Monthly Archives: May 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

 We have just received  our advanced copy of “The Book”  The publication of Purchasing & Supply Chain Management, Eighth Edition marks the 28th anniversary since the first edition was published and seven years since the Seventh Edition made it to the bookshops. It  has undergone an extensive overhaul with each Chapter being reviewed and all new case studies. […]

The economic climate dictates that, it is time for procurement departments to re-examine their approach to the use of price indexation formulae. Our informal research shows that in the UK there is an extensive use of the Retail Price Index (RPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI). These are produced by the Office for National Statistics. […]