Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
In part I of The Benefits of Effective Procurement, I have outlined some of the findings the Aberdeen Group, a US based research organisation, has recently published on what distinguishes best-in-class procurement teams from the average performers and laggards....
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
If not… You will find it challenging in the extreme to optimise your overhead costs In many businesses and organisations strategic costs are controlled by procurement professionals in a purchasing or buying department. But who buys the non-strategic services and...
Monday, October 4th, 2010
Whilst obtaining the cheapest unit price for goods and services is obviously a good idea, there are sometimes additional factors that can cause additional costs to the unit costs. By way of example, I recently looked at a firm of...
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
New national minimum wage rates will be coming into force in October. There is a new rule for 21-year-olds. Previously, employees would have to be aged 22 to become eligible for the top hourly minimum wage adult rate, but...
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
I’m sure by now most people will be aware of the headliners from George Osborne’s budget. With Government departments facing a cut of 25% the issue will be on how to identify and implement changes that will contribute towards...
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Last week saw me presenting a situation report to one of our Clients who spend around £30,000 a year on their office supplies. Over a 12 month period they had received and processed over 250 invoices from four different...
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
Major Structural Changes in UK Freight The Department for Transport has recently published its annual Road Freight Transport Statistics Bulletin 2009, and interpreting the figures provides a fascinating analysis of the changes occurring in the Distribution Sector. This year’s publication...
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Confusion on the way for Gasoil users What’s the issue ? EU Directive 2009/30/EC introduces a requirement that, from 1st January 2011, all gas oil (commonly known in the UK as 'red diesel') marketed for use in non-road mobile...
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
“We have to date engaged Expense Reduction Analysts on ten categories of expenditure with travel and hotels our next target for review as this forms a large part of our spend. Our experience to date of working with Expense...
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Given the economic circumstances, a focused approach to cost analysis and management cannot be overestimated. An often overlooked fact is that it is easier to control costs than to create new sales. Considerable investment (not necessarily financial, but also in...