Suppliers aren’t responding, the phone is silent and the whole decision making process is much longer than usually? No feedback and response may really disturb the work of procurement teams or even make it impossible. Are you working in an international company and the holiday peak happens in different months? That definitely won’t make the situation better. But it doesn’t have to be wasted time. Buyers and procurement experts may take advantage of this time effectively and get ready for the next intense months. How?
See the 4 ways how to spend summer time in purchasing departments effectively!
Industry portals
Usually, when the phone doesn’t stop ringing and the tenders and orders happen one by one, we don’t have time for reading industry literature and learning about the procurement news. Summer time is the best opportunity to catch up with all the latest information! Here is a few portals related to the purchasing industry and supply chain management where you can find a bunch of articles on procurement process optimization as well as technology in B2B purchasing.
- Procurious
- Procurement Leaders
- Buyers Meeting Point
- CIPS Charted Institute of Procurement & Supply
- Supply Chain Brain
And many more…
Enjoy your reading!
LinkedIn updates
Many procurement experts share their knowledge on their LinkedIn profiles. It’s also good to follow the updates of consulting companies specializing in procurement (such as OptiBuy). The companies such as NextBuy also give some hints on their walls where to find interesting industry articles, share their blog posts or posts on Quora or Medium.
Research on the suppliers
Summer time is also a great moment for a detailed research on the potential suppliers. Finally we have some time to analyze the offers and the opinion on the companies we are planning to cooperate with or searching new ones. Such information may be priceless in September.
Test procurement software
Since we already know the latest information from the industry about the use of technology, e-procurement and so on, why don’t we spend the summer time for testing how the e-procurement platforms may support the work of purchasing teams. It’s a great opportunity to schedule a system presentation, discuss the implementation process, compare the offers and get to know a bit more on purchasing systems available on the market. Maybe we will manage to select the right one which will support our work in the fall?
It may also happen that summer is a really intense time in some industries. But if the scenario we presented comes to reality in your case, we strongly encourage you to make the most of this time.
