Wednesday, November 12th, 2009 – Attendees at the Supplierforce conference heard today how a strategic approach to procurement delivers optimum results in terms of sustainable cost savings and risk mitigation.  Speaking after the conference Declan Kearney, CEO of Supplierforce, announced that Supplierforce have secured five new contracts in recent weeks with Irish and UK organisations including An Post, Bord Na Móna, Woking Borough Council, Calerdale Council and Norland Managed Services Ltd. The combined value of the deals for Supplierforce is over €600,000. After a single managed sourcing event, Norland Managed Services have already realised direct cost savings of over £2m as a result of Supplierforce sourcing technology and professional services.  

The conference, entitled ‘Managing Supply Cost & Risk in Challenging Times’, was officially opened by Dr. Martin Mansergh, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works.  Addressing the attendees he noted: “Annual public expenditure on goods and services amounts to about €10 billion with a further €7 billion (approximately) on works.  Therefore, public procurement is a hugely important element of total public expenditure.  Given the scale of this expenditure, Government policy is to ensure that the development of organisational structures, skill sets, systems and procedures in public procurement are consistent with the overriding objective of achieving value for money.  In March 2009, the Government approved the establishment of a national operations unit for public procurement of goods and services: the “National Public Procurement Operations Unit” (NPPOU), as it is now called, is based in the Office of Public Works in its new offices in Trim, where I spent my first day on Monday.”

CEO of Supplierforce, Declan Kearney, said: “Delivery of sustainable savings and organisational efficiencies is a key strategic imperative for all organisations in the current environment. Procurement plays a critical role in delivery of these savings and efficiencies while increasing governance standards and controls. However, the procurement function in many organisations has yet to be fully leveraged to contribute to the business objective of maintaining and increasing overall profitability.  By pro-actively managing a company’s supply base the procurement function can deliver considerable value to the organisation while maintaining and often improving service delivery and product quality.”

“Supplierforce has evolved significantly over the past 18 months. The business climate has clearly changed dramatically. With the obvious pressures on profitability and often survival, our unique combination of both technology and procurement expertise has resulted in our customer base increasing by over 100% since our conference this time last year. In recent months we have secured five new contracts with organisations in the private and public sector, both in Ireland and the UK. This is the result of changing attitudes of decision makers and recognition, at an executive level, of the cost and broad business benefits that procurement can deliver.”

Other experts speaking at the conference include Meryl Bushell, Director, Meryl Bushell Ltd. & former Chief Procurement Officer, British Telecom Group; Eavan O’Halloran, Head of Procurement, An Post and David McGee, Director, PriceWaterhouse Coopers. The audience was made up of delegates from the public and private sector with the objective to share international expertise and best practice to foster greater collaboration and procurement strategy execution.

David Noble, CEO of the international Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS), also spoke at the conference. CIPS is the largest procurement and supply chain community in the world. Speaking today Mr. Noble said: "Now is the time to seize the opportunities presented to us in these unprecedented times and strategic procurement is crucial at the moment. As we begin to move out of the recession, organisations will be looking for highly skilled and trained procurement and supply chain professionals to bring value to companies and prepare for the upturn. Conferences like this serve to highlight this strategic importance in commerce, in the public and third sectors, as well as offering a practical hands-on approach to make that strategy happen.”

Supplierforce provides strategic Supply Management solutions to a diverse range of customers in both the public and private sectors. For further information on Supplierforce, see www.supplierforce.com.