Procurement Processes Revealed At CIPS Seminar
Understanding how procurement professionals think is the key to maximising...
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 Understanding how procurement professionals think is the key to maximising business success. That was the message delivered at a recent seminar produced on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).

The half-day seminar at the Hilton Kensington on October 10, was attended by 80 events industry suppliers, including professional event organisers, venue-finding agencies, hotels and tourist offices. It was the result of a collaboration between the CIPS and the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA), the Incentive Travel & Meetings Association (ITMA) and Meeting Professionals International (MPI) – UK Chapter.

Speaker Terry Jones, procurement trainer and consultant with the PMMS Consulting Group, explained that purchasers could be divided into two categories, the first of which, 'tactical buyers', had little decision-making responsibility and followed rigid criteria to produce preferred supplier lists.

In advising suppliers how to deal with such clients, Jones said: "There will be a purchasing process and suppliers need to understand how to follow it. By creating a response document that contains exactly the requested information you effectively make it difficult for them to exclude you."

The second type of buyer, according to Jones, was the 'strategic purchaser', who followed a seven-step process to procurement. These buyers, he explained, used a value-versus-risk matrix to determine the attitude and approach to be applied to any generic group of suppliers.

He advised events industry professionals to obtain an understanding of their positioning within the matrix quadrant and to convince procurement clients that their services contribute towards the organisation's competitive edge. By doing this, he explained, they would move into a 'high value, high risk' category, and would gain better interaction with senior people within the buying organisation.

The seminar's second speaker, Chris Birdsall, general procurement manager, T-Mobile UK, outlined his company's approach to sourcing events and incentive programmes.

He gave specific recommendations to different categories of supplier. On the topic of project execution and delivery, Birdsall urged event management agencies to undertake risk assessments, to ensure that sub-contractors were meeting high standards of performance, and to undertake three-way post-event evaluation exercises.

In summing up the seminar's two presentations, moderator Peter Rand, Rand chairman, said: "The first rule of selling is to understand your customer. Now we know the questions we need to ask."

The seminar followed a one-day event held in May designed for purchasing and procurement professionals buying event management services. This second event, targeting suppliers to the events industry, attracted agency members of the HBAA, ITMA and MPI, corporate marketing/events members of MPI and Charter Partners of the HBAA, the major hotel groups and other members.

Rand added: "We are delighted that CIPS have supported this initiative to bring together suppliers in the industry and to build on the success of the May event. Having been given the opportunity to speak to procurement professionals on that occasion, the events industry has now had an opportunity to hear their side of the story: what's important to them, how to approach them and how we can work towards mutual understanding and more effective business relationships in the long term."
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