Spend less to acquire value
that meets your needs

"Will Parsons and Mark Allen provided really useful input to our Best Value Review of Procurement and helped us achieve a much better result with more substantial savings identified through improved procurement practices"

Francis Murphy
Best Value Officer
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Strategic Procurement Review

A review of an organisation's strategic direction and implementation can, at the right time and if done well, have a profound effect on morale, performance and results. However, it is the quality, thoroughness and clarity of a review that provides insightful and valuable results. To achieve this Qualitar investigates past and current performance, involves influencers and implementers, and recommends practical and relevant improvements that will achieve valuable results.

Why do a strategic review of procurement?

The most insightful way to answer the above question is for us to ask you some more questions. You should be able, if you procure goods and services effectively, to answer each of these questions straightaway, positively and in some detail.

• Do you have an organisation wide procurement strategy?
• Is it written down and up to date?
• Does it clearly and directly support your objectives?
• Is it known by all who procure and those who influence procurement decisions?
• Do they apply this strategy consistently, all of the time?
• Is your strategy effective (do you have evidence)?
• Do you know if you could do better?
• What is it that you will do better (where is the plan)?

Achieve valuable insights

The greater insight you have into your organisation's current and previous strategic direction, relative to external circumstances, then the better prepared you are to formulate a more effective procurement strategy and implement it successfully. Insights will include:

• What you can change to achieve more value
• How to implement these changes
• Which changes to make first
• A clear direction for all who influence procurement activities

Our collaborative approach to a strategic review will garner wider ranging support that will help you implement changes and achieve valuable results more quickly.

How we help?

Qualitar will, jointly with you or on its own, investigate and review each of the key elements of your procurement activities. To do this we will:

• Read and evaluate your existing strategy or strategy related documents
• Comment on any procurement guidance you provide
• Evaluate a selection of previous and current procurement exercises
• Test knowledge and implementation with individuals and groups
• Evaluate capability and capacity
• Review performance monitoring and measuring
• Analyse your organisation's expenditure

Semi-structured informal interviews encourage interviewees to provide unvarnished opinions and relevant information, and with our feedback help them to improve their performance straightaway. We include and encourage discussions on specific issues this helps to transfer valuable skills and knowledge.

We provide you with a record of the review, an in-depth evaluation of your current and previous performance, and recommendations, backed by evidence from the review, that will help you improve your future performance and achieve valuable results.

What you need to do

Your involvement in a strategic review should be wide ranging if you want to achieve the very best results. This includes appointing a key employee to be responsible for managing all aspects of the review, including our activities. In addition you should:

• Encourage active and visible support from directors and senior managers
• Involve procurement professionals and senior practitioners
• Identify key influencers
• Arrange interviews and meetings
• Provide or facilitate access to data and information
• Make us aware of anything else that may impact on the review

For example

For Hampshire County Council we did a comprehensive strategic review of their procurement activities challenging their current performance and results to unearth the potential they had to improve. The procurement review included a full spend analysis and enabled us to pinpoint specific areas where there was potential to improve performance and achieve better results.