Page 24 - SISK NEWS JULY 2015

The Evolution of
Procurement

Purchasing made easy with
Eric Kiernan

When I joined Sisk in 2002 I came on board as a Trainee Buyer. I was
attracted by the challenge of competitive negotiations and developing
processes that keep a business up to speed with industry best practice.

There is always scope for improvement when it attend small group demonstrations remotely. Whilst
comes to procurement, and since joining Sisk there we appreciate many people prefer hands on training,
has certainly been a lot of positive change. with online support we’re finding that most people are
Initially there were just three people in the department managing to see the immediate benefits.
dealing with manual order processes. It was very labour
intensive and focused on individual order gains. Thirteen In procurement you have to have a real passion for
years later the remit of the team has altered dramatically business improvement, always challenging inefficient
because of how the business, and the sector, has evolved. processes. Looking ahead we plan to expand the
The department has grown to more than ten people, e-procurement offering, improve subcontractor
and as a UK function we are the custodians of the performance monitoring to a more user friendly
procurement process with responsibilities for: platform, and implement more preferred supplier
agreements with subcontractors and suppliers to
• providing innovative procurement processes that provide strategic and financial benefit to the business.
align with corporate objectives; With the support of finance, IT and indeed our supply
chain, our successes so far have been a real team
• subcontracting support for key trades; effort and the whole team looks forward to being part
• delivering a focused supplier relationship structure of future changes.

to add value through strategic relationships; Top three e-procurement tips:
• providing subcontractor performance information
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to aid procurement decisions and identify risks; 2. tdDhifaofnnic'tounbltea. Naroferqmauoiirdsei,teiino-nfp.orromcautreiomneisntreisquniorted
• procuring material and plant requirements; and 3. lOrosUoenalktccvieemebivaayyionctouugeklh!tyoar,imdveeeemrabpslrnaaadccreeeidnffgrooenerde-tup.ocrLreodcdeeuarsrdiegymnotuieifm'lnilcetnasewnvftielollrry.
• providing value through negotiation.

E-procurement:

The team’s most significant challenge is the scale of
the changes involved in improving the procurement
process that the business has recently commenced.
Recently we’ve had a number of successes including
implementing a Supplier Relationship Management
process for key subcontractors, renegotiating national
agreement contracts, and expanding the sub-
contractor assessment reporting to include our Rail
business. A major change has been in e-procurement.
This process enabled project based staff to order
low value, low risk products from one central system.
It’s designed to remove duplication, reduce order
processing errors and make everyone’s job that little
bit easier. There are comprehensive user guides which
can be found on the Supply Chain Intranet page.
These include demonstration videos and the option to

24 Sisk News | July 2015