Q&A with Our Procurement Director
As Procurement Consultants, we work hard to grow all businesses that engage with Hudson Procure. We also ensure everything we do is aligned to our clients’ wider business goals and meets their high standards.
Our main focus at Hudson Procure is to help our clients drive maximum value from the procurement process. We want to make it easier by making it clearer, more transparent, and focused on achieving the best results possible.
Our tailored services are all designed to bring out the best in your procurement activity.
We have sat down with our Procurement Director, Daniel Gibson, to answer some frequently asked questions that may help you.
What do Hudson Procure do?
At Hudson Procure, we’re focused on working closely with our clients to deliver a range of fully tailored procurement services. This can range from project based tender management support to providing a fully outsourced procurement service, and everything in between. If our clients need any support with procurement, we’re here to ensure that effective procurement helps achieve their business goals. Often, value for money can mean different things to different organisations and within different sectors. Our wide range of experience and unique approach means we’re committed to understanding our clients’ unique challenges. As well as developing solutions collaboratively that deliver maximum benefit.
What happens in an average day as a Procurement Consultant?
My average day as a Procurement Director begins with checking my emails and calendar for the day. I assess the day ahead and plan for any meetings. This could include creating presentations, preparing notes, or organising hand-outs for the company to use during the meeting. Depending on the subject matter, I may create an agenda so staff can prepare any material in advance if necessary.
A typical day involves liaising with our clients, improving the procurement process by making it clearer and more transparent. At Hudson Procure, we offer a varied level of products. These products can aid how procurement runs across the industry.
Where do Hudson Procure operate?
Our team of Procurement Consultants are highly skilled and experienced in both the public and private sectors. They have been delivering effective procurement on a direct and consultative basis for many years. Our team is based in County Durham, but can deliver throughout the UK, the US, Europe, and further afield. As modern approaches to work evolve, we’re fully flexible in our delivery models. We can work remotely or on-site with our clients’ teams as required. No two days are the same for us and were fully focused on adding value within our engagements wherever possible.
What are the daily duties of a Procurement Consultant?
My daily duties are keeping up engagement with clients. This is mainly to understand their unique context and challenges that their business faces. I ensure that we are doing our utmost to offer support in the areas that they want to improve upon.
I also make sure to identify and drive opportunities for improvement in clients’ procurement and operational performance. This can boost their standing as a business.
I’ll spend a large part of my day interpreting market research, competitive information, and personal knowledge. I do this to develop high quality procurement solutions and efficiencies.
On a daily basis, I work alongside other Procurement Consultants to support the delivery of procurement projects. This ensures the team is ever conscious of deadlines and we submit work before it’s due. You can see our Procure Consult service offering here.
How much money can you save me?
It’s true that effective procurement practices can often save money from the bottom line by securing better pricing. However, that’s not all it can deliver. Hudson Procure specialise in working with organisations to identify and maximise procurement opportunities. So, in addition to driving costs down through effective tendering and negotiation, we also work closely with our clients. This is to eliminate waste and maximise efficiency, deliver cost avoidance, and maximise output and performance from their supply chains. We focus heavily on strategic wins and coaching our clients’ teams to deliver procurement gains after our commission has ended.
What does it take to be a Procurement Consultant at Hudson?
In addition to being highly skilled and experienced in a range of procurement and supply chain specialisms. Our consultants are solution-oriented problem solvers with a passion for delivering excellent services and results to our clients. We’re focused not only on delivering the project we’ve been assigned, but also adding value to our clients’ operations. We do this by drawing on our wide-ranging experience, and developing creative solutions bespoke to our clients. We’re also fully committed to delivering services as an extension of our clients’ team. We ensure that all stakeholders are fully considered and have the opportunity to work collaboratively.
To be a successful Procurement Consultant, you need to be highly motivated and committed to delivering quality solutions under pressure. You must be self-disciplined, extremely organised, highly personable and an excellent communicator.
What type of person do you have to be?
To be successful as a Procurement Consultant, you need to be highly motivated and committed to outputting quality work, 24/7. You must be self-disciplined, extremely organised, and be able to present yourself and your company in a professional manner.
At Hudson Procure, we have high standards for staff. We are expected to go above and beyond for our clients, which we love to do. The ability to think creatively is also praised within this role. This is because there are many times when we will receive ad-hoc work, meaning short deadlines are in place.
It’s also important to be committed to developing your own procurement knowledge base. Your position can be accredited more highly when you have expertise across multiple sectors.
What’s your favourite part of your role?
My role is really challenging and fast paced, but that’s why I love it.
I enjoy working collaboratively with our clients, understanding their challenges, and developing procurement solutions that add real demonstrable value. We have a great team here at Hudson. We always look to call upon our wide range of skills and experience to deliver the best result for clients.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to progress to your position?
It’s incredibly important to keep working hard and honing your skills. No two procurement projects are ever the same. So, it’s imperative to keep developing, keep pushing knowledge levels and understanding the turbulent nature of the marketplace. In addition to keeping skills sharp, Procurement Consultants fundamentally must understand their clients’ challenges and create solutions that address these. The benefits of effective procurement are wide reaching, but comparatively, when businesses get procurement wrong it can be really damaging. That’s why it’s so important to listen, keep an open mind and be dynamic in the way you deliver.
Do you have all the skills mentioned above? Does this daily workload sound appealing to you? Perhaps you already work in a similar role. We suggest you head over to our Careers page for any updates on vacancies we’re currently recruiting for.
Procurement: First steps
Do you have a procurement project you need support with? Are you interested in understanding how effective procurement can benefit your business? Contact our Procurement Consultants and see how they can help you.
One of highly skilled and experienced Procurement Consultants will be happy to have a no obligation discussion around your needs. Our team have experience across a range of sectors. So, we’re ideally positioned to work closely with your team to drive high quality procurement results.
Need help writing and managing your tender requirement?
Here at Hudson Procure, we understand that writing tender documentation can be complex and time consuming. Often, organisations don’t have the time or resources to give the attention to their procurement activity as they would like.
Our Procure Consult service can help you with your tendering needs. We’ll work closely with you to understand your requirements. Then, develop an appropriate procurement project strategy and support with specification writing before fully managing the end-to-end process.
We can also support with any procurement project you have on an ad-hoc basis.
What we can support you with:
- Outsourced solution to procurement
- Procurement strategy
- Experienced procurement experts and strategists
- Stakeholder workshops
- Production of ITTs, RFPs, and specifications
- Publishing opportunities
- Sourcing suppliers
- Evaluating responses
- Organising presentations
- Issue feedback to successful/unsuccessful suppliers
- Improved supplier selection and management
- Improvised spending and ROI.
Our positive attitude and friendly approach, combined with our consultancy offering, sets us apart in the procurement world. We offer innovative solutions to age-old problems, updating the market and leading the way with new technology.
Our dedicated staff
Our Procurement Consultants are at the heart of our business. They keep everything ticking over by:
- Supporting our clients with regular engagement, understanding unique content and challenges that face each individual business
- Identifying and driving opportunities for clients
- Interpreting market research and competitive information to develop high-quality efficiencies
- Working alongside other Procurement Consultants to support the delivery of projects.
Working together, our staff are responsible for providing excellent services to our customer base. We’re very collaborative and like to brainstorm new creative ideas to combat problems we face on a daily basis.
Why choose Hudson Procure?
Hudson is a global provider of tendering and procurement solutions. Our products and services inspire businesses of all sizes to adopt best practice.
Our company will always evolve for the benefit of our clients. We continue to strive towards a fair and more transparent procurement market. We are a highly motivated team, who care about creating long term sustainable businesses and protecting careers.
In 2020, our Hudson Succeed Division has increased their success rate from 83% to 87%. We’ve done this by helping clients make sensible decisions. Hudson Succeed is our bid writing and consultancy division. We want to build great relationships that will last for years to come. With the launch of Hudson Procure, we aim to help buyers tackle writing those tenders which can be incredibly daunting.
We love bringing new clients on board and getting to know new companies and businesses. Our passion is business improvement.
We offer the following services:
How can Hudson Procure help with procurement in the public sector?
At Hudson Procure, our procurement experts have nearly two decades of experience. No matter what kind of support you’re looking for, we can help.
Procure Consult
With Procure Consult, we’re offering support with tender management and ad-hoc procurement consultancy. Our expert team will manage the end-to-end procurement process or offer assistance at any stage, as and when required.
Procure Health Check
With Procure Health Check, we’ll conduct a full review of the strategic and operational procurement processes within your organisation. We’ll identify the areas that need improvement and help you drive greater value from the procurement process.
Procure Analyse
The purpose of Procure Analyse is to conduct a high-level analysis of your spending activity. We’ll help you understand your current purchasing behaviour and highlight areas that can deliver greater value. Offered as part of Procure Health Check or as a standalone service.
Procure Outsourcing
We deliver a range of procurement solutions through Procure Outsourcing on an outsourced basis, completely bespoke to you. This can range from delivering multiple tender projects as a package to delivering the full procurement function of your organisation.
Procure Post
With Procure Post, you can share your tender on one or more of our 11 sector-specific portals. This way, you’ll increase your chances of finding the perfect supplier.
Get in touch for a consultation and find out how we can help your business grow.
Check out our other blogs for further Procurement Insights:
