A lot of hard work went into the NEVI Procurement Profiles Study in 2011. The previous
study focusing on this subject dates back to the year 2000. It was therefore about time for
a new study in this area. The study was commissioned by NEVI Exams. The findings of the
study are presented in this booklet.
Professional profiles form the basis of educational programmes, training courses, workshops,
exams, etc. But they can also be applied to a range of other activities. The new professional
profiles are therefore essential for professional procurement. Every profession, and the
train-ing activities that go with a profession, is based on a carefully compiled professional profile.
Experience has shown that professional profiles that have emerged from previous studies
have influenced how organisations are shaping their procurement positions, which further
underlines the great importance of the new profiles for any procurement professional. The
new procurement profiles will provide direction in many areas in the coming years.
The study into the new profiles was conducted by the external research firm CINOP. They
started by looking into procurement trends and developments. They also set out to assess
the validity of their findings by consulting authoritative figures in the world of procurement,
including Arjan van Weele, Frank Rozemeijer, and Ton Trommelen.
Findings were submitted to a supervisory committee made up of:
•
Frank Rozemeijer, NEVI Professor Purchasing and Supply Management Maastricht University
•
Wouter Stolwijk, Managing director of PIANOo
•
Hans Bax, University Medical Centre Groningen / prospective chairman of NEVI health care
•
Gert Walhof, NEVI Procurement Lecturer at Hanze College
•
Frank de Reij, CPO at Air France-KLM / CPO of the year 2011
•
Guido Koreman, CPO at Ballast Nedam
•
To formulate the qualities today's procurement
professionals need to possess to be good at their
job;
•
To mutually focus employees and employers on
each other: what are the (minimum) requirements?
•
4 roles:
•
Head of Procurement
•
Senior Procurement Officer
•
Procurement Officer
•
Junior Procurement Officer
•
“Silo” mentality in procurement
•
Traditionally educated at intermediate vocational
level, majoring at pre-higher vocational level
•
Professionals have completed MIL/NEVI 1/NEVI 2
training
•
Still little influx from within ”the business”
7 new roles. The procurement officer as a:
1
Procurement Officer
2
Analyst
3
Relationship Manager
4
Advisor
5
Performance Manager
6
Coordinator
7
Manager
Roles The buyer The analyst The relationship manager
The advisor The performance manager
The
coordinator The manager Technical content areas
Project management A B / C A / B / C C
Procurement process A / B B A / B / C C
Business administration A / B / C A / B A / B / C
Market expertise A / B A / B A / B A / B / C C
Costs, Finances & Risks A / B A / B / C A / B C
Procurement/category
strategies A / B A / B / C B C
Commercial duties A / B A / B / C C C
Value creation in the chain A / B / C C C
Legal expertise and skills
(public sector) A / B A / B / C A A / C
Level A : Factual knowledge Level B : Application
Content areas:
Procurement process A / B
Market expertise A / B
Costs, Finances & Risks A / B Commercial duties A / B Legal expertise and skills A / B Procurement/category strategies A / B
Personal qualities: Honest, persistent & persevering, enterprising & takes initiative, perceptive to his or her environment Professional attitude: dependable, customer-driven & constructive, team player, bridge builder Skills: Systematic, negotiator, objective, style flexibility & ability to switch between dif-ferent levels, ability to handle resistance
Role 1 The buyer: takes care of procurement
Description:In the role of Buyer, the procurement professional is responsible for the procurement process and keeping the (primary) process going, while always aiming for operational excellence. This means he or she is responsible for the entire process, from purchase to support. Throughout the procurement process, he or she is the first point of contact for customers and suppliers. A buyer can be either a generalist or a specialist, depending on the organisation. In this role, the procurement professional predominantly works on an operational and tactical level. On that level, he or she prepares and organises the procurement process (tactical), and departs from that procurement process to provide direction for the procurement policy (strategic).
In his or her role as buyer, the procurement professional is able to convey the complete procurement process, and understands how the entire procurement process works. This role is primarily about procuring high-quality products and services at favourable terms for the organisation. The buyer applies his or her knowledge in the execution of the procurement process, and has the ability to uncover underlying connections within the primary process. The buyer consults with customers and suppliers in devising new solutions for the primary process. He or she formulates recommendations to improve the quality and efficiency of the procurement process.
Content areas:
Project management A
Market expertise A / B
Costs, Finances & Risks A / B / C
Personal qualities: Curious, persistent & persevering, creative, enterprising & takes initiative Professional attitude: Critical, dependable, goal-oriented, willing to help
Skills: Objective, systematic, helicopter view, able to give advice, and innovative
Role 2 The analyst: provides information
Description:In the role of Analyst, the procurement professional draws on his or her well-developed analytical skills. Basing himself or herself on causal links identified in situations, decisions, and actions, he or she eventually arrives at an accurate analysis.
The analyst furthermore possesses the ability to cover all aspects of and consequences for the organisation in his or her analysis. He or she links “hard” market and product analyses to customer needs and possibilities within the organisation. The analyst is an expert at gathering all relevant information and translating it into concrete actions and procurement strategies. He or she goes by benchmarks and maps financial and supply risks. In this role, the emphasis is on the strategic development of procurement, albeit that an analyst also applies his or her analytical skills at a tactical and operational level, providing analyses and information for these levels.
The analyst gathers relevant market and customer information and makes it understandable. Using information and data, the analyst is able to uncover connections within the market information he or she has obtained, and interpret these in terms of the procurement process. This enables the analyst to map opportunities and threats in a substantiated manner, thus contrib-uting to an efficient decision-making process. He or she assigns value, and with that a certain weighting, to information, and issues advice on new markets and/or product categories on both a central and decentral level within the organisation.
Content areas:
Commercial duties A / B / C
Market expertise A / B
Project management B / C
Personal qualities: Perceptive to his or her environment, able to empathise, enterprising and takes initiative, honest Professional attitude: Bridge builder, customer-driven, team player, and accessible
Skills: Style flexibility, able to handle resistance, is objective, able to think in terms of facts
Role 3 The relationship manager: develops and maintains relationships
Description:In the role of relationship manager, the procurement professional's activities are all about networking. In this role, the procurement professional takes care of supplier and customer relationship management. The relationship manager is a well-respected business partner to his or her customers and suppliers, and picks up on signals from his or her environment. He or she builds and maintains relationships with customers and suppliers at an operational, tactical, and strategical level.
The relationship manager is in charge of managing customer satisfaction. The relationship manager adds value by building an internal and external network, and anticipating future developments. In this role, the procurement professional is per-ceptive to (cultural) differences between organisations, regions, and countries, and able to connect different parties. The relationship manager has the ability to recognize the different stakeholders and has insight into procurement's (inter-nal) customer base. The relationship manager maintains contacts with stakeholders, and has the ability to weigh the different interests that are at stake. He or she will strive to strike up win-win relationships and draw on several commu-nication styles towards the different business levels. The relationship manager has the ability to compile information from and about stakeholders, and relate it to the entire procurement or organisational policy. The relationship manager will come up with proposals in the area of relationship management and customer base.
Content areas:
Legal expertise and skills A / B / C Business administration A / B / C
Value creation A / B / C
Market expertise A / B / C Procurement/category strategies A / B / C
Personal qualities: Perceptive to his or her environment, able to empathise, enterprising & takes initiative, creative, able to think outside the box, honest Professional attitude: Customer-driven, dependable, bridge builder, and critical
Skills: Able to give advice, style flexibility, and able to switch between different levels, able to handle resistance, is objective, and able to think in terms of facts
Role 4 The advisor: gives advice to the various stakeholders
Description:In the role of advisor, the procurement professional issues solicited and unsolicited advice to customers and sup-pliers. The advisor anticipates the customer's needs and covers the whole business context in his or her advice. In this role, the procurement professional draws on his or her advisory skills, using all available advice techniques. He or she will be a sparring partner to the business and advise customers to help make their procurement as efficient and effective as possible. In his or her advisory role, the procurement professional adds value to the organisation by issuing advice, from a professional role, on an operational, tactical, and strategic level inside and outside his or her own organisation. The advisor possesses all the relevant knowledge of procurement regulations and legislation, and is able to interpret this knowledge. The advisor has the ability to use his or her knowledge and skills in his or her advice, and to, for example, de-velop business cases. The advisor has the ability to harness his or her knowledge and skills to come to new solutions. He or she can assign value to his or her analyses, and advise customers, as well as decision-makers within the organisation.
Content areas:
Value creation C
Costs, Finances & Risks A / B
Commercial duties C
Procurement process B Procurement/category strategies B
Personal qualities: Persistent and persevering, enterprising & takes initiative, honest, and gutsy Professional attitude: Goal-oriented, critical, dependable, customer-driven
Skills: Is objective, able to handle resistance, is systematic, maintains a helicopter view, and is resolute
Role 5 The performance manager: maps performance and manages activities accordingly
Description:In the role of performance manager, the procurement professional is a goal-oriented contract manager who is all about getting results. To measure is to know. In this role, the procurement professional is on a continuous quest for performance improvement. The performance manager monitors, provides direction, and checks supplier contracts with a high level of persistence. This is all about the quality of products and services, and about agreements regarding product and service provision. The performance manager sets challenging and realistic targets, and briefs stakeholders on relevant performance indicators.
The performance manager has the ability to monitor contracts by offsetting performances against benchmarks and converting customer requirements into concrete performance indicators. He or she has the ability to combine information and identify possible improvements that will benefit customers. The performance manager has the ability to assign value to performance indicators and actively steers towards getting results. Where necessary, he or she will develop new performance indicators, possibly together with customers and suppliers. He or she will report his or her findings to the organisation's management.
Content areas:
Project management A / B / C Procurement process A / B / C Business administration A / B
Legal expertise A
Personal qualities: Is perceptive to his or her environment, persistent, and has perseverance, is enterprising and takes initiative, is creative Professional attitude: Is goal-oriented, a bridge builder, a team player, and is customer-driven Skills: Maintains a helicopter view, style flexibility, is systematic, is resolute
Role 6 The coordinator: organises and monitors the entire process
Description:In the role of coordinator, the procurement professional draws on his or her excellent helicopter view. He or she will see the total picture and direct the entire procurement process. He or she uses his or her organisational skills to guarantee procurement process continuity, and make sure everyone working in that process knows what to do. The coordinator will do so by consulting with stakeholders within and outside the procurement discipline, and managing the different interests that are at stake. He or she sees to it that targets in the areas of quality, customer satisfaction, and delivery reliability are hit. The coordi-nator is an expert process-based thinker: a fully-fledged process manager.
The coordinator recognizes and understands the processes that are run inside and outside the organisation. As a coordinator, the procurement professional will spot possible bottlenecks in processes and has the ability to relate these to the procurement policy. He or she recognizes conflicts of interests at stakeholder level. The coordinator has the ability to merge his or her analy-ses and relate the procurement process to other procesanaly-ses. He or she initiates, develops, and implements improvements to the procurement process and underlying systems. He or she issues advice to the organisation on how to boost process efficiency.
Content areas:
All content areas C
Business administration A / B / C Legal expertise and skills A / C
Personal qualities: Is able to empathise, is honest, authentic, enterprising and takes initiative, is persistent and shows perseverance, is perceptive to his or her environment Professional attitude: Is dependable, accessible, a team player, enthusiastic, and a bridge builder Skills: Inspires, is resolute, is able to handle resistance, is objective and able to think in terms of facts, applies a helicopter view
Role 7 The manager: manages procurement
Description:In his or her role of manager, the procurement professional inspires his or her employees and conveys his or her vision. He or she builds the procurement organisation and ensures that all available skills are utilised to the maximum degree. In this role, the procurement professional will be in his or her element on all levels inside and outside the organisation. The manager has the ability to take on the day-to-day running of a procurement team and formulate procurement objectives derived from the organisation's objectives. He or she will synchronise procurement policy and organisational policy, and make sure procurement adds value for the organisation. The role of manager can be either a functional one (project manager) or a hierarchic one (departmental manager).
The manager has the ability to recognize his or her employees' skills and grasp the overall organisation's vision. The manager is able to manage his or her team and identify his or her staff's development needs. He or she challenges his or her employees to make the most of their talents. The manager has the ability to build the department (synergy) by getting employees to buy into the department's vision. The manager is able to assign value to his or her department's performance based on performances, reviews, and feedback, and adjust his or her management activities accordingly.
