Course Snapshots

Buying Skills

Advanced Negotiation - Two Days

This programme is designed for experienced negotiators who want to refresh and/or extend their skills. Some theory will provide a framework but the emphasis throughout will be on style and practical application. There will be opportunities for participants to experiment using various simulations against a background of competitive pressures. Selling skills as well as buying skills will be tested as part of the process of understanding the sales mindset. The general principles underpinning effective negotiation will be recalled and distinctions drawn between tactical and strategic situations in today’s challenging supply management environment

Cost and Price Analysis - One Day

Heavy competitive pressures on purchasing budgets have led to a renewed emphasis on understanding the chemistry of the costs of ownership. Just demanding price reductions is no substitute for a forensic examination of all the components of cost. Similarly, the time for probing costs is at the bid stage even though it may be the lowest. This course goes through the types of market place that influence price behaviour, cost structures, including whole life costing, and areas where suppliers try to insert unjustified cost. The many different ways of discounting are illustrated and reviewed with real-life examples throughout the day. Value analysis will be covered to understand their direct relationship between cost and product function and features.

Buying Recruitment Services - One Day

Estimates suggest that there are over 20,000 agencies in the UK specialising in recruitment across almost every sector. This whole area has become a major focus for more government regulation including issues such, EU employment rights legislation and government controls on employment agencies and outsourcing. The market place is polarised between a few very large players and hundreds of boutique specialists while the scope for legal challenge has grown enormously. Increasingly the management of recruitment agency contracts is involving procurement professionals being called on to negotiate deals that strike the right balance between buying leverage and corporate social responsibility. This workshop runs through most of the opportunities and some of the pitfalls of buying temps and other categories.

Buying IT & Services - One Day

Getting the procurement of IT right demands a detailed understanding of the IT market place. This includes knowing the segmentation of the main vendors and their products, understanding the competitive issues and managing the potential risks. It’s a highly innovative business where the benchmarks are moving on all the time. Starting with the specification the programme works through the RFI/ITT process, bid evaluation, setting up a negotiation strategy, techniques employed by sales people, terms of business, the project management plan and risk.

Buying Social Care Services - One Day

Social Care commissioning from commercial providers is now highly significant expenditure in the budgets of single-tier authorities. Higher standards and controls and ever more challenging financial environments are driving the need for greater professionalism.

The programme will covers aspects of social care law, interfaces with health, housing and education together with the regulatory requirements that could be included in service specification. The vendor base can be made up of thousands of providers on the preferred list. Rationalising them will be covered together with methods for achieving better value.

Buying in the Public Sector - One Day

Procurement is central to the delivery of improved public services. The Gershon review has added even more pressure for professionalism in procurement. The increasing use by the public sector of purchased services such as outsourcing, turnkey contracts, the use of third parties and hybrids to deliver public services involves very significant public expenditure and greater risks. It is essential that those with responsibility for procurement, inside and outside the function itself and non-specialists, are aware of the risks and issues involved and how these can be effectively addressed to meet performance review requirements

This course covers the key areas of importance to public sector procurement and touches most of the issues likely to arise in the sector.