Practitioner-Only Workshop Day – Mastering Procurement Operations

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In this all-new networking session, we will display a series of pain points on the screen, and you’ll have to determine which your most pressing business matter is for 2015 and find others who also share that pain point. You’ll have 20 minutes to chat with others in your group before a new group of challenges is displayed. This is an exciting way for you to meet other ProcureCon attendees who share the same challenges, make new connections, and collaborate on new ways to solve them.

Where are you on the journey? What steps can you take to deliver value that is aligned with your overall corporate strategy? If you have a mature Strategic Sourcing Organization or are just beginning to build one, learn how to create maximum savings value for your organization. Tim Herrod will draw from his experience in strategic operations, finance and communications planning to provide lessons that will help you with:
· Building the team—hiring true sourcingprofessionals
· Training the organization of the philosophy ofstrategic sourcing and sourcing levers
· Building and defining a global team—culturalchallenges
· Defining savings methodology and gainingorganizational acceptance - The score of the game
· Purchasing tools and technology—where to start
· Data analysis and gathering
· Getting the message out to the organization
· Tracking success and publishing results

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Technology plays a critical role in procurement innovation, by enabling practitioners to focus more on strategy, and less on the day-to-day transactions. The constant firefighting creates chaos and takes away from planning and staying ahead of strategic initiatives. Firefighting may not disappear, but it can be significantly minimized. Get creative during this working group session to find out how to gain competitive advantage by streamlining your operations to keep you thinking strategically, while tending to the tactical things, at the same time.

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Meet up with someone that shared your key challenge during the morning ice breaker!

Procurement has come a long way from pushing POs and working within a tactical, purchasing function. Today’s procurement professionals must align with new business models, equipped with strong negotiation skills, knowledge of commodities and markets and soft skills to build relationships internally and externally. Think holistically about your business and the demands at hand to make the most of this workshop.
Get methods to help you:
• Pinpoint transferable skills in other industries and internal talent
• Draft strong roles and responsibilities for procurement position descriptions
• Develop skills in commodities and markets
• Identify soft skills including communication to negotiate and manage relationships internally and externally

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Many people feel that the low hanging fruit is gone. What are some of the harder to get categories, such as legal and marketing, that procurement can handle to drive value to the bottom line and achieve savings? This workshop will explore how to ensure no stone is left uncovered to tap into new category areas to drive value for the business.
Find you how to:
• Access untapped areas of spend
• Learn how best to work with internal clients
• Build knowledge in these areas to make informed buying decisions

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Time to recharge your batteries, and your phones!

Professional Services is one of the most complex categories that we manage. Find out how to get a clear picture into this spend category to make the most of this opportunity. Learn about critical considerations when developing your strategy and gain lessons learned to collaborate with internal stakeholders to drive success.
Walk away from this workshop with:
• Practical and actionable strategies to analyze category spend
• Strategies to conduct market research
• Methods to drive initiatives that will help address this category to drive results.

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The stage from RFP to signature can be lengthy, with a lot of focus from cross-organizational teams. How can you maintain the spotlight on a lengthy contract to ensure terms are delivered and that further improvements can be made?
In this workshop you will:
• Explore a range of methods for supplier relationship management and contract ownership
• Determine appropriate responsibilities to business units and hold teams accountable
• Ensure vendor managers understand what is expected and that changes aren’t made to drive up price
• Get the strategies needed to drive supplier improvements at the internal level

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Take a brief break to refresh before we reconvene to get best practices on SRM and uncover challenges surrounding your key categories of interest.

Kellogg has a novel take on reviewing and auditing supplier performance that produces viable information to make informed decisions. In fact, their process has actually changed how suppliers interact with the company. Cathy Kutch will lead this interactive session along with one of her buyers and one of her suppliers to take you through Kellogg’s evaluation process and the results achieved. Then you’ll break into groups for a mock evaluation exercise.

• What are the best methods to audit your suppliers?
• At what point do you determine your suppliers need to be audited—is there a regular schedule or review process?
• Techniques to work with underperforming suppliers to bring them back up
• KPIs, metrics and scorecards to develop an effective supplier ratings system
• Benefits and drawbacks of certified supplier processes

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1. IT
Marc-Andre Labelle, Director, IT and Procurement, Ubisoft
2. Facilities Management
Sean Smith MBA, Category Director, Dairy Ingredients, Agropur
3. Marketing
Jean Tsach, Head of Sourcing Canada, Novartis
4. HR & Staffing
Munish Dhanker, Associate Director, Strategic Procurement, Bell Canada
6.Travel
Kathy Simon, Director, Indirect Procurement, !ndigo Books & Music Inc.

After a busy day of interactive, solution-focused workshops, relax with fellow speakers and attendees. Take advantage of the opportunity to network, share ideas off-line and check out new products and services from innovative procurement solutions providers.