Procurement is any process that involves purchase. In the business world, many purchases take place daily, like the purchase of raw materials, the purchase of spare parts, the purchase of wholesale goods, the purchase of land, etc. These activities take place on a very large scale and need a service provider for its management. That’s where Specialist procurement consultants come into play. They perform all the activities from searching for the right product provider to finding the best deals for the company.
Procurement consultants think analytically and make strategic plans to implement high priority tasks. They can communicate with people from different geographic, occupational, cultural backgrounds and execute their tasks for the benefit of the company. They implement new methods of purchasing in the company for effective results. Procurement consultants focus on four primary areas, namely the installation of the procurement system, review of the business process, advising strategic procurement, training in procurement. They have industry specificity and specialize in their expertise in one particular industry.
Procurement consultant has the following duties to comply.
Duties of Procurement consultant
- Advise the company
Procurement consultants should advise the company on various legislative processes and public contracts regulations compliance while delivering any new project. They are expected to advise the company about the best deals available and the flaws in the existing procurement system of the company for modification.
- Advice the local authority client
The procurement consultant is responsible for advising the local authority client about various strategies and evaluation criteria of the company. They also discuss further business developments and documentation processes.
- Delivery of technical work
The procurement consultant deals with the technical work of the project, which includes service specification development, method statement, and the pricing details with the client companies. They also deal with the bid evaluation and finding apt pricing for the products.
- Maintaining relationships
Procurement consultants act as a link between the company and the suppliers. Thus maintaining good relationships with the supplier helps in gaining better deals for the company. Also, further business deals can be planned in a predetermined systematic manner due to uninterrupted business deals with the seller.
- Recommendation
Since procurement consultants are the link between the supplying market and the company, recommendations by an efficiently experienced consultant about the company in the market can help gain better deals and businesses. Thus a good procurement consultant is an asset to the company.
- Business development
Procurement consultants advise the company on raising bids of the budding projects and gives insights on various development plans to the company business and thereby improving the procurement inflow. The consultants also play a huge role in bringing permanent businesses of the suppliers through their relationship maintenance skills.
- Internal management
Consultants have to deal with the procurement of the resources from the suppliers and assign them to the various staff members. They ensure timely reach of input to the project staff. They work in unison with the project directors for the success of the project.
- Team player
The job of the procurement consultant demands the person to be a team player. The consultant works with the project staff members, the project directors, suppliers, bidding agents, etc. to make a business plan function efficiently.
- Financial reporting
The procurement consultant deals with the bidding process and the budget of the project undertaken. Thus the consultant is responsible for verifying any variations in the budget and initiate corrective measures. The consultant has to keep the supplier as well as the company informed about the financial updates.
- Review Documents
The consultant is responsible for the proper documentation processes during the bids. They must ensure the correctness of the documents and assure that they are new, complete, and also look after proper storage of the documents. They also see up risk registers, main logs, and registers to maintain project team records.
- Ensuring transparency
The procurement consultant has to ensure transparency in the dealings made between the company and the supplier. The various transactions made during procuring, bidding, division of project staff, etc. should be transparent and not draw any legal complications to the company later.
Thus having specialist procurement consultants has huge benefits for the company regarding market relationships and financial gains.
