Procurement Intelligence Unit

So where are you now? Where do you need to go? And how will get there? Sounds simple, right? Well... it's not.

The challenge we faced with building our new Procurement GPS tool was taking ten years of practical, operational procurement testing and usage, plus thirty years of academic research and a PhD on the topic into a slick, usable tool that produces actionable outputs. This was no mean feat; the sheer volume of procurement information that sits behind the GPS frame is immense.

Procurement GPS breaks down the procurement function into 17 different operational modules that span the breadth of what the function is capable of achieving. The tool will assess your current capabilities against these 17 modules and suggest improvement plans to assist your organisation to move to the maturity level required to support your business. The 17 modules contain 10 levels of maturity; each of these levels has three questions associated with them to determine whether you meet the requirements of that level of maturity. In essence, you are able to run a 510-point capability check of your procurement function.

Not only does the GPS help you to understand what your current procurement capability is, it will provide you with a roadmap to sustained growth and development of the function and, in turn, your organisation. In order to do this effectively, we need to determine exactly what your organisation's business drivers are and then look at how procurement can help the business achieve and exceed these goals.

Perhaps the biggest challenge we faced with electronically enabling the GPS was to distil a 4ft wall chart with more than 800 data points into an online offering that is presentable, actionable and easy to use. The wall chart, which takes pride of place on our office wall, links all procurement activity back to shareholder value, which whether we like it or not is the key driver in all businesses. This wall chart (which all GPS subscribers will receive) and subsequent section of the GPS online offering is the starting point to ensuring your procurement function is working towards and supporting the goals of your organisation.

In order for the procurement function to truly show its worth and value to the business, it is imperative that the function is closely working towards an agreed set of organisational goals and is not seen to be operating its own mandate. The GPS gives procurement professionals the ideal starting point to open dialogue with the wider business around how the function can support the business in achieving and exceeding its goals. The tool will concentrate not only on showing how procurement can help the organisation improve in core procurement areas such as COGS and working capital, but also the impact the function can have on influencing change in other, non-core procurement areas, such as income, sales and human resources. By showing business leaders the direct link between procurement activities and shareholder value, GPS will engage the major stakeholders of your business and get you a seat at the table when it comes to discussing organisational success.

In establishing the GPS tool, the PIU has worked closely with the tools developer, Ian George, our development team and members of the procurement community to ensure that the tool is intuitive, logical and user friendly, while at the same time not compromising any of the details, depth and intricacies that sit behind the tool. Essentially the PIU has developed an interface that will allow procurement professionals to understand what their function's current capability is, and through close alignment with their organisation's goals determine a roadmap of improvements to drive continued sustainable success, not only within the function, but for the entire organisation.