The Procurement Collaboration Framework you need to know

Once I was asked in the interview, what makes procurement important to a company and what is unique about it that any other part of the business cannot do. Perhaps, our profession is no rocket science. Other peers from all around the company overlap with us in their functions - Technology tends to manage vendors, Finance owns the budgeting and cost management, Sales and Marketing monopolized the knowledge of end-customer needs. These and other colleagues do not always appreciate procurement and some of them believe they are better in our job.

However, there are some differentiators that justify the very existence of our profession. 

Procurement is the most collaborative function in the business. We find partners everywhere, even behind the enemy lines. We are welcoming any opportunity to team up with anyone who can bring value to the business - through SRM, cooperative buying, BPO, alliances, or else.

As we collaborate, we are doing that systematically and structurally. Our SRM efforts are not only the random acts of spanking suppliers for the (perceived) lack of performance. Procurement alliances became the synonym for “synergy”. No one else knows the outsourcing business better than ourselves. Our governance is the clockwork, our collaboration is the precision, our relationship management is work of mind and heart.

We bring the method and the system to what other guys are doing as amateurs with no plan, structure, or consistency. That was my answer to the interview question. I was not selected for the job, but still believe in what I said. 

The Procurement Collaboration Framework truly illustrates the variety of work that Procurement Pros undertake.