Elevate YOUR Procurement: Move from Tactical to Strategic

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. So said an ancient Chinese general named Sun Tzu who wrote about the art of war. The art of procurement is a far cry from a military clash, but Sun Tzu’s words point out the necessity of a strategy in order to succeed in a large endeavor.

In Procurement, we often hear that being strategic is critical, but what does that mean and how does Procurement get there? As the former Procurement Manager at the Indianapolis Airport Authority and the Indianapolis Zoo, a not-for-profit organization, I define being strategic in Procurement as being involved in the upfront discussion and planning of a future purchase or project (a long-range goal). Tactics, the tangible actions needed to reach the goal, are often determined by others outside of Procurement. We have all been there. It is especially frustrating when other departments’ expectations conflict with reality, best business practices, regulations, laws, or policies, which is a whole other topic.

Procurement professionals understand what it takes to get to the end goal efficiently and legally. But with headcount in Procurement being low compared to other departments, how do you get in front of the requests? Below are some ideas that have worked for me.

First Step – Eliminate, then Automate Tactical Tasks

• Simplify your processes and documents. Do solicitation templates from 10 years ago request information no longer needed? Is that report produced monthly even reviewed by anyone?
• Automate as many of the tactical tasks as possible with an eProcurement solution – technology is your friend so embrace it. Who enjoys creating bid tabulations or manually entering contract and insurance certificate information in an Excel spreadsheet?

Next Step – Become Strategic by Building Influence

• Look at the budget by department. Often there are support documents that will detail the upcoming projects, services, and goods planned.
• Target the departments that spend the most and/or have the largest impact to your organization.
• Schedule a meeting with the Department Director to discuss Procurement’s involvement – explain how you can benefit them by being involved from the beginning. With an eProcurement system you can show how vendor outreach is maximized, cost savings increased due to competition, tracking of diverse vendors’ interest and participation is possible.
• Ask for feedback on your department: What do we do well? Need to improve on? How can we be part of the strategy to help your department achieve success? An agile and robust eProcurement system will be able to provide additional data or streamline additional processes if needed.
• Better yet, get involved next year with their annual budgeting process. An eProcurement solution will have the data for you to provide historical cost for future purchases and tracking trends.

Leadership will start inviting Procurement to the project planning table. Including Procurement early on results in contracting with top-performing suppliers and contractors. Not only will your internal customers value Procurement, but your staff will become higher performers and influence successful results.

PlanetBids can get you to the strategic level being the preferred eProcurement software of governmental agencies to automate the procurement process, providing an A to Z platform that manages suppliers/contractors, solicitations, electronic bidding, evaluating responses, contracting, certifications, bonds, insurance and more.

Our SaaS solution is a game-changer, automating your tactical tasks and providing critical data to help you make strategic decisions. 

Schedule a Demo or Register now for an upcoming free webinar! 

Doreen Cherry
Account Executive
818.992.1771
Our PB System™

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PlanetBids, Inc is a WBE, SBE & US Corporation celebrating 22 years of excellence.  For a demonstration, go to Schedule a Demo or call us at 818.992.1771.