Why use a Purchasing Consultant?
If you’re interested in the procurement process, who better to learn from than a Purchasing Consultant?
At Hudson Procure, our procurement experts have 20 years of procurement experience. Whether you’re looking for help with your procurement strategy or for general coaching and advice, we can help!
By the end of this blog, you’ll have gained exciting insights from a Purchasing Consultant. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know!
What is a Purchasing Consultant?
First things first, what does a Purchasing Consultant do?
Purchasing Consultants are experts in procurement. They can help businesses through the end-to-end procurement process and with purchasing goods and services. In particular, Purchasing Consultants specialise in evaluating their clients’ purchasing practices to help them drive greater value from procurement.
What can a Purchasing Consultant do for your business?
There are many benefits to using a Purchasing Consultant – but what are they?
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Evaluate your spending behaviour
As we’ve already established, Purchasing Consultants have plenty of experience with buying goods and/or services. This experience means they’re perfectly positioned to evaluate your spending behaviour and help you make improvements.
How do they do this? Typically, a Purchasing Consultant will ask for your organisation’s transaction data. For example, they might ask to see details of the vendor and their values from a certain time period. Once they’ve done this, they can conduct an analysis of your spending behaviour and provide you with a summarised report.
If you’re interested in this level of support, you could benefit from Procure Analyse. With this service, our Procurement Consultants will conduct a high-level, vendor-led analysis of your spending behaviour. They’ll provide you with a summary of their findings, and even help you identify areas that could be improved.
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Help you improve your spending
Another way that a Purchasing Consultant could benefit your business is by helping you improve your spending behaviour.
After evaluating your spending (see our first point!), they will provide you with a forward procurement plan. This could detail anything from suggested procurement routes to value targets.
You might be thinking, why do I need a Purchasing Consultant to help me improve? Why can’t I make these improvements by myself?
Simply put, you’ll benefit from using Purchasing Consultants as they’re experts in the field. They can use their extensive experience to make informed, well-thought-out suggestions. Not only that, but they can offer you an outsider’s perspective. This can benefit many organisations as, sometimes, it can be difficult to view things objectively. Especially when you’re so heavily involved in your business, and know it inside and out. So, you can view your purchasing behaviour with a new, fresh perspective.
Navigating the procurement process can be extremely tricky. There’s a lot to wrap your head around, especially if you’re inexperienced in the process. So, it’ll come as no surprise that developing and executing a procurement strategy can be time-consuming.
When you outsource this procurement function to a Purchasing Consultant, they’ll handle everything for you. Instead of evaluating your own spending and finding ways to improve, you can have an expert do it for you. As a result, you can focus on other aspects of running your business while they ensure your purchasing is strategic.
You might be surprised to learn that a Procurement Consultant can benefit buyers and supplier alike. But it’s true! This is because they help to reduce risks, which is advantageous for both sides of the table.
As part of strategic sourcing, businesses are encouraged to conduct quality, financial, supply and customer support risk assessments. Procurement Consultants can support you with this, reducing your chance of encountering risks as you navigate the procurement process.
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Work as part of your Procurement Team
Do you already have an in-house Procurement Team that handle the procurement process for your business? Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean that you won’t benefit from working with a Purchasing Consultant.
When you work with Procurement Consultants, they could work as an extension of your in-house Procurement Team. They’ll support your in-house Purchasing Consultants to help you drive greater value from your procurement activity.
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Share their procurement expertise
It goes without saying, but a Purchasing Consultant knows the procurement process inside and out. So, when you outsource your procurement function to a procurement consultancy, you’ll benefit from this professional expertise.
This will be a great benefit to businesses with limited resources or without an in-house team. After all, it costs a lot of time and money to up-skill your existing team. Not only that, but it could take months, if not years, to increase their procurement knowledge to an expert level. On the other hand, you could outsource to a Purchasing Consultant and benefit from their expertise, knowledge and experience in a fraction of the time.
Do YOU need to work with a Procurement Consultant?
If you’ve never worked with a Procurement Consultant before, you might be asking if it’s really necessary for your organisation.
Are you unsure whether your organisation needs help from a Procurement Consultant? Try asking yourself the following questions:
- Have you noticed a need to lower costs and improve improve spending activity at your organisation?
- Are you able to analyse your spending behaviour effectively in-house, without external support?
- Do you have enough time and resources to dedicate to your purchasing practices?
- Are you able to produce tender documents, such as project specifications, and answer clarification questions?
- Can you analyse tender responses and find the best supplier for your needs?
In summary
A Purchasing Consultant can offer many advantages to your business. Firstly, they can evaluate your current spending behaviour and provide you with a summarised report of their findings. Not only that, but they will identify areas for improvement so you can drive greater value from your procurement activity.
Procurement Consultants can also save you time, leaving you to focus on other areas of your business. They can work as part of your in-house Procurement Team, allowing you to benefit from their procurement expertise.
If you’re unsure about whether your organisation needs a Procurement Consultant, ask yourself:
- Have you noticed a need to lower costs at your organisation?
- Are you able to analyse your spending behaviour effectively in-house?
- Do you have enough time and resources to dedicate to your purchasing practices?
- Are you able to produce tender documents, such as project specifications?
- Can you analyse tender responses and find the best supplier for your needs?
How can Hudson Procure help your business?
At Hudson Procure, our procurement experts have nearly two decades of experience. No matter what kind of support you’re looking for, we can help.
Procure Consult
With Procure Consult, we offer support with tender management and ad-hoc procurement consultancy. Our expert team will manage the end-to-end procurement process or offer assistance with any stage, as and when required.
Procure Health Check
With Procure Health Check, we’ll conduct a full review of the strategic and operational procurement processes within your organisation. We’ll identify the areas that need improvement and help you drive greater value from the procurement process.
Procure Analyse
The purpose of Procure Analyse is to conduct a high-level analysis of your spending activity. We’ll help you understand your current purchasing behaviour and highlight areas that can deliver greater value. Procure Analyse is also offered as part of Procure Health Check or as a standalone service.
Procure Outsourcing
With Procure Outsourcing, we deliver a range of procurement solutions on an outsourced basis, completely bespoke to you. This can range from delivering multiple tender projects as a package to delivering the full procurement function of your organisation.
Procure Post
Are you trying to find a supplier for your project? Post your tendering opportunity onto any of our 11 sector-specific portals for FREE with Procure Post!
Housed by our sister company, Hudson Discover, our portals host thousands of tendering opportunities for organisations of all sizes. We’ll help you identify your requirements and find the most suitable suppliers for your business.
Get in touch for a consultation and find out how we can help your business drive greater value from procurement.
Check out our other blogs for further Procurement Insights:
