It is difficult for procurement professionals not to have been exposed to the call for greater stakeholder engagement. Wherever I turn, I see conferences and articles stressing the need for this.
Most of these cover the benefits of early engagement to build contract compliance. After all, we don’t want to spend our time negotiating great contracts that nobody in the business uses. So the involvement of our stakeholders makes perfect sense. Especially if it helps grow the business compliance to contract adherence and, in turn, drives increased value to the business bottom line. However, the important question is, where exactly should we involve our internal stakeholders in the procurement process? I think it has become accepted that, as a minimum, stakeholders should be heavily involved in defining the statement of requirements, and in the adjudication process, and I have seen this deliver some success.
However, I do not believe this is enough. I believe the new minimum should include involving stakeholders in the upfront procurement strategy decision for the category/contract, and should also include them at the end of the process – in agreeing the sourcing decision, confirming the strategy has been achieved and the benefits that are going to be delivered to the business.
In my experience, this greater level of stakeholder engagement has delivered compliance figures in the mid-90 per cent range – a vast improvement on the 30 per cent prior to engaging stakeholders in this fashion. However, as I say, this should be the new minimum, and there is even more we can do.
Procurement professionals find themselves in a privileged position within any organisation as perfectly placed to see the changes in both the internal needs of the business and the external supplier capabilities. By extending the scope of traditional procurement to seek out ways in which the internal and external capabilities can best be brought together, procurement can take innovation to the business to maximise the benefit value chain.
Naturally, we need to build the trust of the business and demonstrate we can add real value in this way. This is a difficult journey if the business still sees procurement as the ‘order placers’. However, for me, this increased level of stakeholder engagement is well worth striving for. It not only delivers a whole new level of value from procurement, but makes our profession even more exciting.
• Stephen Hayers is vice president, services procurement at BT Group
