Procurement Advisory for Utilities

Cost Control & Reduction | Process Improvement | Procurement Systems | Supplier Leadership

Utilities have undergone significant change in the past decade. Many transformed from government owned to private enterprises. This means Utilities are often caught in the middle: the industry faces the cost-pressures of the private sector and the compliance requirements of the public sector.

Cost control and reduction for Utilities often means obtaining a clear view of the end to end supply chain, optimising asset management and improving business planning processes. Sourcing is then just the next logical step to implement and realise the benefits. We also work with our Utilities clients to diagnose their internal processes, systems and people capabilities and guide them every step of their way to process improvement and better performance results through supplier leadership.

We are happy to dive in wherever you need us but no matter what your specific requirements maybe as part of any prospective engagement we offer an initial Situation Analysis.

In this consultation we analyse your current situation benchmarked against best practice and a roadmap of the options and activities that could be undertaken to improve your results.

We will also demonstrate how we have successfully worked with clients like Sydney Water, Icon Water and Ausgrid to deliver real change.

Case Studies

Resources

Is your Utility or procurement team facing the following challenges?

New to your position, looking for focus and some quick wins
Tasked with finding another round of cost savings
Trying to understand how procurement can deliver against the business strategy rather than being a reactive sourcing team
Struggling with procurement processes and systems that are just too complicated, time consuming, prone to errors
Not having the time to proactively fix the problems and are constantly expected to do more with less
Frustrated with contracts and suppliers that continually under-perform and give my team headaches
Procurement data is too poor for meaningful spend analysis
Our procurement systems are not fit for purpose

We help Utilities and their teams:

Analyse quickly where they stand in terms of procurement capability, systems and gaps to best practice.
Align the procurement function so that it delivers business objectives
Identify which categories present the most likely cost savings and bang for buck
Find the space to think strategically and add real value to your business
Improve existing procurement systems
Guide teams when selecting and implementing new procurement systems
Fix existing dysfunctional contracts and relationships with suppliers
Elevate the standing of the role of procurement within the organisation
Gain confidence and access deep expertise to tackle high stakes procurement in any category
Implement better practice contract and performance frameworks

We do this by:

Working collaboratively with you, your team and all stakeholders, from the start of the project to the successful implementation
Embedding our team of industry leading category experts into your project team for rapid upskilling of your procurement capabilities
Streamlining existing processes, policies and templates
Diagnosing problems with your contracts, systems, process and capabilities and implementing better practice
Benchmarking your procurement function with the leading Utilities in Australasia
Using artificial intelligence to categorise spend and use our experience to predict where savings are possible
Providing end to end change management support for procurement systems

Our Consulting Service

Cost Control and Reduction

When it comes to cost control and reduction there is more than one way to skin the cat. Procurement teams actually have 4 levers at their disposal - Pay Less, Buy Cheaper, Buy Less, Buy Smarter.

Our team will:

Help you identify and apply a 4 levers strategy to your procurement function and buying process.
Provide you with deep category insight that quickly identifies cost saving opportunities (including in construction, property, facilities management, professional services and ICT)
Give you on demand access to our resources to supplement your own team.

Process Improvement

Transforming the way procurement is done often receives internal resistance particularly if to date it has been ineffectual or an impediment to getting things done.

Our team will:

Assess the procurement capabilities of people, systems and processes.
Analyse your spend data with our proprietary tool SPAT, which is a machine learning tool trained on 50 million invoice data points
Diagnose exactly where the pain is, what is causing it and then implement the changes with you.
Give you the time to focus on the important not only the urgent through improved planning and better category management.
Streamline procurement policies, processes, guidelines and templates.
Coach and tailor training across the whole contract lifecycle.

Injured procurement function revived with a multifaceted refresh and implementation

Grosvenor conducted a comprehensive review of the client's procurement function. The review involved extensive consultation across the business, review of existing process and procedures and an assessment of procurement outcomes. Current practice was assessed against Grosvenor’s Procurement Better Practice Comparator to identify areas of strength as well as areas requiring improvement.

Procurement Systems

Chances are your function can be significantly improved through better procurement systems. We offer truly independent and system agnostic advice on how you get more of existing systems and how to drive customer adoption of new systems.

Our offer:

Clearly identify why your existing systems do not deliver the benefits and efficiencies they should. Then we help you implement the fixes.
Use artificial intelligence to rapidly understand your spend even if the underlying data is poor.
Assess your readiness for the implementation of a new procurement system and develop the business case.
Support the change management that is required for any successful eProcurement system.

Supplier Leadership

More often than not service providers disappoint. Managers end up spending most of their time putting out fires and dealing with poor performance rather than making strategic decisions.

We help you:

Introduce a contract management and supplier relationship management framework to drive the required behaviour from your suppliers.
Determine if your contracts are on track and where they are underperforming and get them up to scratch through our contract health checks.
Fix a dysfunctional contract or relationship.

Professionalised contract and partner management at Ausgrid

Ausgrid has a large decentralised contract management function with more than 150 staff responsible for getting best performance from thousands of suppliers. To align this function with the overall business objectives of achieving sustainable, reliable and affordable outcomes for its electricity customers it was necessary to introduce a consistent way for how contracts are managed.

Insights & Resources

Choosing a suitable eProcurement system: What others had to learn the hard way

Unfortunately, not all procurement teams get to enjoy full benefits from their technology solutions. Why is that? Learn how to avoid missing out these crucial benefits.

What separates immature and mature organisations?

After learning about procurement’s maturity levels and how these correlate to strategic alignment, we can firmly say, that they go hand in hand. What separates immature and mature organisations?

Dealing with supply risk: becoming a customer of choice

Assuring the supply base and its viability is currently an important procurement goal. So how exactly are organisations dealing with mitigation of supply risk? What can you learn and adopt?

Where are the procurement “quick wins” for an incoming CPO?

As a new CPO you need to make an impact. Fast. Ideally within 100 days. This is important to win trust. Trust from the wider business that procurement will be better this time round. Better, in the sense of being able to help the organisation deliver the strategic goals. An enabler, rather than a roadblock. A coach, not a police offer.