We break down some of the reasons why cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important, and what we as procurement professionals need to consider around this topic.

Jonathan breaks down some of the risks, and explains that often the risk comes from weaknesses within the supply base:

• B2B vs. B2C businesses - some well-documented examples are cyber breaches at Maersk, British Airways and Spar, where the attack each time came through a supplier.
• Managing professional service providers - personal data within professional services provider is potential weak link.
• How to deal with small, non-tech savvy businesses to ensure that you're protecting the potentially most vulnerable parts of your supply chain
• Geopolitical risk and how to manage this from a cyber risk perspective
• How diligent is the internal process when deciding who to source goods or services from?

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

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On this month's episode of ProctoCast, James interviews Chimae Goncalves, Co-Founder of Supply Chain Partner, a digital transformation consultancy based in Johannesburg.

DEI legislation: How we can learn from South Africa's example and prepare

We dive into how the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE for short) legislation has affected many aspects of how South African businesses both hire their employees and source their goods and services from their domestic supply base.

It's a very intriguing discussion as it gives us a fantastic insight into what may be in store for European and North American businesses in the near future.

Chimae shares with us how the legislation has impacted small businesses such as theirs, as well as how it impacts larger enterprises. We look at how it has been successful, as well as acknowledging some of the challenges it brings.

We explore how BBBEE impacts both the hiring process and employee relations, as well as how it is embedded into the sourcing process when purchasing from or contracting with domestic South African suppliers.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

No, not inflation (that's a whole other episode right there, haha) but the increasing importance of having a proactive third party risk management strategy. Especially understanding who is behind a company's ownership structure in an era of sanctions and complex company ownership / shareholding structures.

Proactively Managing Third Party Risk in an era of Geopolitical Volatility and Sanctions

ProctoCast is sponsored by third party risk management and supplier insight software startup Contingent.

Contingent, based in London, recently secured $8.2 million in funding to grow their platform. It's exciting to have their CEO, Tai Alegbe, as our guest on the show this month to talk about how their product can help to provide insights into some of Procurement's key challenges in today's environment.

At its heart, the platform seeks to provide proactive visibility of risks and the opportunities to develop relationships with suppliers to pre-empt any supply chain disruptions or potentially brand-damaging scandals.

Data and market intelligence is key to facilitating this. Internal data (and its quality) is a foundation for success, but there is also a huge amount of external intelligence to be tapped into that can augment and bolster a third party risk strategy.

With sanctions on Russia as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, as well as supply chain disruptions resulting from impact of the war on Ukrainian manufacturing businesses, buyers need to know whether their supply chains are impacted.

The tricky part of this is often identifying real ownership and control of certain companies. Specifically:

• Who the individuals are who control the business and wield the most influence, and whether they have political ties.
• A view of where companies are exposed based on their relationship to sanctioned entities

Tai walks us through Contingent's "Insights" tool and how it differentiates itself from other products on the market.

We then dig into how Procurement can support the relief efforts in Ukraine and help companies who are positively responding to the crisis.

Moving on from this, we touch on near-shoring and whether or not it's an effective strategy to combat rising logistics costs, strict lockdowns in China and wider geopolitical instability.

How can Procurement proactively prepare for risks that may be around the corner? While we can't predict everything, having a strong risk management framework is key to be able to establish how resilient your supply chain is.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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We decided to do something a little bit different this time and record a live episode, which we streamed to the Proctopus LinkedIn Page. Then we took the recording and edited it into a podcast, which is what you're listening to here.

With the start of the new year often being a time to reflect, and perhaps do a bit of window shopping in terms of what jobs are out there, we thought it would be a great opportunity to sit down and discuss recruitment trends in 2022.

Joining James and Dave on the podcast are UK-based specialist procurement recruiters Martin Smith of Talent Drive and Julie Edwards of ProcureOne.

What does 2022 have in store for jobs and careers in procurement?

We kick off my asking Martin and Julie to dispel some popular myths about recruiters.

It's also interesting to hear how the market is shifting from what was a very employer-driven market back in 2020 to what is now very much a candidate-driven market.

We explore the challenges in finding the right talent when it comes to more entry-level or mid-senior positions, whereas for the more senior roles there tends to be a trend for previously freelance contractors to be considering moved back into permanent positions.

It's also interesting to hear Martin and Julie's thoughts about what employers are looking for as skills, and how flexible they tend to be when it comes to experience and the transferability of certain skill sets.

Then, we move on to talk about emerging trends, such as the increased demand for digitally savvy procurement professionals and the need for employers to clearly state their values on relevant issues such as sustainability and diversity.

We continue with Dave and James also sharing some on-the-ground experience and also explore how candidates can explore picking up necessary skills outside of the workplace, such as by taking part in networking groups like Proctopus, listening to podcasts or attending conferences.

Finally, we look at whether the contractor market will boom in future, as companies start to move towards a more contingent workforce to take advantage of more flexible working arrangements. Also, whether the shortage of talent will help to facilitate those who require a work permit to get the opportunity to be considered for roles which otherwise would have easily been filled natively.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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Our conversation is all about the human interaction in B2B relationships

Keeping Procurement Human: Why People are Critical to B2B Collaboration

It's a very popular discussion point at the moment, given all of the talk about whether robots are about to come and take our jobs.

Relax, they're not.

Thierry, Dave and I review how the human will still be needed to interpret the data that some of the technology out there will be able to provide us, and then to be able to take the data and decision and go ahead to implement the projects.

How also can we best serve our stakeholders and the way that we interact with suppliers going forward, whilst leveraging the technology that is available to ensure it gives us the productivity benefits that look so promising?

We then dive into the importance of in-person relationships and discuss whether the post-Covid "blended" model will skew more towards the virtual component when it comes to B2B interaction and collaboration.

Virtual is here to stay, but to what extent? And in which instances is it more valuable to have face-to-face meetings?

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

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We're back with a BANG after our summer break!

In this episode of ProctoCast, we dive into the subject of the importance of clean data and a logical taxonomy.

Here to talk about this is none other than The Classification Guru herself, Susan Walsh.

The Business Case for Clean Data

We dig into how to break down the barriers between the person on the front line dealing with the consequences of dirty data, and the gap between those folks and the department heads who are often oblivious or apathetic towards the need to fix the problem.

Then we cover how certain businesses that "get it" are moving ahead at lightning speed and leaving some of the laggards behind.

Finally, we discuss how procurement teams of the future may look like, as data becomes ever more central to strategy & planning. The difference between success and struggle will very soon be directly aligned to the quality of your data and what you do with it.

Susan also has a new book coming out called Between The Spreadsheets. This is a cheap, easy introduction to discover the benefits you can gain through classifying your data and having a structured taxonomy.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

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Never heard of them? Me neither.

That was until I had a few conversations with the guys at Claritum and discovered how they had leveraged government funding and the vast knowledge base that academia brings to the table.

I'm joined on this episode of ProctoCast by Paul Barker, CTO of marketing procurement tech platform Claritum, and John Cartlidge, senior lecturer in financial informatics and data science at the University of Bristol.

Paul and John explain how this is the classic win-win partnership and how commercial organisations can tap into the research from academic institutions to help them drive commercial projects.

Conversely, academia can bring in real life data and examples which would usually be highly confidential and difficult to get hold of.

During the episode, we explore how organisations can bid for KTPs and what potential interested parties may need to consider and be aware of before seeking funding.

The relationship Paul and John have fostered is central to the success of their particular KTP.

We dig into some of the specifics around how the partnership works, and how it has helped to both enrich Claritum's data analytics capabilities and Bristol Uni's research.

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Contact Paul by email if you'd like to learn more about Claritum's KTP.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

But what is Agile, and can Agile principles be applied to procurement?

My guest today is David Kershaw of consultancy Curshaw who gives us a 101 on how Agile came into being and what its relevance is in the procurement space.

We explore Agile's values and tackle some of the challenges of applying these in the real world of excessive process and bureaucracy that is the corporate world or the public sector.

Hard to understand processes and tools, unnecessarily complicated documents, out-of-date negotiating styles, and inflexible plans that are far too prescriptive.

Two of the important concepts that David dives into when it comes to agility starts with being more open and working in multi-disciplinary teams. Something that procurement perhaps hasn't been great at in the past.

But, is Agile restricted to certain categories? And can it be brought into categories or organisations which are drowning in superfluous processes?

We dive into some of David's examples of how Agile principles have helped to reduce irrelevant or unnecessary process and have reduced the time required to get to your final destination.

Finally, how does Agile fit with the different pieces of procurement software out there?

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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Especially when it's a complex service contract and there are particular nuances are unique to that particular category of spend.

My guest to break this topic down is Jonny Dunning from SaaS platform Zivio, which is dedicated to the procurement of complex services and contract management.

We tackle a few different aspects specific to services procurement, then we dig into some common problems when it comes to analysing spend and understanding the services we're actually buying.

There are plenty of unmanaged or poorly managed contracts out there.

So, how do we manage end-to-end services procurement in a better way? As Jonny tells us, both quantitative and qualitative data are both important.

How are current ways of working and existing systems out there failing us with services contract management?

And how can a best-of-breed solution like Zivio fit into existing systems and processes within an organisation? 

Finally, we explore how organisations can drive value and bottom line results as an outcome of better management of service contracts.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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No jargon. No acronyms!

It's a topic that procurement often doesn't like to talk about or get involved in but we inevitably have to.

So, I start by asking the loaded question: Should P2P be considered part of operational procurement or finance?

We cover how relations and cooperation between procurement and accounts payable can be improved, and how it's often something as simple as communication that's the missing ingredient.

How are the different innovations and seemingly endless choice of P2P software affecting how we work?

And how is change management so important when it comes to implementation of new technology? Because you can't digitise a broken process...

We conclude with looking at the trends in shared services? Are companies bringing this back in house, or are BPOs still growing their market share?

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See what PPN is all about here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

I didn't, until I did a summer job as buying assistant. And it seems that I'm in the majority. Not many careers advisors recommend a career in procurement.

So, attracting recent graduates and younger members of the workforce into our profession should surely

We cover why the Proctopus community set up ProcGenesis and what it aims to achieve as an extra "tentacle" of the network.

How is procurement perceived in certain different countries from Courtney, Shazia and James' experiences?

What can established industry bodies and groups do to attract more millennials and Gen Z attendees to their events? And what dangers are lurking out there as obstacles for these younger professionals to successfully establish themselves as procurement pros?

For any employers listening, the unique skills that the workplace can gain from the first mobile internet and social media generation will be particularly insightful.

We've opened the lid on what makes younger professionals tick and how companies can make themselves the employer of choice.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

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There's a valid reason for that.

Often, procurement only (or chiefly) gets measured on cost savings. It's natural that hitting what you're measured on becomes the top priority.

This is slowly, but evidently, changing.

Richard Nixon from tech platform Per Angusta is my guest on this episode.

We discuss how procurement is more and more seen as being a provider of wider value through the different touch points we have into the business, and the front line role we have in steering relationships with external vendors.

We dig into how we can consider wider value delivered by procurement in the following areas:

• Sustainability and its direct impact on the brand, customer and bottom line through energy savings.
• Work hours saved through elimination or automation of cumbersome administrative processes, freeing up employees' time.
• Profit maximisation, delivered through the total asset or package which can be sold to the end customer.
• Total lifetime cost of operation for physical assets
• Risk management and supply chain resilience, and how it can actually translate into savings rather than cost increases.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

We take a look at the current landscape for B2B collaboration, from traditional Google searches and using social media such as LinkedIn, right the way through to more focused supplier networks aimed at procurement professionals.

There are certain flaws in all of them, and none have become a dominant go-to platform.

Jason explores the evolution of B2B platforms, as well as explaining some of the flaws of traditional supplier search techniques.

As a passionate supporter of supplier diversity, Jason also explains how Kaleida has found a specific place in a crowded marketplace.

The platform ensures that buyers can search and discover diverse suppliers to invite to tender requirements they may have.

I finish off the show by asking Jason where he thinks the direction of travel will be for B2B collaboration platforms in 3-5 years time, and what developments he sees in this space in future.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

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That's the message that my two guests today on ProctoCast really want to drive home.

We're here to encourage everyone working in procurement to get involved and take collective responsibility for the challenges of climate change through soft action.

The decisions we make, and how we elevate sustainability within our own organisations are both key to the long term success of the movement.

Collectively making our employers more responsible for decisions affecting the planet is the best way to ensure that we can impact change from the bottom up, and ensure both the supply base and boardrooms get on board.

We can all do more than we think.

Thomas and Oliver talk about how the landscape is changing and how their approach aims to build a groundswell to drive lasting change.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Almost all of us who have worked in procurement for a long time will have been on negotiation training courses of some description.

Actually practicing negotiation skills outside of a competitive environment though? Well, that can often be difficult.

For example: where do you find people to spar with and hone your skills?

And if you don't work in procurement, or maybe you recently joined the function, then how do you play catch-up?

Enter The Negotiation Club, and The Negotiation Cards, both of which are the brainchild of my guest on today's show, Philip Brown.

In this week's podcast, we explore the topic of "gamifying" negotiation, and making it accessible to beginners and experienced negotiators alike.

The Negotiation Club and The Negotiation cards provide a safe space and some ready-made scenarios for people to practice and improve their negotiating skills.

We discuss this, as well as how Phil is one of the few in our profession who actually PLANNED to have a career in procurement.

Phil also tells us how migrating to Zoom for the Clubs as a result of COVID-19 may also end up being a permanent fixture.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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Steve is based in Pennsylvania, and I'm based in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Nonetheless, our target client base is very similar.

We both serve scaling startups, as well as traditional manufacturing companies with the procurement consulting services we provide to our typical client base.

Rapidly scaling startups and traditional industries have some similar challenges, as well as some very unique differentiators. We talk about how elevating the role of procurement, as well as governance and necessary processes, are essential in both types of organisations. 

But then we cover how the value we deliver as a function is very different in both instances. 

Procurement in startups is categorised by lack of process and structure, and a new organisation with motivated, driven employees but no legacy supply base and contracts. 

Traditional businesses on the other hand often issues with legacy vendors, lots of bad processes and a culture of resistance to change, but nonetheless an established supply base which can be leveraged to partner with and drive cost optimisation.

Our conversation explores what's necessary to ensure success in either scenario, and the best ways to approach each one individually.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Growing procurement into a strategically minded organisation in the charity sector has many challenges:

How do you attract capable, experienced employees when you can't compete on salaries?

How do you take advantage of the massive opportunity to reduce and manage spend more effectively, to ensure more donated money goes to the good causes?

How do you deal with having employees who are super motivated for the cause but lack the necessary strategic procurement skills which will be essential for the future?

How can the similar categories of spend be leveraged to drive better deals for the sector as a whole through group procurement and purchasing alliances within the sector going forward?

My guest on this episode of ProctoCast is Verity White, who was recently elected Chair of the Charities Sector Procurement Group (CSPG) and is also Head of Procurement for UK charity The Prince's Trust.

We dive into this unexplored sector and discover what makes charities tick, and some of the unique problems , solutions and opportunities presented by procurement in the non-profit sector.

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Link to CSPG

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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Peter is also a distinguished former CPO in both the public and private sector, as well as the former editor of Spend Matters UK & Europe.

In his newly released book, Peter takes us on a journey through the journey of how bad buying happens in the first place, what can be done to prevent it, and how it's often a very fine line between what is considered a compliant and non-compliant process.

We also examine how procurement failures are perceived and reported on in the public sector versus the private sector. Will this change with an increased focus on compliance in the private sector in the light of the desire to avoid scandals and reduce supply chain risk?

And what plans does Peter have for the future with his work and his writing, including his new venture on sustainability in procurement?

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

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But how will this affect how we procure these services going forward? And what are travel and events procurement professionals seeing as the trends as we enter 2021?

My guest today on ProctoCast to help answer all of this is Anna Price, a travel, hospitality and events procurement expert from Procuregence. 

Will contraction result in consolidation of the market and higher prices over the long-term? How will distressed businesses deal with their customer base, and what can you as the buyer do to mitigate any potential losses, or unanticipated price increases?

Over the longer term, what are we likely to see as the dust settles and things begin to return to normal? And how will this normal be different from what we considered normal pre-2020?

And interestingly, Anna also shares how this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enforce compliance. With very little travel, it could be the perfect time to strategise, trim your long tail of vendors and ensure that a more stick-based approach to user compliance can be implemented.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

They were the hypotheses when we kicked off the roots (or tentacles) of what grew to become Proctopus. 

Sales & marketing folks are great at putting on industry events and networking. Procurement people less so. The same applies when it comes to sales & marketing of our achievements and capabilities internally with our stakeholders!

Conferences (and virtual conferences) in our industry are often overpriced (and often a bit crap). In person networking isn't going to come back for the foreseeable future. But people still need professional support, interaction, advice and the feeling of community.

Today I talk to my fellow Co-Founders of Proctopus: Keith McCabe, Graham Copeland, Oliver Mountain and Dave Jones about how Proctopus came into being, what we hope to achieve with it, and how we see the community and brand growing as we enter 2021.

While we all agree that 2020 has been a tough year for most people, we are cautiously optimistic about 2021 and are very excited to grow Proctopus to expand to other areas, and increase the number of people whom we touch through our virtual events and content.

If you'd like to suggest other ways we can support fellow procurement professionals, we'd love to hear from you. Connect with us below!

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Connect with the other Proctopus Founders here:

Olly

Graham 

Dave 

Keith 

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

But one thing's for sure. The industrial manufacturing sector and SMEs tend to lack behind the larger corporates and professional services industries when it comes to diversity.

While a lot is spoken and written about making procurement teams more diverse, one thing that is out of procurement leaders' control are the external factors.

The reality is, in more traditional industries, the salespeople and the internal stakeholders are still overwhelmingly male.

My guest today, Beth Seager, comes from the chemicals industry and has a background in MRO and technical procurement.

Not the easiest of categories to garner respect and acceptance from stakeholders as a procurement professional in general! So, even harder in a more traditionally male dominated industry and stakeholder base.

We dive into how to deal with challenges from stakeholders vs. dealing with the supply base.

Beth gives tips and advice from someone who's been there for how male colleagues should behave to women in a very male dominated environment.

Beth also walks through some of the challenges faced, how to mitigate them and push through the prejudices and offers a great one line question to put the ball firmly back into the court of the person challenging your authority or knowledge.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Reporting savings on direct materials is easy because most companies use Purchase Price Variance, or PPV.

On indirect, as we know, it's not that simple. Especially if spend is not repeatable, or it's scattered around multiple areas of the business.

My guest today, Pauline King, has worked for many years with the "dark side" i.e. our colleagues in Finance.

She is joining me today to share practical methods for procurement pros to use, in order to get Finance's buy-in to the contributions we make on indirect savings.

Listen in to hear Pauline's simple but effective method to evaluate how to approach indirect savings discussions with CFOs and senior financial controllers.

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We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

A bi-weekly show making procurement more fun and less formal, while delivering valuable content to procurement professionals everywhere!

My guest on today's show is Rich Ham, CEO of Fine Tune, a US-based service provider helping large businesses to deliver significant savings on categories often viewed as "nuisance" spend.

We dig in to 3 different examples:

• Pest control
• Waste management
• Laundry services and workwear

All of these are categories usually managed locally at site level, and rarely touched by corporate procurement.

We look at why there are so many savings hidden in plain sight in these "unsexy" categories.

Listen and learn how we got to the point where suppliers can so easily pull the wool over our eyes when it comes to slipping in cost increases and maximising their margins on this spend.

It may be the easiest couple of hundred thousand in savings you're likely to find, all by listening to a 15 minute ProctoCast!

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Fine Tune website

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

This inaugural episode looks at how ProctoCast came into being, and how we fit into the Proctopus network and community.

Join the Proctopus group on LinkedIn

Looking forward to have you with us on our journey into ProctoCasting!