Course Snapshots

Purchasing Courses

Principles of Purchasing - One Day

This workshop is designed to equip people new to purchasing with the tools and techniques to ensure effective expenditure of company and organisation budgets. The programme, delivery style and objectives for the day reflect the aspirations, experience and background of participants.

The programme starts out with defining the key objectives of purchasing and the opportunities it creates for adding real value. It works through the procurement cycle taking in the types of specification, promoting and managing competition, interpreting supplier tenders and selecting the right contract terms. The basics of negotiation are reviewed together with real-life case studies.

How to Buy Professionally - Half Day

Primarily intended for people of all levels whose role includes a purchasing responsibility but not exclusively so. It sets out where purchasing fits into the general business structure of most large organisations. Key issues are broken out together with a basic understanding of the drivers for achieving value for money. Distinctions are made between price and cost, including whole life costing. The whole purchasing process is walked through. The course can be adapted to incorporate client-specific procedures as part of a campaign to raise awareness of professional procurement.

The Law for Buyers - One Day

A working knowledge of legal concepts and awareness of statute law is essential for buyers whose responsibility includes protecting their Principal’s interest. In this workshop participants are introduced to the principles of English commercial law that applies to purchasing professionals working with contracts. A working knowledge of legal concepts and awareness of statute law is essential for buyers whose responsibility includes protecting their organisation’s interest. It explains the basic legal concepts and rights and responsibilities to ensure that agreements with suppliers are clear, enforceable and, above all, legal. The programme will cover current and proposed legislation relating to procurement matters to help delegates understand the fundamentals.

EU Procurement Directives - One Day

European procurement legislation applies to all public sector buyers, budget holders and suppliers covering Public Works, Supplies and Services procurement.

The workshop offers a combination of theory and practice as it discusses the main elements of the law and the effects on UK public sector procurement. It also provides the opportunities to work on a procurement scenario taking account of the latest legislation.

The background to the legislation is highlighted and an examination of the Compliance Directive that offers redress to potential contractors, suppliers and service providers should public sector buyers fall short of their legal obligations under the legislation.

There will be an opportunity for participants to put forward questions on working within this legislation.

Finance for Procurement - One Day

As the function responsible for committing millions of pounds, purchasing professionals frequently have to assess the financial health of potential suppliers. The consequences of miscalculating a company's true trading position can be disastrous. This course starts out with basics such how to read a balance sheet, profit and loss accounts and cash flow. Equally essential are understanding concepts such as over trading, gearing and key ratio analysis as a tool for assessing supplier health. The workshop also explores beyond the numbers, looking at creative techniques used by companies to massage profit.

The session will be highly interactive and will include an opportunity for you to assess real life companies including your suppliers and equip participants to approach supplier financial data with confidence.

Strategic Purchasing - One Day

Strategic planning is fundamental to any business and each operational department must develop an implementation support plan in order to deliver the focused corporate targets.

Strategic procurement planning falls into 3 interrelated categories:
Long-term company aims-the vision and values
Medium-term management plans involving clear commitments
Current operational performance targets and deliverables

This workshop invites participant organizations to position themselves against the leadership criteria developed by the top performers. The process drills down through the layers of supply chain management to test for alignment with corporate goals and understand the processes required to drive them.
The development of supply chain strategic plans with team ownership and commitment is a strong success factor. The teamwork sessions introduce the building process of strategic plans and then the subsequent management and measurement of the elements within an ever changing operational environment. This demands a positive level of team working skill and a subsequent management time investment to ensure that the chosen objectives are achieved.