indirect sourcing meeting, the ProcureCon Indirect team have put together an entirely revamped agenda, focusing only on the critical issues affecting CPOs and senior indirect procurement professionals.

Confirmed Procurement Speakers include:

• Gabháin Neary, Supplier Sourcing Leader EMEA and LATAM, Google
• Marcel van Berkel, Head of Consultancy, Shell
• Jonathan Sutherland, Head of Procurement, RBS
• Dietmar Harteveld, Director Indirect Material North West Europe, Siemens
• Fabien Krawczyk, Purchasing Director, Le Group La Poste
• Jean-Luc Charlier, Global Commodity Cluster Leader, Philips Group Purchasing
• Chris Bullock, Procurement Director, Unilever
• Gareth Hughes, Head of Procurement, Legal & General
• Jim Hemmington, Head of Procurement, BBC
• Eric Danjoux-Dichamp, VP Global Indirect Purchasing, Firminich
• Nick Jenkinson, Head of Procurement, Daily Mail & General Trust
• Andrew Smith, Head of Indirect, Royal Mail
• Matthias Manegold, Director, Global Strategic Procurement, Barcardi
• Jerome Dutrey, Group Purchasing Director, Indirect, BDR Thermea
• Mark Hickman, European Indirect Commodity Management Lead, Alcoa
• Frederique Rammeloo, Procurement Director, ASOS
• Francesco Donatelli, Chief Procurement Officer, UniCredit
• Mikkel Larsen, Procurement, Rolls Royce
• Jamie Foster, Procurement Director, Hitachi Rail
• Paul Alexander, Director, Indirect, BP

And many more – see www.procurecon-indirect for the full list

Each speaker has been specially chosen to speak on a topic relevant to the indirect sourcing projects they’re currently working on. Gabháin Neary, Supplier Sourcing Leader EMEA and LATAM at Google described his current challenges in a recent interview with ProcureCon:

What is your role within the Google procurement team?
My specific role is to manage the team in EMEA and LATAM, which is a total team of
6 Googlers (myself included) managing a spend portfolio of around $3billion USD out
of $10billion USD globally. We spend billions of dollars with suppliers every year on
hardware, software, professional services, build and manage facilities around the world,
use various technology services, marketing services and provide benefits for our staff.
Our Supplier Sourcing team ensures we have strong and creative relationships with
internal stakeholders and the right suppliers, so that Google can get the best value and
continue to invest in its great new products and customer relationships.

In what ways do you feel the indirect procurement function is evolving?
In our case it is really more about business partnering and understanding the business
first and bringing a procurement acumen second. If we don’t know what we are buying
and why its important to the business its hard to add a lot of value. For a company
like Google that means we have to balance the mega project spend with the quirky
one offs that can turn into the next mega project. We also operate in a non mandated
environment so we need to be out there in the business and actively selling our role and
then allocating projects to the team as necessary.

What is the biggest challenge you’re facing at the moment?
Getting our resourcing model on the Supplier Sourcing team to scale as Google
continues to grow - we are already heavily outsourced on our operations front, like
invoice payment and expense reporting.

What is the ideal solution to that challenge?
The ongoing solution is to cleverly partner with the business and understand how we are
going to achieve our combined targets, for the business that is usually a quick to market
solution but for us it is getting the right supply agreements in place to support us today
and longer term as well when necessary.

What do you hope to learn/achieve at Procurecon Indirect 2013?
Meet some great like minded people and hear what challenges people are facing and
what their innovative plans are to over come these over the next couple years.

Please visit www.procurecon-indirect to view the 2013 agenda, as well as extended interviews with the keynote speakers.

Notes to editors

1. For more information about ProcureCon Indirect 2013 and to request the conference brochure, please email procurecon@wbr.co.uk
2. All media partnership enquiries and requests for press passes should be directed to Simon Anderson, Marketing Director for the ProcureCon portfolio: simon.anderson@wbr.co.uk
3. ProcureCon Indirect 2013 is part of the ProcureCon portfolio, which has been producing high calibre events for Europe’s procurement leaders since 1997.
4. ProcureCon is part of Worldwide Business Research, one of the world’s leading sources of strategic business intelligence and part of the PLS group. For more information about Worldwide Business Research, visit www.wbresearch.com

Enhancing and Redefining the Role of Indirect Procurement Research Findings and Results

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:51:00 +0000

The principal goals of the research were to identify:

• Organisations’ attitudes, specifically amongst finance and procurement professionals, towards the indirect procurement function
• The current role that indirect procurement plays and the desired future role of the indirect procurement function
• Business perceptions of the value currently being delivered from this aspect of procurement
• The benefits senior stakeholders are seeking from the indirect procurement function
• Insights into the ways in which indirect procurement needs to develop within the organisation
• The current and planned usage of the procurement outsourcing strategy

The research was conducted through interviews with 120 Senior Executives in Continental Europe, UK and the US, with half coming from Procurement and the other half from Finance. The sectors in which these executives came from:

• Financial Services
• Retail
• Consumer Products
• Manufacturing

Since the economic downturn, procurement’s profile has been raised within many global businesses.
Stronger executive support for major initiatives has increased mandates for tackling non-compliance and we are now witnessing business units, such as Marketing which, in some instances, have never let Procurement cross their door before, proactively seeking procurement support.

However, through a series of interactions with senior executives over the last few years, a consistent message has arisen – one of frustration that procurement, and indirect procurement in particular, is underappreciated by the wider organisation.

Furthermore, across the US and Europe a vast majority of the members of the C-Suite feel that indirect procurement is under-invested. Proxima, in conjunction with NelsonHall, therefore ran a research study to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and desired outcomes of indirect procurement to catalyse this common sense that procurement could and should play a greater role in most businesses.

Many of the responses in our study do indicate that indirect procurement is perceived to have a role that is somewhat tactical and administrative. Respondents advised that it can create process blocks and can, on occasion, even be antagonistic to specialist suppliers of the business, particularly specialist service providers. This whitepaper, which is the third and final whitepaper in the series, investigates outsourcing as a procurement strategy to augment existing capability, enhance expertise and enable procurement to power your business.

To download this white paper in full visit http://info.proximagroup.com/power-your-business-procurement-outsourcing/

Exclusive White Paper - Advanced Sourcing: Achieving the Next Level of Savings and Efficiency in Your Supply Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:29:00 +0000

As companies continually strive to deliver ever-increasing value to shareholders, they will
search out and implement new strategies, practices and tools across their organizations. In the supply chain and sourcing domains, companies are changing the way they source, produce and distribute goods or services to their customers, in search of reduced costs and greater efficiency.

Many companies have transitioned to a more centralized approach, moving from location-based to global, corporate-wide planning and execution. Cost reductions come from consolidation of sourcing events and leveraged spend, as well as the rationalization of a global supply base.

Others have embraced their supply base in search of new efficiencies and product innovation to drive continuous cost savings. However, as the scale of the sourcing event increases in size or complexity, so too does the challenge of managing such an event. More suppliers are invited to participate, submitting a greater number of proposals that must be considered. Larger, more complex supply networks are produced, creating inefficiencies in the distribution of goods, longer lead times, and additional logistical costs and risks. And sourcing events that span a broader group of stakeholders generate additional internal competition for influence over award decisions.

MANAGING COMPLEX SOURCING EVENTS

In recent years, as companies have adopted more advanced sourcing strategies, the most
innovative have also adopted advanced sourcing technologies. While still relatively
misunderstood among supply professionals, optimization-enabled sourcing solutions provide
capabilities to handle today’s real-world “complexities” found in an increasing number of global
sourcing events, which may include any or all of the following characteristics:

the need to manage larger-scale, global sourcing events
the need to collect diverse supplier proposals
the need to collect and model more complex business rules and variety of stakeholder preferences
and/or the analytical horsepower to enable business users to evaluate tens of thousands of options in mere seconds to find the optimal solutions.

This white paper will help clarify the value of optimization-enabled advanced sourcing solutions
by providing a high-level overview of the functional differences between various global sourcing
technologies, the characteristics of an advanced sourcing technology platform, and the benefits
afforded by such technologies. It will also explain how advanced sourcing technologies can
establish the framework by which companies like yours can change their sourcing strategies
and practices.

Interested to read more? Download the free PDF here!

PROCUREMENT FUNCTION LEADING THE FINANCIAL SERVICES IN 3RD PARTY VENDOR RISK

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:28:00 +0000

The economic downturn has seen many companies struggle, with many of those sadly closing doors. Others are feeling the pinch which causes them to take unnecessary risks, bend or even break regulations.

While this probably doesn’t include you, how certain can you be that your 3rd party vendors do not fall into this category? It is this question that is resulting in the back-office world of procurement coming closer to the front, leading the way to ensure that your company gets the best possible deal from the safest possible vendor, without falling foul of Mr. Regulator.

ProcureCon Financial Services met up with Alan McQuade, EMEA Supply Chain Management Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch to take a look at the ways they tackle this complex, but essential issue…

What measures are in place to gain vendor oversight across lines of businesses and regions?

At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a range of activity has been taking place – mainly in reaction to an OCC MRA (Matter Requiring Attention) – in regards to categorising the Bank’s 3rd parties by risk type, ensuring more visible governance and escalation routines are in place, regionally and globally, in respect to vendor risk and establishing new roles across the lines of business to ensure a greater level of oversight and control is in place around vendors.

How are you using this to ensure new (and existing!) regulatory requirements are implemented and upheld?

Taking into account the above, more rigour on identification of outsourced vendors and communication of outsourcing projects, by country, with the country-specific regulator in question being mobilised to reduce the confusion and differences in definition surrounding outsourced vendors and processes.Increased formality and routine between the Supply Chain group, the business areas and the Compliance Partners, in particular, are in place to capture evolving Regulatory requirements.

Do you feel the economic downturn has been one of the reasons for the rise in strategic importance of the CPO?

I think expense management has become more important, year on year, since the 2008 crash and the TARP activity that followed.Combined with operational and vendor risk, in particular, being prioritised across the Banking sector, Sourcing and Vendor Management is now a more relevant topic across all lines of business within the Bank.

To get you copy of the full Q&A pleas visit www,procurecon-finance.com

ACT AS A PERSON AND NOT AS A FUNCTION

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:45:00 +0000

The procurement function is changing. Speak to almost any CPO in ‘big industry’ and they will gladly extoll the virtues of taking the role beyond simple price negotiation to making it a critical and integral part of their whole business.

But how does this approach work when you are not producing physical products? When what your company does is not made from what you are procuring, can you really still have that wider business impact?

Dr. Heinz Schaeffer, Chief Procurement Officer NORCEE (Northern, Central and Eastern Europe) for AXA believes it can and explains how in this Q&A for Indirect Procurement Leaders News.

What are your top 4 spend categories this year, and do you expect this to change in the near future?

In terms of volume: Professional Services, Consulting, Real Estate, Marketing

The change in importance depends on the achieved coverage/influence, risk assessment/reduction, supplier/market development, and overall business strategy; so far the major focus of the future will be on Professional Services and Consulting.

How have you seen the procurement function change over the last few years, and where do you think it is going?

Over the years the Procurement function has developed from "pure purchasing function" to a function with its own policy, processes and a strategic importance for a company and it has started to deliver added value for a company. The added value is created e.g. through delivering better conditions, improved quality, more innovation, budgeting support etc. and by meeting better internal customer needs. Finally Procurement has become more aligned with the business and started to integrate suppliers as partners in the solution finding process and delivery.

Due to the increased importance of procurement, the need for a reliable and consistent talent recruitment and management has become more present, next to the fact that Procurement should be seen as a regular Business function such as IT, HR or Marketing.

Do you feel the economic downturn has been one of the reasons for the rise in strategic importance of the CPO?

The rise of strategic importance of procurement is in primarily due to the increased striving for economics and efficiency. Regardless of downturn or not the companies aim to become more efficient. Here procurement has an important role to play both in economic up or downturns and consequently I think that the role of CPO is something that should go without saying now and in the future.

My personal perception/conclusion is that after having started approximately 15-20 years ago to put more importance on Professional Buying activities being performed by colleagues of Procurement the Procurement colleagues in the meantime have the chance to receive a good education (there are several institutes ( high schools, universities), the set-up of the Procurement organisation is similar as for any other Business function and no longer something happening "by accident", the structuring and staffing has reached a maturity level which is professional and competitive, and the salary benchmarks reveal that it is worthwhile to become a member of the Procurement community. Last but not least the content of the job profile is no longer "just" to write a PO - it is a very comprehensive and quite often complex set of various requirements to be fulfilled as well towards the internal side of the company (understand, transfer, advice, educate, ensure) and external side of the company (research, request, develop, find an exit, solve, etc.) and this in a quickly (re)acting, mobile, and international environment.

Do you think this is permanent, or could things ever revert back when (if) the economic climate improves?

I do not see that it will revert back. I realise an increase in complexity (uncertainty, shorter periods, volatility, etc.) and in speed: there is a real need for a reliable and fast reactiveness. The pace is set and will not slow down.

What are you top 3 tips for getting buy-in those ‘more challenging’ stakeholders?

1. LRD: listen - reflect - deliver!

2. Be patient even though the pace is set.

3. Still act as a person and not as a function: Do what you do with respect, with empathy, and with passion.

The changing role of the procurement function in the financial services will be under the spotlight at brand new conferenceProcureCon Financial Services – Europe's only dedicated financial procurement conference for senior finance procurement professionals.

Discover more at www.procurecon-finance.com

Financial regulation beyond traders – How is procurement affected?

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:29:00 +0000

Regulation has a significant impact on all business sectors, but the financial services industry is one in particular where organisations need to be constantly aware of incoming rules. This is obvious when looking at trading, accounts and the like, but this filters down to all areas of the industry, including procurement.

Legal obligations can vary over different locations, meaning that companies must always be alert to any alterations, as they often mean that firms need to adapt or even overhaul some of their methods, whether that be their trading strategy, or their supply chain.

It is not easy for companies to quickly adjust to changes in regulation and it represents a large challenge for many organisations because rules are launched every few months and come with an associated time limit. The problem for the procurement teams is that in many cases systems will need upgrading and replacing in order to comply with the latest regulations, creating a massively complex, ever-evolving technology hub, which will always present significant challenges to the procurement function.

The significance of regulation has been particularly echoed by Alan McQuade, Europe, the Middle East and Africa supply chain management executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr McQuade has outlined that vendor oversight is being focused on more than it has in previous years.

He explained: “This is leading to a range of internal programmes and related change activity to ensure the regions and businesses have clearly evidenced controls, routines, oversight and understanding of their vendor and outsourced activity.”

Mr McQuade also pinpointed regulatory focus around 3rd party activity as one of the key difficulties in the market, as it means Merill Lynch has to discover new and innovative ways to decrease the cost base of its 3rd party while guaranteeing a strong control environment throughout all regions.

Regulation’s impact varies across the globe, with different laws being enforced for specific areas, a fact which has been highlighted by Niclas Badelius, purchasing manager at the leading Swedish bank Swedbank. Mr Badelius highlighted IT and cash handling as the organisation’s two main categories of expenditure, and noted that there are numerous stages to software procurement, which he listed as implementation, project management and documentation.

To read this report in full please visit www.procurecon-finance.com

ProcureCon Financial Services’ speakers give insight into the projects they’re working on, as well as the challenges facing them in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Ahead of the inaugural ProcureCon Financial Services meeting, which takes place on 26^th& 27^th September in London, several of the event’s keynote procurement speakers share some of the projects they’re currently working on, as well as the challenges facing them in 2012:

Duncan Brock, Chairman, CIPS

What do you foresee as being the key challenges for procurement professionals working in the financial services sector for the next 12 months?

All FS companies are being challenged to reduce their cost base, and so there will continue to be a high focus on the need to deliver cost reductions. In some companies the targets being set are at a higher level than they’ve had to deliver in the past.
Supplier management gets discussed in many FS companies but more needs to be done to really embed it as a way of working to maximise the value delivered by the major suppliers – particularly where there are outsourced services
Engaging internally with stakeholders, particularly where there is a large central procurement team, is a key to success in FS. Stakeholders are becoming more demanding and procurement leaders need to continue to improve their stakeholder management and engagement skills.

How do you think the procurement profession will have to change within the next 12 months?

See my last point above – improved stakeholder management and engagement
Risk management and sustainability are on the strategic agendas of businesses – procurement needs to demonstrate that it is embracing these challenges as well as continuing to deliver the required cost reductions.

Luca Guzzabocca, Director of Procurement, Logistics, HSE and Security Management, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A.

Key project you are currently working on:

Cash transport and management process review, paperless bank, Real Estate associated costs

What you foresee being your key challenges for the next 12 months:

“Ultra-efficiency” initiatives: more than in the past 3 years company is looking at extraordinary results in saving, expenses reduction and processes review.
Environmental, social and ethical Sustainability programme: we anyway need to balance our commitment in sustainability with our economic results

How you are overcoming these challenges:

Full day-by-day governance on compliance and a strong interfunctional team working
Regular and constant consideration of sustainability criteria in any initiative

Alan McQuade, SVP, EMEA Supply Chain Management Executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Key project(s) you are currently working on:

At Merrill Lynch, and across much of the financial sector, Vendor oversight across the lines of businesses and regions is receiving a much greater Regulatory focus than previous years. This is leading to a range of Internal programmes and related change activity to ensure the Regions and businesses have clearly evidenced controls, routines, oversight and understanding of their vendor and outsourced activity, and in terms of ensuring the correct escalation and committees are in place around such activity. The EMEA Supply Chain group are central to the implementation activity around this.

What you foresee being your key challenges for the next 12 months:

The lack of growth in the Eurozone, and the reducing revenues across wholesale and investment banking has created a more visible and significant pressure on expenses, across the Bank. This, combined with the increasing Regulatory focus around 3rd party activity is leading to an environment whereby the group have to come up with new and innovative ways to reduce our 3rd party cost base, whilst also ensuring a stronger control environment across all Regions.

How you are overcoming these challenges:

Rollout of enhanced vendor management routines, especially in our emerging markets environment, as well as close partnering with our business areas to manage down 3rd party reduction initiatives across a range of spend categories and business processes.

Please visit www.procurecon-finance.com to view the final agenda and explore some of the projects our other speakers are currently working on.

Barclaycard launches the latest version of its ePDQ payment processing system

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:53:00 +0000

Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance has launched the latest version of its ePDQ payment processing system, helping small, medium and large UK merchants accept payments online or via telephone. The new system will give users one of the most advanced payment processing systems currently available.

The launch follows significant investment from Barclaycard, with the new version of ePDQ providing a range of enhanced functions, making it easier for businesses to take, process and manage payments. These enhancements include the provision of a hosted payment page for customers’ websites. The payment page can be tailored by the customer to match their website, giving the end consumer a seamless payment experience and helping to reduce the level of abandoned transactions.

In addition, business customers will also benefit from improved fraud screening and risk management, downloadable data for easier data management and reporting, as well as greater flexibility by being able to select the services they require based on their needs, with pricing matched accordingly.

Existing ePDQ users will continue to benefit from their current pricing agreement, along with the added features this upgrade provides.

Eduardo Vergara, Chief Executive Officer of Barclaycard Global Business Solutions said: ‘ePDQ plays an important role in the payment processing business and I’m pleased to announce that following significant investment our customers will benefit from one of the best payment processing systems available, offering a wide range of new services that will help our customers meet their business objectives.’

Ogone Payment Services, a strategic partner of Barclaycard, supported the development of the new system and will provide continued operating support for the system after launch.

Peter De Caluwe, CEO Ogone Payment Services said: ‘Ogone is proud to be chosen by Barclaycard as operating partner for their new e-commerce system. This reflects our ongoing investments in maintaining a leading services offering.’

TOP 4 SPEND CATEGORIES IN PROCUREMENT WITHIN FINANCIAL SERVICES

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:06:00 +0000

With a lack of growth, tougher regulatory controls, changing customer demands and the financial markets contracting and consolidating, banking, investment management and insurance companies are increasingly looking at their procurement teams to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and promote innovation to create a point of differentiation and competitive advantage.

As the face of financial companies change, procurement teams are under the spotlight to understand market and company-driven concerns and employ procurement solutions to help solve them.

So what exactly do the heads of procurement in the financial services plan on spending their money on right now? ProcureCon conducted a recent poll with several procurement leaders in the financial space in companies including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, AXA, BNP Paribas and many more, to find out and in this article we present the top 4 most popular categories of spend in 2012:

4. MARKETING

Coming in 4th in our poll, representing 7% of the total votes marketing is clearly playing a vital role to making sure that while business may be in decline for many it is critical to make sure your company is the first in line. However there is some concern from the industry that cost savings in this area are particularly difficult as it more relationship-based than almost any other spend category.

One interesting observation is that while commentators are hailing the internet as the hero of cost-effective, targeted marketing in place of vast spends on primetime TV slots and glossy magazine spreads, it would appear that the web is not entirely shielded from megamoney deals. Several of the companies we spoke to cited multimillion pound spends with financial service comparison websites including those relating to meerkats, moustachioed opera singers and popular Arabic comedians as one of the key marketing spends this year.

To read this report in full please click here

Why do businesses struggle with effectively managing indirect procurement?

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Since the economic downturn, procurement’s profile has been raised within many global businesses.
Stronger executive support for major initiatives has increased mandates for tackling non-compliance and we are now witnessing business units, such as finance procurement and Marketing which, in some instances, have never let Procurement cross their door before, proactively seeking procurement support.

However, through a series of interactions with senior executives over the last few years, a consistent message has arisen – one of frustration that procurement, and indirect procurement in particular, is underappreciated by the widerorganisation.

Furthermore, a vast majority of the members of the C-Suite feel that indirect procurement is under-invested
across UK, Europe, US and further afield. Proxima, in conjunction with NelsonHall, therefore ran a research study to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and desired outcomes of indirect procurement to catalyse this
common sense that procurement could and should play a greater role in most businesses.

Some of the responses in our study do indicate that indirect procurement in some organisations is perceived to have a role that is somewhat tactical and administrative. Some respondents advised that it can create process blocks and can, on occasion, even be antagonistic to specialist suppliers of the business, particularly specialist service providers.

Our first whitepaper, in this series of three, closely examined the quantitative research data surrounding the current perceptions of the indirect procurement function. This whitepaper examines the qualitative data gathered throughout the research and explores what procurement can do to redefine how it’s perceived by the organisation. I hope you find this whitepaper series as informative and insightful as we have. Download the whitepaper in full - click here

Buyer Spend Activity, Procurement Behaviors and Strategies in the Global Construction Industry 2012-2013: Survey Intelligence Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1cELE)

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Buyer Spend Activity, Procurement Behaviors and Strategies in the Global Construction Industry 2012–2013: Survey Intelligence

Synopsis

• This procurement strategy report is the result of an extensive survey drawn from Timetric's exclusive panel of leading construction industry executives. The opinions and forward looking statements of 218 industry executives have been captured in our in-depth survey, of which 54% represent director and C-level respondents.

• The geographical scope of the research is global - drawing on the activity and expectations of leading industry players across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East.

• The report covers data and analysis on construction industry buyer spend activity, procurement behaviors and strategies.

• Key topics covered include annual procurement budgets, planned change in procurement expenditure, procurement expenditure by products and services, expected changes in regional supplier prices, critical success factors for supplier selection, future procurement objectives and e-procurement

Buyer Spend Activity, Procurement Behaviors and Strategies in the Global Construction Industry 2012–2013: Survey Intelligence is a new report by Timetric that focuses on the procurement budgets of buyer companies in the global construction industry, and on the expected changes in the spending of supplier organizations in 2012. Further, this report gives access to the important criteria for supplier selection from the point of view of both buyers and suppliers. This report not only grants access to the opinions and strategies of business decision makers and competitors, but also examines their actions surrounding business priorities. The report also provides access to information categorized by region, company type and company size

Scope

The report features the opinions of global construction industry respondents related to the following:

• Annual procurement budgets

• Planned change in procurement expenditure

• Procurement expenditure by products and services

• Expected changes in regional supplier prices

• Critical success factors for supplier selection

• Future procurement objectives

• E-procurement

Summary
To order this report:Construction and Building Industry: Buyer Spend Activity, Procurement Behaviors and Strategies in the Global Construction Industry 2012–2013: Survey Intelligence

More Market Research Report

Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1cELE)

Enhancing and redefining the role of indirect procurement - research findings and results.

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:34:00 +0000

Part 1: Current perceptions of the indirect procurement function.

Since the economic downturn, procurement’s profile has been raised within many global businesses.

Stronger executive support for major initiatives has increased mandates for tackling non-compliance and we are now witnessing business units, such as marketing which, in some, instances, have never let procurement cross their door before, proactively seeking procurement support.

However, through a series of interactions with Senior Executives over the last few years, a consistent message has arisen – one of frustration that procurement, and indirect procurement in particular, is underappreciated by the wider organisation. Furthermore, a vast majority of the members of

the C-Suite feel that indirect procurement is under-invested across UK, Europe, US and further afield.

Proxima, in conjunction with NelsonHall, therefore ran a research study to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and desired outcomes of Indirect Procurement to catalyse this common sense that procurement could and should play a greater role in most businesses. Some of the responses in our study do indicate that indirect procurement in some organisations is perceived to have a role that is somewhat tactical and administrative. Some respondents advised that it can create process blocks and can, on occasion, even be antagonistic to specialist suppliers of the business, particularly specialist service providers.

This whitepaper, which is the first in a series of three, explores what procurement can do to redefine how it’s seen by the organisation.

Download the full whitepaper at http://info.proximagroup.com/current-perceptions-indirect-procurement

The Marketing Maturity Matrix: Marketing procurement comes of age

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:01:00 +0000

The Double Bind

The conventional wisdom, according to almost every business and marketing textbook, is that when recession hits, companies need to market their way out of trouble.

Despite the cost-cutting instinct that takes over in a tough climate, slashing marketing is the very last thing the business gurus recommend. As customers become more discerning about what they spend, the need to sell your brand in order to stay top of mind becomes more crucial than ever. The reality, however, is invariably different. Marketing budgets are usually the first to feel the squeeze, and are often among the hardest hit. This time around is no different. As the post-crisis economic uncertainty bites well into a third year, Charterhouse took stock of the impact on marketing funding and the implications for procurement departments among Europe’s top brands. We interviewed procurement leaders in 200 of Europe’s 500 largest companies by turnover.We found buyers struggling in a double bind: under pressure from senior management to reduce marketing spend, but lacking influence over an expenditure that is subject to little or no central control. At the heart of the problem lies an inconsistent approach to marketing purchasing across European businesses. This report examines these inconsistencies, and sets out a new approach to driving cost efficiencies when buying marketing products and services: the Marketing Maturity Matrix.

Downward Pressure

As markets shrink, inevitably, so do marketing budgets. The current economic slowdown is no exception. And the axe is falling on procurement as well as marketing as both are tasked with reducing the cost of promoting their company’s offerings.

Charterhouse found that almost half (42%) of procurement professionals at Europe’s largest businesses are experiencing pressure from senior management to bring down the cost of the marketing products and services their firm buys. Those experiencing this have seen marketing budgets cut by some 16%

on average. This downward pressure is not without good reason, in the eyes of the buyers themselves. Over four fifths (81%) claim their organisations could be leaner. And they are refocusing on marketing spend, as savings in other purchasing areas dry up. Last Bastion Traditional procurement categories are yielding fewer savings than ever before, according to two thirds (65%) of procurement professionals. At the same
time, four fifths (79%) believe that marketing spend could be managed more efficiently by their company.
As a result, almost two fifths (39%) see marketing as a significant opportunity to drive procurement savings. A quarter (21%) characterise the opportunity as ‘very large’. Significantly, more than a third (35%)
describe marketing as the last real opportunity for procurement to drive significant new cost reductions.

To Download this white paper in full please visit www.procurecon-indirect.com

IAOP Expands Outsourcing Professional Certification Training Globally

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Increased need and demand leads to more educational offerings by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals in its Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP) program

Poughkeepsie, NY (I-Newswire) April 20, 2012 - POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – With the outsourcing industry continuing to experience 10 percent growth, the need for an outsourcing strategy and professionals to stay up to date on the latest trends and standards is more pertinent than ever, fueling an increase in professional certification training programs.

In response to the increased need and demand from individuals and companies employing outsourcing professionals globally, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) has continued to expand its educational offerings in its Certified Outsourcing Professional® (COP) program.

New offerings include the Service Provider Business Development Workshop, a one-day live or online program that earns 15 points towards the COP certification and qualifies candidates for the new Certified Outsourcing Professional - Business Development (COP-BD) certification.

“Outsourcing is a highly strategic, complex and ever-changing process that requires constant governance, due diligence and monitoring on the part of clients and service providers,” said Jim Shea, CEO of CDI Online Management Services, who holds the designations of COP-BD and COP-GOV. “Keeping up with changes in the field and implementing best practices is critical to outsourcing success.”

The number of professionals gaining the COP designation that validates expertise in the end-to-end process of outsourcing continues to rise. More than 325 professionals from 22 countries have received COP designations, while over 650 applications for award of the certification are now under consideration by the Outsourcing Standards Board, IAOP reports.

“Being a COP is a differentiator,” says JoAnn Martin of Pitney Bowes, COP, PBI and PMP. “Gaining this certification has allowed me the expanded scope of knowledge learned, experienced and gathered from my peers to help guide my company in outsourcing maturity. The COP certification goes beyond the validity a certification brings. COPs help align customers, vendors and consultants in outsourcing in order to achieve company success in the global economy.”

Master Class Participation Increases

IAOP also has seen a 25 percent increase from 2010 to 2011 in its COP Master Class training, a comprehensive learning experience for improved outsourcing outcomes.

Over 1,000 professionals have undergone the COP Master Class training globally and report high satisfaction with the program with 92 percent of attendees saying they gained skills specific to their position and also gathered new ideas to bring back to their companies and more than 75 percent responding that it met or exceeded their expectations of improving their outsourcing ability.

To offer greater flexibility, IAOP has changed the Master Class format from a four to three-day class held at prestigious executive conference centers and also increased options for companies to hold on-site private classes. In North America, the Master Class and one-day Governance workshop can be combined to give executives more training in one business trip, reducing travel expenses. All IAOP training also is available online for universal accessibility.

“IAOP provides state-of-the-art instructor led and online training on outsourcing best practices for both clients and service providers,” Shea says. “The COP training delivers the knowledge and skills outsourcing practitioners need to keep up with the ever-changing field of outsourcing.”

Among the upcoming COP Master Classes being held globally are sessions April 16-19 and June 11-14 in Kuala Lumpur; May 9-11 in Hong Kong; and June 25-28 in Toronto combined with the one-day Governance workshop. For a schedule of Master Classes and professional training, see IAOP.

About IAOP
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 120,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit www.IAOP.org.

Media Contact:
Kate Hammond, Manager, Media and Communications
+1.845.452.0600 ext. 122
kate.hammond@iaop.org

Summit Energy Enhances DashboarDView Online Sustainability And Energy Management Software

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:19:00 +0000

SOFTWARE PROVIDES USERS WITH ROBUST, CUSTOMIZABLE CAPABILITIES TO MONITOR, FORECAST AND MANAGE THEIR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS

Summit Energy, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, is pleased to announce the newest release of its proprietary, online sustainability and energy management platform, dashboarDView (DV). DV provides Summit clients with secure access to the energy and environmental data, reports, and summaries that drive their enterprise energy and sustainability programs.

“Our continuous commitment to our clients led to the development of the latest DV enhancements,” said Steve Wilhite, CEO of Summit Energy. “We’ve been collecting feedback throughout the development process so that we not only meet, but exceed our clients’ needs and expectations. We are extremely pleased with the initial response.”

Among DV’s most exciting new features is its ability to respond to individual users’ preferences with increased configuration options. DV offers each user a completely customizable homepage, the option to view DV in one of more than 10 different languages, and dozens of currency and unit-of-measure options to meet the diverse needs of Summit Energy’s global client base.

DV also provides users unprecedented visibility into their data. It transforms information at every level of the organization – carbon emissions, resources, cost and usage, program activity, etc. – into enterprise-wide business intelligence. This information illustrates emissions and waste reductions, savings achieved, costs avoided, resources mitigated, and risks managed as measured by key performance indicators. It also makes accurate reporting to key internal and external stakeholders more efficient.

Perhaps the most significant additions to DV come by way of new, optional functionality. Depending on each client’s needs, several modules and upgrades are available to address a wide variety of abatement concerns through improved project management, goal setting, forecasting and scenario planning. Other modules give users the ability to create custom charts through business analytics in real-time with a drag-and-drop interface for any stream, data series or metric managed in DV

By combining analysts for quality assurance and data management capabilities, DV now represents a new offering in the crowded software-as-a-service (SaaS) market: SaaMS, or software-as-a-managed-service. Companies that require audited and verified data accuracy will value DV’s new capabilities, while companies whose data needs can be met by standard SaaS will continue to find DV a fast and flexible business tool.

About Summit Energy
Summit Energy provides energy management and sustainability services for businesses in a wide range of industries. Summit manages more than $20 billion in annualized energy spend for more than 650 clients and thousands of facilities worldwide. Summit leads companies to cost-effective strategies by providing energy procurement, sustainability consulting, energy efficiency, energy risk management, and rate analysis and demand response services. Headquartered in Louisville, Ky., with a team of more than 350 employees, Summit has additional offices in the United States, as well as in Europe and Mexico.

About Schneider ElectricAs a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries, Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centers/networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, and efficient, the company's 110,000 plus employees achieved sales of more than $26 billion in 2010, through an active commitment to help individuals and organizations “Make the most of their energy.”

www.schneider-electric.com/us

Procurement announces another contract win

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Xchanging plc ('Xchanging') (LSE:XCH), the business process and technology services provider and integrator, today announces that it has been awarded a three year procurement services contract by a leading investment and insurance institution in the UK.

Under the contract, Xchanging will provide a range of procurement services, including the provision of technology, helpdesk and expert sourcing services.

In addition, Xchanging will provide ‘Tail Spend Management’, looking for opportunities to create savings by rationalising spend with the 80% of suppliers that account for only 20% of this customer’s overall spend profile.

Ed Cross, Head of Procurement Services - Europe, commented: “I am delighted by this deal as it demonstrates that our new go-to-market approach for procurement services is paying dividends. It continues to build on the momentum in the global market place that we’ve gained with the two contracts announced in August 2011, one with L’Oréal in Europe and the second with BAE Systems in North America”.

For further information, please contact:
Xchanging

Ed Cross
Head of Procurement Services Tel: +44 (0)7748 761994
Ed.Cross@Xchanging.com

Graham Copeland Tel: +44(0) 7825 273060
Head of Sales- Procurement
Graham.Copeland@Xchanging.com

About Xchanging
Xchanging is a business process and technology service provider and integrator specialising in Financial Services, Insurance Services, Technology and Procurement, with processing skills and capabilities applicable to other vertical industry and market sectors.

Perfect Commerce and Verizon Wireless partner to help utility service companies reduce operational expenses:

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:55:00 +0000

With a tough economy constantly hovering overhead, businesses are looking for solutions that help improve overall operational expenses. Perfect Commerce, an eprocurement and esourcing solution expert, and Verizon Wireless are working together to help businesses with their cost-cutting initiatives. Using a strategic Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), Perfect Commerce can offer companies in the gas utility, water utility, electric utility, oil and gas refinery or coal industries a substantial cost savings on Verizon Wireless voice and data services as well as select accessories. Non-Verizon clients may also be eligible for these special incentives, provided they switch services to Verizon Wireless.

Perfect Commerce is launching monthly e-communication campaigns to educate its members on these special savings, as well as wireless technology solutions that can help address a number of business challenges. Over 135 new clients have taken advantage of these custom offerings since the new campaign launch this past July. Clients are catching on to the scent of savings and some have started to see significant cost reductions.

Verizon and Perfect Commerce have identified and preapproved thousands of companies for these special incentives. The GPO is a strategic relationship that allows Verizon Wireless to drive messaging to a targeted audience in the utilities space, while allowing Perfect Commerce to drive value adding business solutions to help address the business concerns of their members. For companies to qualify, they must provide an energy service, such as: electric/gas/water utilities, nuclear power, coal, pipelines or energy co-ops. See if your company qualifies through our Group Purchasing page.

The company information you provide to Perfect Commerce is quickly reviewed to determine eligibility; once approved there are a few effortless steps to complete the process. While the process is automated, Perfect Commerce still offers customer support.

About Perfect Commerce:

Perfect Commerce, headquartered in Newport News, VA, offers world-class sourcing and procurement solutions for companies of all sizes. Perfect Commerce global customers and partners include market leaders such as ConEdison, Visagent, BNP Paribas, Johnson Controls, Inc., YRC Worldwide and Honeywell, Inc. www.perfect.com

Multi-site contract for McDonald's in the United Kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:30:00 +0000

VINCI Facilities is assuming responsibility for 463 McDonald’s restaurants in the United Kingdom.

The restaurants are located in Scotland, the North West, the North East, Central London, South East London, and Yorkshire.

This contract includes a 24/7 repair service for catering and electrical equipment, preventive maintenance, 24/7 air conditioning, the maintenance and repair of gas-fired equipment, the refrigeration and monitoring of fixed and portable electrical appliances.

McDonald’s number one priority is to serve their customers. VINCI Facilities will contribute to this by servicing and repairing the equipment in its restaurants. Equipment downtime has to be minimized, which we ensure by providing high quality maintenance and a fast response service with a high level of first fix. In addition, we must ensure that obligatory maintenance standards are complied with - both statutory checks and food-safety equipment tests.

. The hospital provides 484 acute beds and 87 mental health beds.
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VINCI Facilities to deliver hard FM to Queen Elizabeth PFI Hospital

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

VINCI Facilities has been awarded the contract by Meridian Hospital Company to provide fully outsourced hard FM services to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital PFI in Woolwich, London.

The £70M contract over 20 years will see VINCI Facilities TUPE across 30 full time staff and deliver a wide range of services to the PFI scheme including planned preventative and reactive maintenance, grounds maintenance, property management and capital works, life cycle replacement works, energy and waste management, medical gases and vacuum system and training services.

In addition VINCI Facilities will manage the delivery of the £50M capital replacement works over this term.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital opened in 2001 to serve patients in the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley. It was one of the first wave of PFI Hospital build projects within the NHS and involved the transformation of the former military hospital at Woolwich into an acute general hospital for the NHS. The hospital provides 484 acute beds and 87 mental health beds.

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Latest news from VINCI Facilities in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

VINCI Facilities secures Transport for London and London Underground maintenance contracts

VINCI Facilities has reinforced its position as a key service provider in the transport and infrastructure sector with the recent award, 14th November 2011, of two facilities management contracts for Transport for London and London Underground.

The Facilities Management contracts include parts of the corporate and operational estate’s providing Service Desk, HVAC, M&E, Building Fabric, Soft and Security Services. The contract is set for a five year period.

VINCI Facility’s approach, combining robust asset management delivered by bespoke operational CAFM systems and a dynamic approach to labour and resource allocation, demonstrated key deliverables of the invitation to tender.

You can meet Vinci Facilities at ProcureCon Indirect which takes place 24th - 26th April in London. Find out more here

ProcureCon Indirect speakers give insight into the projects they’re working on, as well as the challenges facing them in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:33:00 +0000

ProcureCon Indirect returns on 24^th-26^thApril, promising three days of networking, benchmarking and debate among 300 of Europe’s leading indirect procurement practitioners.

Building on the success of last year’s meeting, the ProcureCon Indirect team have put together an entirely revamped agenda, focusing only on the critical issues affecting CPOs and senior indirect sourcing professionals. It’s truly an agenda by the industry, for the industry, with discussion topics chosen by a special Advisory Board made up of key figures from within the industry.

Prior to the conference, several of the event’s keynote speakers share some of the projects they’re currently working on, as well as the challenges facing them in 2012:

Heather Rodgers - Chief Procurement Officer, Centrica

Key project you are currently working on:

Overviewing Procurement transformation in time of change in Centrica for 10bn spend. Focus for 2012 is indirect spend drive for review, Talent Boards development of high potential performers, development of M and A strategic sourcing best practice and SRM roll out. Balance of growth agenda and costs efficiencies in business units.

What you foresee being your key challenges for the next 12 months:

Build next generation of leaders to achieve high performing agenda , creatively challenging notions of value , seeing change coming and options ready on the table for ways forward and risk management being driven down the supply chain beyond immediate partners

How you are overcoming the challenges:

Overcoming by developing risk management processes and working with partners for transparency and involved in Group Risk Executive Committees for discussions early. Budget – kept money aside for development of people and attracting talent from graduates, other departments and external.

Tom Casey - Procurement Manager, BPO, Call Centres and Revenue Generation, Everything Everywhere

Key project(s) you are currently working on:

Currently working on a complex supply chain outsourcing deal which will be unique in the industry. Enormous challenges, but will place us in a better position in the end.

What you foresee being your key challenges for the next 12 months:

Key challenge is maintaining market share and margins in a very competitive market.

How you are overcoming these challenges:

Overcoming this challenge will be by giving customers more value, not necessarily reduced costs.

Alan McQuade - SVP, EMEA Supply Chain Management Executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Key project(s) you are currently working on:

What you foresee being your key challenges for the next 12 months:

How you are overcoming these challenges:

Rollout of enhanced vendor mgt routines, especially in our emerging markets environment, as well as close partnering with our business areas to manage down 3rd party reduction initiatives across a range of spend categories and business processes.

Please visit www.procurecon-indirect to view the final agenda and explore some of the projects our other speakers are currently working on.

Business intelligence experts Rosslyn Analytics selects ClickThrough Marketing to continue growth

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:06:00 +0000

Cloud-based data management specialists Rosslyn Analytics have asked ClickThrough Marketing to assist with their internet marketing activities.

Cloud-based data management specialists Rosslyn Analytics have asked ClickThrough Marketing to assist with their internet marketing activities.

ClickThrough Marketing, one of the UK's leading search engine and internet marketing companies, will support Rosslyn Analytics’ continued rapid growth using powerful search engine optimisation and conversion optimisation techniques.

The new initiative will focus on increasing website traffic and tailoring online content for Rosslyn Analytics, recently named as one of the best privately held software companies in the world.

Rosslyn Analytics has developed a patent-pending online RA.Pid data management platform and integrated suite of one-click data extraction, data quality and analytical reporting tools that help business users to quickly identify savings opportunities with better and more timely business intelligence.

“We believe that the key to successful data management is putting consumer-like enterprise tools directly into the hands of business users,” said Lance Mercereau, Director of Marketing at Rosslyn Analytics. “Our cloud services allow businesses to extract, enrich and analyse data quickly and efficiently, at the touch of a button.”

“Our decision to appoint ClickThrough was based on their similarly uncomplicated and transparent attitude to online marketing. We look forward to working with them and expect their innovative approach yields the business results we expect from an award winning agency.”

ClickThrough is delighted with the new appointment.

Phil Robinson, Commercial Director at ClickThrough, said: “Rosslyn Analytics have already seen massive growth thanks to their cutting-edge analytics solutions. We are looking forward to building on this success together with a search engine optimisation campaign that will open up their brand to a whole new audience.”

Since 2004, ClickThrough Marketing has helped clients in more than 30 countries reach out to new online customers with its ethical and client-focused approach and industry-leading online marketing techniques. They offer a fully-managed online marketing service, that integrates Pay Per Click campaigns, social media management and search engine optimisation.

You can meet Rosslyn Analytics at the ProcureCon Indirect Conference which takes place 24th - 26th April 2012. Find out more here

Revamped agenda unveiled for ProcureCon Indirect 2012 meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:04:00 +0000

ProcureCon Indirect, Europe’s premier indirect procurement conference, returns on 24^th-26^thApril, promising three days of networking, benchmarking and debate among 300 of Europe’s leading indirect procurement leaders.

Building on the success of last year’s indirect sourcing conference, the ProcureCon Indirect team have put together an entirely revamped agenda, focusing only on the critical issues affecting CPOs and senior indirect procurement professionals. Confirmed speakers include:

Lance Younger, Global Co-CPO & EMEA CFO, Goldman Sachs

Kees Gerretse, CPO, Group Director Procurement & Transport, Tata Steel Group

Philippe Robert, Sourcing Vice President, Alstom

Sven Jacobs, Head of Global Strategic Sourcing, Lonza AG

Fabien Krawczyk, Group Head of Indirect Procurement – Professional Services, Groupe La Poste

Alan McQuade, SVP EMEA Supply Chain Management Executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Ed Worthington, Senior Procurement Manager, Virgin Holidays

Heather Rodgers, Chief Procurement Officer, Centrica

Michael Woodburn, Managing Vice President of Business Analysis and Marketing, Capital One

Herve Menassol, Global Capital Purchases Associate Director, Procter & Gamble

Gail Roberts, Head of Supply Chain and Procurement, Royal Mint

And many more – see www.procurecon-indirectfor a full list

Each speaker has been specially chosen to speak on a topic relevant to the indirect sourcing projects they’re currently working on. Alan McQuade, SVP EMEA Supply Chain Management Executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch describes his current challenges and areas of interest:

Top Projects for 2012:

At Merrill Lynch, and across much of the financial sector, vendor oversight across the lines of businesses and regions is receiving a much greater Regulatory focus than previous years. This is leading to a range of internal programmes and related change activity to ensure the regions and businesses have clearly evidenced controls, routines, oversight and understanding of their vendor and outsourced activity, and in terms of ensuring the correct escalation and committees are in place around such activity. The EMEA Supply Chain group are central to the implementation activity around this

What do you foresee as being your key challenges in 2012?

How are you going to overcome these challenges?

ProcureCon Indirect 2012 will take place at the Tower Guoman Hotel London on 24^th-26^thApril 2012

Please visit www.procurecon-indirect to view the final agenda and explore some of the projects our other speakers are currently working on.

Indirect Procurement Sector Faces Growing Middle Class

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Indirect procurement leaders have to face a number of changes in the industry – many as a result of globalisation – that are forcing them to quickly adapt to increased complexity in supply chains.

Part of this, a new report has suggested, is the growing middle class, particularly in emerging markets.

A survey of 547 executives by Ernst & Young, titled Innovating for the next three billion: The rise of the global middle class, suggests that the middle class is set to reach five billion by 2030, largely driven by movements in Asia and other rapidly growing markets.

Demand from this enlarged middle class is expected to grow from US$21 trillion (£13.3 trillion) to US$56 trillion by 2030, and indirect procurement managers will have to find new ways to deal with the rapid global growth and capitalise on it.

According to Ernst & Young, companies will need to create entirely new products and services in order to continue to innovate and grow. They will also be forced to shift away from their current focus at the premium end of high-growth markets.

“Companies need to think about fundamentally changing the way they work in order to take advantage of these changing demographics,” commented Maria Pinelli, global vice-chair in Strategic Growth Markets for Ernst & Young.

She highlighted the findings that by 2030, 40 per cent of spending among the middle class will take place in Asia. Currently, this stands at just ten per cent, showing just how much is expected to change in the next 20 years.

Focusing on the effect the expanding middle class will have on the procurement sector, Bill Delves, area leader of Asia-Pacific strategic growth markets at the company, told SupplyManagement.com: “Creating low-cost but high-quality products and services for the middle class in rapid-growth markets will require companies to innovate across the entire value chain.

“They will need to strip out costs, increase efficiency and establish highly productive relationships with key suppliers and distributors to ensure that they can meet the price points that lower-income customers can afford.”

To read this article in full please visit www.procurecon-indirect.com

These topics and more will be discussed at the ProcureCon Indirect Conference, where the procurement leaders across all industries will meet to discuss the best way to approach indirect procurement. Visit ProcureCon-Indirect.com to find out more.

Three years FM contract with Guilford in United Kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Worldwide Business Research) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Last June 2011, VINCI Facilities signed a 3 years FM contract with Guilford. Guilford is an international producer of textiles and fabrics predominantly for use in car interiors which has production facilities in US, UK and France. 272 tonnes of textile are produced by Guilford Alfreton per month and the factory is a round the clock production, 6 days per week.

VINCI Facilities delivers FM services as reception, mechanical and electrical maintenance, cleaning etc. to the Guilford UK production factory that also houses the Guilford European head office at Alfreton.

In this contract, our client needs to continuously increase the productivity level. That is why, the dedicated team of VINCI Facilities has to minimize the equipment downtime and ensure a high level of “FIRST TIME FIRST FIX” repairs.

of first fix. In addition, we must ensure that obligatory maintenance standards are complied with - both statutory checks and food-safety equipment tests.
. The hospital provides 484 acute beds and 87 mental health beds.
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