3 advantages of working with a Purchasing Specialist
Are you trying to decide whether or not your organisation would benefit from a Purchasing Specialist? By the end of this blog, you’ll know everything you need to know to make your decision. Keep reading to find out more!
What does a Purchasing Specialist do?
A Purchasing Specialist is a procurement professional with extensive experience in the procurement process. However, this role can take different forms and will have different requirements for every business.
For example, a Purchasing Specialist could work for an organisation in-house. In this case, the individual is required to handle the organisation’s procurement strategy, processes and decisions. This could involve purchasing business-related items, evaluating tender responses and negotiating with vendors.
On the other hand, a Purchasing Specialist could work at a procurement consultancy firm, like Hudson Procure. In this instance, Purchasing Specialists would handle the procurement process on behalf of their clients.
What are the advantages of working with a Purchasing Specialist?
Before you decide to work with a Purchasing Specialist, you might want to know the advantages. After all, you need to decide what’s in it for YOU before you make any decisions about your business.
Here are some examples of what a Purchasing Specialist can do for you:
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Evaluate your current spending
Purchasing Specialists are experts in their field and have plenty of experience with buying goods and services. As a result, they’re able to evaluate your current spending behaviour and help you make improvements for future purchases.
One way that a Purchasing Consultant might do this is by assessing your organisation’s transaction data. For example, they might ask to see details of the vendor and their values from a certain time period. With this information, they can conduct an analysis of your spending behaviour and provide you with a summarised report.
Are you looking for this level of support? If so, 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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Identify areas for improvement
Following on from our last point, another way that Purchasing Specialists can help is by identifying areas for improvement. After assessing your spending behaviour, they’ll offer suggestions about ways you can improve. This could include suggested procurement routes or value targets for your procurement activity.
Once they’ve made these suggestions, they’ll produce a roadmap to help you get there. This is great for organisations that have limited experience with procurement and require expert advice about the process.
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Support your Procurement Team
Do you already have a Procurement Team or Purchasing Specialist in-house? Sometimes, you don’t need to outsource your full procurement function. You might just need some extra support for your team, or general guidance to overcome complex challenges.
If that’s the case, you’ll still benefit from working with a Purchasing Specialist! They’ll work as an extension of your team, providing as much or as little support as you need. Whether you need a little extra guidance or full management of the end-to-end process, they can help.
Do you need to work with a Purchasing Specialist?
Many organisations are unsure about outsourcing their procurement functions to a Purchasing Specialist. Will it actually benefit you? Is it worth the cost?
If you’re unsure, try asking yourself the following questions:
- 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?
Let’s recap…
A Purchasing Specialist is a procurement professional with extensive experience in the procurement process. Generally, they’ll work in-house for an organisation or at a procurement consultancy firm.
Purchasing Specialists can help your organisation in many ways, including:
- They can evaluate your current spending behaviour
- They can identify areas that require improvement and help you implement the necessary changes
- Offer support to your in-house Procurement Team.
If you’re unsure about working with a Purchasing Specialist, try asking yourself the following questions:
- 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 our Purchasing Specialists 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 at 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 strategic 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. For an additional cost, we’ll even help you identify your requirements and find the most suitable suppliers for your business.
Get in touch for a consultation and find out how our Purchasing Specialists can help you with procurement.
Check out our other blogs for further Procurement Insights:
