Training - Contract Management
Let’s be frank – contract management isn’t the most exciting aspect of procurement. After all, who likes paperwork and minutia? Most people don’t. For those in the earlier stage of their career understanding legal jargon can be daunting and negotiating the contract with the supplier, harder still. More experienced professionals might not have even been taught this core skill properly and, with a desire to focus on more exciting activities, try to steer clear of contracts whenever possible.
Robust contracts are a key tool to manage your suppliers and minimise risk. So, like them or loathe them, you need to be good at them. Following some simple steps and with a bit of practice, I’ll show you that contract management isn’t nearly as arduous as you might think.
If you’re a Head of Procurement or Procurement Director you might have different needs. Perhaps you’re unhappy with the low level of spend under contract, the poor accessibility of contracts or that the full contract value isn’t derived. As a Procurement Director I’ve had this challenge myself and have some god ideas of how to help you.
Training - Contract Management
Let’s be frank – contract management isn’t the most exciting aspect of procurement. After all, who likes paperwork and minutia? Most people don’t. For those in the earlier stage of their career understanding legal jargon can be daunting and negotiating the contract with the supplier, harder still. More experienced professionals might not have even been taught this core skill properly and, with a desire to focus on more exciting activities, try to steer clear of contracts whenever possible.
Robust contracts are a key tool to manage your suppliers and minimise risk. So, like them or loathe them, you need to be good at them. Following some simple steps and with a bit of practice, I’ll show you that contract management isn’t nearly as arduous as you might think.
If you’re a Head of Procurement or Procurement Director you might have different needs. Perhaps you’re unhappy with the low level of spend under contract, the poor accessibility of contracts or that the full contract value isn’t derived. As a Procurement Director I’ve had this challenge myself and have some god ideas of how to help you.
Course Prospectus

Training - Procurement Process
Running a procurement process should be ingrained in us like soldiers’ drill on a parade ground – it is one of the fundamental core skills for every new recruit to the procurement profession. And yet all too often the procurement process is poorly trained and executed and ends up being a calamitous affair. Year after year I see or hear of countless sourcing activities that have failed with detrimental consequences: sub-standard product launches, budget over-spend, multi-million pound losses, discontented stakeholders and frustrated suppliers. And we haven’t even talked about the stress it causes you!
Tried and tested over many hundreds of direct and indirect sourcing activities, my simple, yet robust process continues to deliver fantastic results again and again. I’ve been using it with metronomic precision for over 15 years and I’ll share with you how to apply it with similar effect.

Benefits
By learning and deploying the process, the benefits to your business will be:
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A greater certainty of sourcing the right items to the agreed specification
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Higher quality with less chance of defects
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Securing the right quantity to be delivered at the right place just when you need it
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Lower total cost for the material, product or service
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More engaged and happier business stakeholders
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The use of less resource
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A lower risk profile and less need for troubleshooting
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Suppliers who are more likely to want to work with your business now and in the future
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A quicker end-to-end repeatable cycle
And the benefits to you will be:
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Pride in how well you’ve executed the process
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Much lower stress
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Positive feedback from your business stakeholders and suppliers
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Less of your resource being required
Other Details
Course Material
Attendees will receive a full training pack containing a summary of content from the day as well as copies of all case studies and group exercises.
Trainer
Frost, Procurement Adventurer
Course length
1 day
Location
Typically, clients like to host the training on their own site. I get asked to train all round the World and I'll head to where you'd like to be. From time-to-time I run a course open to people from non-competing businesses in a fixed location. This course can be run virtually by video conference.
Cost
Depending on your specific needs and on request.
Course Prospectus
Course Approach
The course is a fun and highly interactive day blending theory, many examples and a case study tailored specifically to your business. We will then apply the techniques to several items that you're sourcing. Clients often request a follow up session several weeks later to expand the application of the process to other areas of spend.
Course Level
This course is tailored to those in the earlier part of their procurement careers from junior procurement experts to procurement managers wanting to refresh some of their existing skills.
Sectors Covered
The techniques covered work across direct and indirect spend.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will have a good grasp of the procurement process and be able to apply the process to one of your direct or indirect spend categories. The course will cover how to:
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Kick off the procurement process with purpose and a clear time plan
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Define the scope of work
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Set objectives and sign them off with stakeholders
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Form a strong sourcing team and define roles and responsibilities
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Capture business requirements and write a robust specification
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Determine the quantity to buy
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Think through the strategic options
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Conduct effective product, supplier and market research
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Create an effective sourcing plan
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Find, assess, shortlist and choose suppliers and engage them effectively
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Create and send out tenders and evaluate the responses
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Close the deal*
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Agree a roll out plan and trouble shoot if required
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Manage suppliers post-contract
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Capture learnings for future cycles
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Adapt the process to different types of spend and scenarios
* Negotiating the deal and creating the contract is covered in separate modules