We have been working with Barkers for nearly 10 months and they have successfully delivered Coupa to four divisions of our organisation which is going through huge change and the centralisation of many functions. This has created many obstacles for the project team to overcome, but all Barkers team members have taken this in their stride and dealt with difficult scenarios professionally. Their pragmatic, flexible and personable approach has been extremely valuable to our delivery, something much larger consultancy firms would not be able to accommodate. We are close to completing the fifth and final deployment of Coupa to a division which has many more nuances within its billing processes, but due to time constraints put onto the project team from outside of the project teams’ control, Barkers have again adapted their delivery to match the needs of their customer whilst ensuring what they deliver is still up to the highest standards.
It has been a pleasure and a breath of fresh air to deal with a smaller consultancy firm whose employees ensure they get to understand their customers needs and offer solutions without charging extra for the privilege of providing their knowledge and assistance.
The Barkers appointment has been a tremendous success; the teams' technical ability, flexibility, guidance and pragmatism has been first class. It is a true example of client and partner collaboration.
Barkers approach to our challenge delivery impressed me.
Jersey Electricity faces a lot of different challenges, and therefore it is tough to find the right people – especially people that would fit our requirements. Being a small and strongly diversified business in a geographically isolated environment, we needed a versatile specialist to come in and advise on multiple different topics. Barkers delivered just that. The consultant working with us was not only strong in the primary field of expertise (Procurement) but could as firmly ask challenging questions to technical people.
Working in this way allowed Barkers to expand the primary scope and Jersey Electricity to receive valuable support.
I have worked with Barkers in the past and so was aware of both their strong procurement and commercial excellence as well as their relevant market sector knowledge.
Once the team were briefed on the outcomes we required and the timeframe to deliver, we worked together on the feasibility of our plan to build something achievable. This allowed us to manage internal expectations and build trust in the plan.
With any procurement project there are changes and unforeseen challenges that can impact timelines and this project was no exception. Barkers supported us through the changes, challenged them where appropriate, and amended the work where changes were necessary. Barkers always put the project and the outcomes first showing a high degree of integrity.
The outcome Barkers delivered was timely, robust and showed a clear benefit, I would not hesitate in using Barkers again.
The Barkers Led
Procurement transformation at Argent had an immediate positive impact. The Barkers team positively engaged with the business and helped deliver procurement improvements to the indirect categories of spend. These changes enabled a step changed for how procurement was viewed across the business.
An inspiring partnership, recognising and developing creative solutions to local social issues in the most effective way. Barkers and Bolton Family are a compelling example of people coming together from right across the community, with passion, authenticity and trust.
We engaged Barkers to help us conduct an end to end review of Procurement.
This included a tailored approach to our business objectives and our Procurement capability with a full set of recommendations that we have implemented over the past 12 months. The end result has been a successful programme of change, that has delivered a solid set of foundations to take our business and the function forward. Our lead partner on the ground was fantastic, and really stepped up to the challenges we faced and became an integral enabler of change.
We selected Barkers primarily for the depth of their procurement experience but also because their ethical approach and commitment to the creation of social value differentiates them from other consultancies. The Barkers team worked alongside our staff to enhance the team and accelerate our delivery of budget impacting savings and the creation of localised social value.
