“Once stakeholders are on board with e-procurement systems, they find it much more efficient. They’re more enthusiastic about being involved in procurement processes.”
Like the digitisation of most things in the world, the rise of e-procurement promises to bring all parties closer together which, when trying to integrate procurement with the interests of stakeholders, is a giant leap for our industry!
Currently utilising e-procurement to its full potential is Anna Thorncroft, Head of Procurement at MTR Elizabeth Line, who advocates the importance of familiarising interested parties in the processes that may be second nature to us.
Anna joins Martin Smith to detail MTR’s implementation of this, as well as considering how procurement can improve its representation for female professionals in the industry, and how that starts with better raising awareness for opportunities in procurement.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- The introduction of e-procurement
- Streamlining procurement through digitisation
- Varying levels of integration in different industries
- Becoming a more human face of procurement
- Attracting more female professionals to the industry
- Diversity and representation in procurement
- How home working has affected internal and supplier relationship management
This episode of Talent Talks is sponsored by Suppleye – a free to access platform that provides fresh insights, breaking news and unique sentiment scores on the companies that interest you. Know your suppliers inside and out by visiting https://www.suppleye.com/ and signing up in less than 2 minutes.
Links & references
- Anna Thorncroft, Head Of Procurement at MTR https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-thorncroft-b0a18038/
- MTR Elizabeth Line https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtrel/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
Episode highlights
“I think the widest definition of e-procurement probably falls more into the digitization of procurement categories, so the use of data and systems to facilitate procurement processes.” – 4:07 – Anna Thorncroft
“It’s embedded within the business, it can drive a lot of efficiency in terms of time reduction, not only for the procurement team, but also your stakeholders. Once they’re familiar and onboarded with using the system, they find it much more efficient. They’re more enthusiastic about being involved in procurement processes.” – 5:26 – Anna Thorncroft
“In the railway industry, procurement is more embedded because the railway industry is quite process driven. So I think people are more open to following processes. I found that stakeholders have a much better knowledge of contracts and contract management. I think that’s just from the nature of the industry being quite process and compliance heavy.” – 8:36 – Anna Thorncroft
“It’s about getting to know your stakeholders, getting to know what drives them, getting to know what they’re looking for in support from a procurement function. But also what they want out of their stakeholder relationships, their supplier relationships, and what their challenges are.” – 11:23 – Anna Thorncroft
“One of the things I’m quite passionate about and have tried to do since the beginning of my procurement career is try and be a more human face of procurement, to make sure that your team approaches it in that way. You’re not just there to bang the savings drum.” -12:17 – Anna Thorncroft
“I think it comes down to awareness of both procurement as a profession and the railway industry as an option for women. And I think early career conversations around those two things are important. ” – 17:12 – Anna Thorncroft
“My procurement career, all in all, isn’t really that long – 8-9 years – but I don’t think I’ve seen a huge shift in representation over that time. However, I’ve been quite lucky enough to work in teams where there’s quite a high level of female representation.” – 20:38 – Anna Thorncroft
“At the beginning of the pandemic, procurement presence and internal stakeholder relationships took a bit of a hit, because it was a bit of an out of sight, out of mind scenario, and that refocused our attention on what we needed to do in order to get those relationships back to where they need to be.” – 29:55 – Anna Thorncroft
“I think it’s important to engage both ways; how can procurement functions take its information to the business, but also the business needs to engage with procurement functions to understand that data better.” – 35:30 – Anna Thorncroft
