GovPD - win-more-contracts-understanding-and-implementing-the-procurement-act-2023 5th August 2025

 There is good news and bad news about the course I run for GovPD - Winning more contracts, understanding and implementing the Procurement Act 2023.

The good news is that we are running it online again on 5th August 2025.

The bad news is that that session is already sold out.

The better news is that we have more dates scheduled - 1st October 2025 and 3rd December 2025.

But if you are interested, might be an idea to get booking.  The course is mostly focused on suppliers, but is relevant to buyers too (and I make sure to tweak the content according to the delegates).

Procurement Training

Well its summer (still), and naturally everyone's minds turn to planning procurement training for the rest of the year.

No?

Just me then.

But a reminder that as well as working through a list of partner organisations, we also offer bespoke and off the shelf training programmes directly.  These can be either face to face or online.  

We offer courses covering a wide range of commercial skills, especially those related to procurement and supply chain management.  The courses are suitable for both public and private sectors, and often for both buyers and sellers.

Course topics can include;

- The Procurement Act 2023 (which is topical)

- Procurement & Supply Chain Management

- Supplier Management

- Contract Management (my lawyer friends point out I am not a lawyer, and I point out that is why I run this course - the focus is on getting what we want, not detailed legal issues)

- Commercial Negotiation

- Tender evaluation processes

- Commercial awareness

AND a range of other things in related areas.

If you are interested, drop me a note or give me a call.

Procurement Fundamentals - CIPS 13th January 2025

 Well, I don't have any more open courses in 2024 (but am pretty full up with in-house courses) so here is some information about my first open skills course of 2025.

I shall be running Procurement Fundamentals online on 13th January 2025.  A one day course, giving you (guess what?) the fundamentals of procurement (for both public and private sectors, services and manufacturing).

Hope you will join us.

full details here.

CIPS Procurement Fundamentals - Thursday 25th April 2024

 I shall be running CIPS Procurement Fundamentals course on Thursday 25th April 2024, starting at 8:45am for 9am UK time.

This assumes no knowledge of Procurement so is ideal for new starts or those considering a career in Procurement (you should - it is very interesting).

As always the course will be as interactive as I can make it.

Full details are here.

This interactive training course considers fundamental elements of the procurement process, together with basic tools and techniques used within procurement and supply. It provides a robust grounding in procurement basics and is designed for those in a junior procurement/supply chain role or those new to the discipline. Delivered using learning systems and techniques to develop individual skills

CIPS Procurement Fundamentals 25th April 2024

 The next CIPS open skills training I am running after Developing Contracts is Procurement Fundamentals.  Again this is suitable for both public and private sector buyers, and for anyone who wants to understand what procurement is (hint: not just shopping or filling in forms).  No prior knowledge is required.

Full details are here.  Hope to see you there.

Webinar: Advanced Purchasing Management and Restarting your Supply Chain

The webinar I recorded for EuroMaTech is now online if you are interested.  It lasts about an hour an includes material from two courses, which I have melded together into something I hope is useful. The attendees seemed to like it.

The webinar is available here.

You will see that there are more webinars planned, which you can sign up to in the same place.

The Courses are;
Advanced Purchasing Management 21/22 June 2020
and Restarting International Supply Chains on 14/15 June 2020
http://www.euromatech.com/seminars/restarting-international-supply-chains

(Yes, I know that seems the wrong way round.  I can assure you it will work fine).

I hope to see you then.

Webinar - Advanced Purchasing and Covid-19 27 May 2020

I am running a webinar for EuroMaTech on Wednesday 27th May 2020, at 9:30am UK (12:30 Dubai).  Details are here.  This is a brief taster for two courses we are running in June - Restarting your Supply Chain, and Advanced Purchasing Management.  I have re-worked some of the sample content so that it works as a standalone (I hope).

I may be biased but having tried the webinar software today, I like it.  Same sort of flexibility as Adobe Connect, but much simpler to use.

Hope you can join us.

Advanced Purchasing Management - EuroMaTech online 18/19 May 2020

We have scheduled one of our most popular courses for the EuroMaTech group as an on-line programme on 18/19 May 2020.  This has been running and been continually adapted for a decade.

The face to face programme is 5 days of content, and obviously we are having to trim a few bits of content and move fast to get it done in 2 days.  But on the positive side, it is available wherever you are, and we will cover most of the material - but not with many exercises or breakout sessions which I know are appreciated by delegates.  As indeed are our excellent training facilities around the world.  But at least you will be able to guarantee your favourite beverages and snacks if you are providing them yourself.  And it is cheaper.

The course will run from 8:30 am Dubai time (5:30am UK time).  I'm getting up early, so I hope that you will join us.

Full details and booking form are here.

Procurement webinars and on line training

With in person training off the agenda for the foreseeable future then I am looking at running some on-line webinars and training programmes.

Anyone interested please let me know what you are interested in, and what would best meet your needs.

Thanks.  Now I'll go back to looking at all the technology (simple) and hosting options (not so much)

Introduction to Public Sector Procurement.

I am running the Introduction to Public Sector Procurement for CIPS in Manchester on 26th June 2018.  Full details are here.

Next one after that will be Edinburgh on 28th September (adapted to Scottish public procurement regulations, but also suitable for English, Welsh and Northern Irish delegates).  Then 20th November in London.

The last 2 courses will also have a second day going into more detail about some of the less common procurement routes such as Competitive Dialogue - Applying the Public Procurement Regulations.

The London event will also have the third part of the programme - the Future of Public Procurement.

Alternatively you could go for a 3 day course combining all 3 days, with a bit of extra stuff, in the Public Sector Skills Programme which we like to call the Summer school in public procurement - London 7/9 August, Manchester 21-23 August, and Edinburgh 4-6 September.

Hope to see you at some (but not all).

Procurex South - now onto Procurex North in Manchester 24th April 2018

Had a really good time at Procurex South.  Thanks to Twitter posters for the photos. Lots of questions from delegates, which I hope I managed to answer.  Good buzz around the place.  Got to get away from the stand to hear very interesting bit from Professor Sue Arrowsmith on Public Procurement implications of Brexit.  Her paper for the European Parliament last year is still the state of the art.  Current situation is wait and see but don't expect major changes in the near future.

And so onto Procurex North in Manchester on 24th April 2018 - full details here.  I am again running the Winning Tenders training zone.  Hopefully with new insights, or at least new jokes.

Hope to see you there.

CIPS Introduction to Public Procurement Bristol 25th April 2018

I shall be running the CIPS Introduction to Public Procurement course in Bristol in April 2018.  The next day is the Applying EU Public Procurement course, which follows on from the Introduction.  This time round we are not following that up with the Future of Public Procurement day, but that will be next run in Manchester in June 2018.  By which time the future of public procurement may have changed from where we are now - or may not.  That one needs regular checking and updating.

This course covers the basics of Public Procurement and so is useful for people joining the Public Sector, joining procurement, wanting a refresher, taking over running a procurement department or trying to sell to the public sector.  Or at least we often have delegates with those backgrounds.  If you are just interested, you are still welcome.

Procurex South 15th March 2018 - London Olympia

So, this is only a week away and I am looking forward to this.  My sessions are in the Winning Tenders Training Zone in the afternoon, so I hope to get to see some of the keynote speakers in the morning, in particular Professor Sue Arrowsmith who will be talking about Brexit and Public Procurement, and Malcolm Harrison who is currently CEO of the Crown Commercial Service, but in the summer will take over the role of CEO of CIPS.  And of course the brilliant Eddie Regan.

That's pretty top notch stuff.  Well, maybe not me.

CIPS Public Procurement courses - Birmingham 20/21/22 February 2018

Next week I am running 3 days in Birmingham for the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, covering UK Public Procurement.  The first day is the Introduction and is fully booked (next one is 25th April in Bristol).  Second one is Applying the Procurement regulations, and the third is the Future of Public Procurement .

3 good days, which can be taken as a block or one at a time - they are as standalone as I can make them.

IChemE webinar series: Engineering Procurement January 2018 - part 3; Price, Cost and Value

So the next webinar in our series is tomorrow, Tuesday 30th January 2018 at 9am and 4pm.

This time I am going to be talking about Price, Cost and Value.  As well as looking at the Total Cost Iceberg, we shall touch on Volkswagen Group cars, the world's most expensive painting to date (see above) and why bottled water costs so much at Schipol airport.

Hopefully something in there for you.

The previous 2 webinars are available for purchase, and the last one will be next Wednesday 7th February 2018 and will give some (hopefully) useful hints and tips for improving Engineering Procurement.

Details are here.

IChemE webinar series: Engineering Procurement January 2018 - part 2

We have run the first module of four and the next one is on Tuesday 23rd January 2018 at 9am and 4pm.  These are 2 different sessions so that we can pick the best recording and make it available for purchase on line.

So if you missed the first one you can still catch up by buying the course, and then joining in.  I am happy to take questions as we go along, or at the end - which of course you cannot do unless you are joining the live sessions.

The first session was Introduction to Engineering Procurement.

The next one is about Supplier Positioning - how we segment what we spend, and how we get the right relationships with our suppliers.

Full details of the courses (or the recordings) is here.

CIPS Public Sector Skills Programme

CIPS are running a series of Summer schools on Public Sector Procurement.  These 3 days that should give a good grounding in UK Public Procurement, and they expand on the two single day courses we run as open training.

Bravely I am leaving the last session to talk about Brexit.  Wish me luck. 

I shall be running all of them, though CIPS is shy of mentioning that - obviously not wanting to put people off.

Full details are available here.

Dates and venues (non-residential) are;

18-20 July 2017
Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, London

29-31 August 2017
Radisson Blu Hotel, Manchester Airport

13-15 September 2017
Radisson Blu Hotel, Edinburgh

Course: Effective Purchasing, Tendering and Supplier Selection, 18-22 December 2016, Dubai

Last course of 2016 for me is in Dubai, and I hope that we shall give a good send off to what has been a rather dramatic year (to say the least).  I rather hope that 2017 will be less dramatic.  Let's be optimistic about it, anyway.

This might be my last Dubai course for some time (we are still looking at 2017 dates) so I hope that I shall see you there.
The course title rather says it all, but there is a full description and book form here.

After that is Christmas in the UK, and then 2017.  Bring it on.  Hope you have a good one.

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Birmingham 25th March 2015

I am taking over the Preparing Perfect Tenders course in Birmingham from my colleague Eddie, and so I have the opportunity to repeat the event I ran last month in Manchester.  Hopefully with new jokes.

 

Of course, since then the new EU procurement regulations have come into force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  How does this change things?  Why not come along to the Novotel and find out?  (Ideally having booked first of course)

 

 

Best Value and Gold Plating of UK Public Sector contracts

Local government minister Kris Hopkins has apparently accused the public sector of "gold plating" procurement requirements in the proposed revision of the Best Value guidance for local authorities.

Article in Supply Management and the proposed revision itself.

His suggestion is to minimise unnecessary paperwork and a tick box mentality, which I think is something that we can all support.  Though to be honest it is not my definition of either Gold Plating or Best Value - it is more about efficient processes.

Whether gold plating is common is something the Minister will have more data on than me, but I think we can consider why it might happen - there is no upside to public sector procurement.  In a commercial environment any savings or added value go through to the bottom line, and add to profits with (hopefully) bonuses all round.  In the public sector any money saved just goes back into government coffers to be used elsewhere.  Any added value is possibly not appreciated (and possibly seen as gold plating itself) (Personal recent example - I bought a First class train ticket for less than the equivalent second class fare.  Don't ask me how that works.  But if I worked in the public sector I bet there would be complaints that "we don't pay for first class travel" regardless of the fact is was actually saving money).

On the other hand any problems in public sector procurement can be very visible, and the procurement professionals might be the ones offered up in sacrifice to the media rather than the relevant Minister or Chief Executive. 

Whenever there is no upside and a very large potential downside then people tend to become risk averse and insist on belt, braces and a second belt just to be sure.   That might lead to gold plating of specifications.

Paradoxically allowing procurement to occasionally fail (a more commercial approach) might actually lead to more success.


Incidentally, the Best Value document mentions British Values - which is one of those things we all know what we mean but is very difficult to put down clearly in words.  Though democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs (all listed) are part of them I am not sure that they are either definitively British or comprehensive.  A topic for another post I suspect.