Monthly Archives: May 2012

First Impressions Count

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

We are frankly astonished at the responses we get from companies at times when we want to spend money with them. We are currently helping a client with the sourcing of their engineering fabrications. This is a multi-million pound contract. Our initial desk research identified a number of potential suppliers that we decided to contact […]

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Exchange Rates and the effect of Inflation

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

I was asked very recently by a client how much saving they could expect from the renegotiation of an offer by their incumbent outsourced provider of specialist IT services to extend their contract. The Service Provider proposed a 10% increase. The Client was UK based and the Service provider domiciled in India. However I needed […]

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Manipulation of procurement controls

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

It  is difficult to exaggerate the risks created by those who manipulate procurement controls. It is ‘unfortunate’ that the manipulation is not uncovered by audit personnel, nor are senior managers and directors always maintaining enough vigilance. So – how does the manipulation operate in practice? 1. Awarding contracts at below authorisation level and subsequently raising […]

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“One-off” procurements

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

We have been researching procurement expenditure on a wide range of “one-off” procurements. These typically challenge the knowledge and skills of procurement specialists simply because on “one-offs” there is little or no experience against which to benchmark. Imagine you were asked to tender the removal of large quantities of scrap where the contractor would sell […]

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PROCURISK™ is the first, comprehensive procurement and supply chain web-based application

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Our Premise: Corporate risk management is an essential business activity. Risk mitigation strategies lie at the heart of Corporate Governance. What is the contribution to these mitigation strategies from the Procurement & Supply Chain Management function? It is rare to find robust methodologies in place that will, in a structured way, identify the potential risks. […]

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Liquidated Damages

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Liquidated Damages (LD’s) are a misunderstood and emotive concept for procurement specialists. A starting point for clarity is the fact that in English Law a penalty clause is illegal. An LD clause is penal if it provides for payment of money stipulated as ‘in terrorem’ of the offending party to force him to perform the […]

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Volunteers required for Beta Testing

Monday, February 6th, 2012

We are always providing new ways to make advances in  the Procurement profession. In this regard we have  created and are currently testing a new computer based service developed jointly with a leading University. Its inital focus is supporting Contractual Management. If you would like to be part of a small group to test the service and be ahead of […]

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