Great gidelines - I would just add that financial accumen is ALWAYS overlooked when looking for procurement professionals and is probably one of the key skills required.

Secondly the leap from Senior Buyer to Procurement Specialist is huge and should not be misunderstood.

__________________
Jacques Fourie
Director Operations
Wanama Solutions
+27836450618
www.wanama.co.za
jacques.fourie@wanama.co.za

Hi there, I would also like to know the definition of a sourcing specialist.
I have been working as an e-procurement administrator with 12months experience in this role. My main aim is to produce strategies/ compile e-tenders and e-auctions. I am looking for the same role in another company but am finding it very difficult to find any jobs of the same or similar functionality. Can anyone help with where is should be looking and what job/title I should be looking for? Is this type of role in much demand?

Many Thanks,
Adee

Adee,

to compile e-tenders and e-auctions is mostly a senior buyer functionality. Strategy wise - you need to be more detailed - i.e. what strategies are you talking about (give an example).

Furthermore sourcing specialist = procurement specialist.

Key attributes:
- Post matric qualification in Finance or Procurement fro a tertiary institution
- Project management experience
- Advanced computer literacy (Excel and PowerPoint)
- Strong analytical, business process and problem solving skills
- A must in Financial and Commercial Acumen (Accounting 101)
- Excellent Interpersonal, communication (verbal and written), presentation and project management skills
- Proven ability to work in a fast pace, changing environment
- COMPLETE attention to detail
- Self starter with the ability to use own initiative (here the old adage of "don't ask permission by rather forgiveness" counts)
- Excellent administrative skills
- Must show integrity, honesty and ambition

---- just to add, I you DO not like writing 10 page reports on anything you do - do not even attempt venturing into this level as this probably constitutes 40% of your daily/monthly work function.

The above is only attributes. Now you still need to touch on the actual knowledge:

Basically - your 5 phase strategic procurement methodology with the addition of extensive knowledge in:
- Supplier Performance measurement
- Contract lifecycle management
- Spend Analysis Proficiency
- Workload planning
- Events management


.....to name but a few. The key differentiator here is - the difference between what you have read (theory) and actually applying this to practice. The hard "grindstone" procurement professionals out perform wet behind the ears theory guys here.

__________________
Jacques Fourie
Director Operations
Wanama Solutions
+27836450618
www.wanama.co.za
jacques.fourie@wanama.co.za

Thanks Jacques. Having read that description I realise I am not a sourcing specialist at all.

If I can give you a brief outline of my job role perhaps you can advise me as to where this role would fit into other companies or what I must do in order to look for jobs in other companies.

Below is what our procurement process involves and where I am involved:

-Buyer see's that a contract is ending and decides that they would like to re-tender it.
-They approach me with their requirements for their tender and I discuss possible methods to build it in our procurement system.
-I build the e-tender
-When tender ends the buyer and myself sit down to discuss results and whether it will go to auction.
-If going to auction I will discuss strategy with the buyer according to what the ideal outcome is, what limitations and boundaries there are, what style of auction to use etc.
-I build the auction and train suppliers
-Auction is executed.

This is a very brief overview and I also have to ensure the eSourcing plan is kept up-to-date and accurate according to what events will be taking place throughout the year.

Any comments or help regarding the role itself will be much appreciated.

hi everyone! ive just joined and really need your help.im doing a research on the role of procurement/purchasing unit and its contribution towards organisational performance.my deadline to finish the research is on friday and i really have nothing to show!! PLEASE HELP!!damsel in distress

guees i havent gotten the hang of this yet!!PLEASE I really need help with this research.THE ROLE OF THE PURCHASING UNIT AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE!!

Ok, here goes but only take what you require. Procurement contribution followed the hype of the Internet in the 90's this faded and Key Executives had to shif their focus towards cost containment as the "boom of the 90's started to fade. They did not look at top line revenue growth but moved to bottom line profitability, many of them realised they needed a serious program of transformation for the procurement function.

In order for to understand the role more - the first you would need to know is that nothing can happen untill such time as your orginisation has a paradigm shif which moves procurement from an operational level to a strategic level. In order to do this you need to transform the org.

But in the end plain and simple - procurement contributes to the botom line (which nowadays are more important that generating revenue). A simple 3% saving (measured and tangible) of total procurement spend could improve company value dramatically - even more than an increase of 10% in revenue.

The internet is full of research regarding this. Aberdeen, Gartner and the likes

__________________
Jacques Fourie
Director Operations
Wanama Solutions
+27836450618
www.wanama.co.za
jacques.fourie@wanama.co.za

I need some asssistance - i have been asked to compile a job description for the following role:

A person to liaise between procurement department, accounts payable department and end users. To improve the relationships between the departments and end users. To ensure corporate governances, policies and procedures are followed. to assist with training and educating all parties involved with regards to the benefits of having purchase orders in place, as well as the complete procure to pay cycle. ensuring that when ap have queries they are resolved quickly, and vice versa. Improving the processes. Basically act as a mediator and facilatator between all the departments and parties involved. also ensuring budgets are adhered to

Has anybody done any job descriptions for something like this. its a complete new role in our organization, which is quite a large organization. person would have to have good knowledge about both AP procedures and procurement procedures

if anyone can help it would be appreciated as i am a bit stuck