It seems nothing changes while everything stays the same in Professional Procurement.

While looking at a recent article in Supply Management I noticed again an emphasis on insightful and professional management in modern supplier relationships.

So it should always have been.

More than a year ago, I read comments by Roger Davies (Group Head of Procurement at Marks & Spencer) in Supply Management. He had been responding to a (ProcureCon) survey that relationship management and influencing skills were core to the Procurement role.

Expense Reduction Analysts, as professional procurement specialists, see the challenges of effectively managing relationships on a daily basis. We sit alongside our clients as an expert resource in the Supply Chain. We see the considerable benefits for our clients in ‘getting it right’. This is integral to our culture and our working ethos and always has been.

A few reasons why:

  • Trust and honesty yield benefits: the ‘Managed Partnership Process’.
  • Recognition of supply and supplier vulnerability reduces risk.
  • Aligned relationships can deliver innovation, quality and price improvements.
  • Improvements in ‘time to market’ through open relationships.

Recent reporting also suggests that the car industry could “face losing out on major benefits which better supplier relations would bring”. (Supply Management)

ERA’s specialist teams of Supplier Management Consultants enable our clients to enjoy sustainable, mutually beneficial Supplier Relationships that deliver value across a wide range of spending areas.

Constantly in actively managed dialogue with thousands of suppliers at any one time, we look after hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of client expenditure. ERA delivers long term benefit across a wide range of cost categories.