Procurement Transformation

Barkers > Procurement Transformation

Procurement Transformation

Barkers have been recognised by Consultancy.UK as a Gold Procurement Consultancy Firm. Consultancy.UK recognise those organisations leading the way in procurement consultancy within the UK with organisations assessed on their procurement capabilities, company reputation, analyst benchmarks, industry recognitions, thought leadership and more.

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Aspire to achieve

A procurement function with an enhanced internal reputation as a strategic and efficient department aligned to organisational objectives.
A reputation for enabling internal departments to realise their goals.
Connectivity with suppliers leading to enhanced communications and associated benefits including innovation and continuous improvement, generating best value.
A high functioning team comprised of effective and resourceful professionals engaged in efficient and effective purchase processes including category management, SRM, procure to pay and data analysis.

For transformation and innovation

WHY CHOOSE US

Strategic Focus

We support our client’s profitable growth through sound business strategy. Our consultants engage with senior stakeholders across the organisation and understand how to apply procurement effectively to achieve business objectives.

Experience

Our senior managing consultants all possess between 15 and 30 years’ procurement experience. Their practical experience and knowledge, having been involved in numerous Procurement Transformations, is second to none.

Discover & Solve

We have a robust discovery methodology which supports the successful identification of core areas of focus. We then design and drive tailored plans to address key challenges and maximise sustainable value.

Features of Procurement Transformation

The Barkers Procurement Transformation team brings the experience and lessons learned from transforming procurement organisations as internal leaders together with consulting best practice. It covers the people, procurement process, technology and governance aspects of procurement and supply chain functions.

We help our clients to accelerate their procurement transformation programmes delivering efficiencies, improvements to quality and stakeholder engagement, whilst always aligning to an organisation’s culture. 

Our service involves a comprehensive review of a procurement function and recommends areas of improvement to enhance the capacity, capability and profile of the function.

A Barkers Procurement Transformation Review focuses on:

Business

We engage closely with different areas within the business to understand current perceptions and stakeholder experiences.

Suppliers

We speak with suppliers to gain an external view of working with the client.

Human Resource

We connect with the individual team members to understand the skills, capabilities and opinions of the existing team.

Systems & Processes

We investigate existing systems and processes within the procurement cycle. These could include sourcing, procurement, analytics, procure to pay and market intelligence tools. We’ll form judgements on capacity, capability and business risk.

Once the discovery phase is complete, we then apply our knowledge and experience to suggest areas for improvement. Typical areas of focus include:

Procurement Strategy
Organisation Design
Category Organisation and Process
Business Engagement Organisation and Process
Supplier Relationship Management Processes
eProcurement Processes
Purchasing Processes such as Procure to Pay
Procurement Team Skills
Behavioural Skills of the Procurement Team

Through discussions with clients on where value can best be sought for maximum gain, Barkers will suggest solutions and execute a bespoke plan tailored to the organisation’s requirements. This could involve a Supplier Relationship Management plan, business engagement programme, a category improvement programme to name a few.

In our experience, Procurement Transformations are about business change not solely about Procurement. This is why our strategy to engage senior consultancy teams in this work (who provide clients with sound strategies and in-depth procurement transformation plans), effect real and meaningful change.

“An asset to anyone with complicated renegotiation or procurement requirements”

John Sharkey, Head of CIO Business Partners United Utilities

Outcomes

Our Procurement Transformation service will provide:

A less myopic view of what Procurement does both inside and outside the function.
Greater engagement with internal stakeholders and enhanced understanding of the value of procurement.
Improved return on investment and profitability for the business.
Improved Supplier relationships, creating more value for the client.
Greater engagement with internal departments, leading to better outcomes in supplier selection and contracting.

Achieve your business ambitions with Barkers

CASE STUDIES

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.

Paul Thwaites

Senior Project Manager, Vanquis Banking Group

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.

Steven Schools

Head of Procurement and Supplier Management, Vanquis Banking Group

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.

Mark Preece

Operations Director, Jersey Electricity

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.

David Anderson

Head of Commercial, OVO Energy

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.

Nicola Dean

CFO, Argent Energy

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.

Lisa Charles

Director Of Business Services, Bolton at Home

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.

Karen Lounds

Business Services Director, Tata Chemicals

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.

David Levy

Head of Strategic Procurement, Seven Force Strategic Collaboration