Introduction to Purchasing & Procurement

This workshop will provide you with a good understanding of the best practice principles used in purchasing and procurement.

You will learn about developing and agreeing specifications for goods or services, engaging stakeholders as you do so. You will explore a variety of tools used in supplier selection and develop an understanding of the basics of negotiations. You will look at how suppliers are managed and reviewed to ensure high performance and continuous improvement.

This workshop is designed to help you to get to grips with purchasing and procurement, understand the practices of organisations that do this well and look at how to apply this in your own workplace. It will help you to contribute to purchasing projects in a professional way and to obtain increased value and performance from your suppliers.

What will I learn?

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Explain the elements of best practice purchasing and procurement – what good practice looks like.
• Develop specifications for goods or services with stakeholders, with increased confidence and accuracy.
• Identify quality standards and performance criteria at an early stage.
• Choose the best purchasing approach and tools to use for a particular situation.
• Manage terms and conditions effectively as part of a purchasing negotiation.
• Use simple and effective processes and measures to get the best out of your chosen suppliers.
• Apply best practice principles to the needs of your own organisation and job role.

What will it cover?

Definitions of Purchasing and Procurement

• What we mean by purchasing and procurement
• What constitutes ‘best practice’ and why it matters
• The difference between goods and services

Specifications and Stakeholder Engagement

• What a good specification for goods and services looks like
• Essential vs ‘nice to have’
• The importance of defining quality and performance standards at an early stage
• Who needs to develop and contribute to the specification?
• Important questions to ask when developing a specification

Supplier Selection

• How to research and prepare a list of suppliers
• Understanding EU procurement rules
• What RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, ITTs, framework agreements and e-auctions are, and how and when to use them
• Developing good selection criteria for choosing suppliers

An Introduction to Contract Terms and Conditions

• What is covered in terms and conditions
• Typical contract terms: force majeure, liquidated damages, express vs implied terms, conditions, warranties etc.
• How to ensure that your terms prevail

Supplier Management and Review

• Measuring supplier performance
• Preparing and running performance reviews
• Using a continuous improvement approach

Bringing it all back home

• Applying ‘best practice’ purchasing and procurement to your own situation
• Developing an action plan

If you’re new to purchasing and procurement, this workshop will help you to understand how it works and what approaches you should take to ensure that you manage things well.
You will learn how to be more effective in managing your own purchasing projects and suppliers and learn about tools and approaches which will help you to contribute professionally to purchasing projects alongside more experienced colleagues.

You will be asked to bring at least one example of a purchasing project or activity with which you are currently, or have recently been, involved. This could involve purchasing goods, services or both.