Industry news

The GSA is very proud to celebrate diversity and voyage on a journey to creating a united voice which encourages transparency, corporate and professional conduct and behaviours, to achieve success across the industry.  The GSA recognise and identify with the power of inclusion and therefore wish to showcase this value in true strategic global sourcing endeavours.  Through a rich desire and appetite to learn from one another, we will be inviting you all for a unique opportunity to appreciate our collective learnings.  Stay home and stay tuned for further details on our upcoming D&I Webinar.  #HappyInternationalDiversityDay (Sunita Hirani, Senior Contracts Manager at the BBC)

At the BBC, this will be quite a celebration- The Creative Diversity Dialogue

Celebrate this with Sunita Hirani, one of our council members by following the link below to watch a LinkedIn Live by the BBC on the 21st May.

21 May 2020, 1700BST/1200 EST/0900 PDT, LinkedIn Live, All welcome 

Follow this link to keep updated on this breech in cyber security.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52722626

New opportunities in times of crisis.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cee-businessservic-idUSKBN22P0OG

The Polish economy has begun recovery following the pandemic, with an expected 4.3% shrink in GDP this year.

https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/polish-economy-most-resilient-to-virus-crisis-in-eu-12633

Garter makes some interesting predictions for the IT industry following Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martingiles/2020/05/13/gartner-it-spending-will-plummet-in-2020-as-cios-slash-budgets/

Dynamically track how COVID-19 is affecting leading offshore and nearshore locations around the world.

https://www.everestgrp.com/covid-19-dynamic-tracker

We expect to see a boom in Technology spend by organisations during the economic recovery following Covid-19.

Why?

Investment in Technology during a recession, has been shown to help organisations thrive afterwards. In a 2017 paper, Brad Hershbein (of the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) and Lisa B. Kahn (of the University of Rochester) compared more than 100 million online job listings posted from 2007 to 2015 with economic data to see how the recession affected the types of skills employers were looking for. They found that the cities hardest hit by the recession saw a greater demand for technology related skills. 

Organisations became more digital with the hardest hit areas of the United States, increasing their investment in information technology, driving a surge in IT skill requirements.

So why did these companies invest in technology during a recession when money is tight? 

• Technology enables organisations to be more transparent, flexible and efficient. Enabling leaders to better understand the business, how the recession is affecting it, and where there’s potential for operational improvements.
• Technology can help cut costs – Focus on “self-funding” transformation projects that pay off quickly, such as automation of manual tasks and outsourcing non-core business activities.
• IT investments make companies more agile. Improving the ability to manage uncertain and rapid change that comes with a recession.

In manufacturing, after the last recession there was an uptake in the adoption of digital and advanced analytics. Previously manufacturers could be the cheapest in the market or could stay nimble—but not both. Flexibility came with serious costs. However, digital technologies have created much more flexibility around product changes, volume changes and the ability to optimise the supply chain around the world.

Organisations that make investments in digital technology, analytics, and agile business practices will be better able to understand the threat they face and respond more quickly. Recessions can create wide and long-standing performance gaps between companies, with research suggesting that digital technology can do the same. Companies that neglect digital transformation may find that they do not survive the recession.

For organisations with a high level of debt, it is important to deleverage and ensure cash flow remains positive. It is important to look at cost savings opportunities before reducing headcount.

The organisations that emerged from the last recession in the strongest shape relied less on redundancy to cut costs and leaned more on operational improvements. 

The reasoning behind this is that redundancies are not just harmful to workers; they’re costly for organisations and can demoralise the remaining team, dampening productivity at the very time it needs to be maximised. Hiring and training is an expensive and long process, so many organisations prefer not to have to rehire when the economy picks back up, particularly if they think the downturn will be brief. 

So what can organisations do to reduce outgoings, maintain cash reserves and improve capability from a technology perspective:

• Focus on projects that pay for themselves, with a clear benefits realisation plan.
• Critically review all expenditure, do you really need all that expensive proprietary software – Can you exploit Open Source solutions or adopt As a Service offerings.
• Outsource non-core functions, utilising global experts and capacity to flex your service as demand ebbs and flows during the recession.
• Re-train your people to support core business tasks, to enhance revenues and increase morale. A happy workforce is a successful one.

CIO-OFFICE are professional IT Commercial and Project Delivery specialists. Please contact info@cio-office to find out how our proven team of subject matter experts can support you.

Full article can be seen here: 

https://cio-office.com/blog/f/invest-in-technology-now-secure-your-business-future

Aviva has pledged £5 million to NHS Charities Together and £10 million to British Red Cross as part of a package of measures aimed at supporting customers and their communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aviva’s donation to NHS Charities Together will fund support for the NHS in three key areas: welfare and wellbeing for NHS employees, volunteers and patients; assistance for patients leaving hospital; and long-term mental health support for NHS workers.

In addition, Aviva has also given £10 million to long-standing charity partner British Red Cross, to help it support those coming out of hospital and ensuring those made most vulnerable by the outbreak can get the support they need.

Aviva is also offering:

• Free breakdown cover, enhanced home insurance for personal belongings and free courtesy cars for Aviva customers working in the NHS. It will also prioritise repairs for NHS workers who are Aviva motor insurance customers
• Full pay for Aviva employees who volunteer full time for the NHS and British Red Cross
• Support for Aviva direct, Quotemehappy or General Accident home, motor and personal van customers who may be experiencing severe financial difficulties as a result of Covid-19, by deferring their monthly payment and spreading payments over the remaining term of their policies.
• Donations from surplus stock of hand sanitisers, rubber gloves, antiseptic wipe pod refills and face masks to key worker organisations and charities

Colm Holmes, Global CEO, General Insurance at Aviva plc said:

“We are seeing extraordinary efforts, particularly from NHS workers who are on the frontline helping to keep us safe in the global fight against Covid-19.  But we all have a part to play in defeating the virus. The funding for NHS Charities Together will help provide vital support to NHS workers, patients and communities and ensure that support reaches more people, quickly.”

Ellie Orton, CEO of NHS Charities Together, said:

“We have pledged to raise £100 million to help support NHS workers throughout the Coronavirus crisis. Aviva’s donation will make a real difference to the amazing NHS staff, volunteers and patients who are on the front line. It’s important that these individuals know just how much the nation appreciates their efforts, and actions such as this show how much people care.”

“If you know what women want, you can rule!” – This quote from the hilarious, if somewhat politically incorrect (against men!) film “What Women Want” could so easily apply to the supplier – customer relationship.

Whilst there is a plethora of sound advice available regarding good financial management practices in these difficult times (such as from the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply: https://www.cips.org/supply-management/news/2020/march/coronavirus-three-procurement-mistakes-to-avoid/) help and support for suppliers and service providers looking to maintain their customer base and secure their sales pipeline is much thinner on the ground.

Now, more than ever, suppliers and service providers need to be finely attuned to the needs of their customers and develop the agility to change rapidly to address disruption in the marketplace whilst grappling with the profound issues in their own organisations wrought by the current circumstances.

Some of the questions that suppliers need to ask include:

·      How do I ensure that my strategy and the strategies of our customers are not heading in opposite directions?

·      Service excellence and delivering the services customers want, when they want them, is more important than ever…how do I ensure I'm doing things right and doing the right things?

·      A modest increase in my bid/win ratio could have a significant upside on my revenue. How can I secure my pipeline in these uncertain times?

·      If we are too risk averse in times of disruption, we may end up exposed to more risk not less - how do we ensure we are risk aware not risk averse?

·      Strong stakeholder management and communications and the right organisational design have never been more important - how do I know the right governance is in place to assure this?

and fundamentally:

·      In these challenging times I need to retain the customers I already have and secure my pipeline of new business. How do I ensure that I truly understand what customers want and align my services to their needs?

Do we at Peru Consulting have all the answers – no, and it’s probably best to treat anyone who claims to have all the answers in these unprecedented times with a large dose of scepticism. What we do have however is many decades of combined experience working with some of the largest, most well-known organisations in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

What this experience gives us is a unique insight into what really matters to customers…and what doesn’t. We’ve advised blue chip clients through many major procurement exercises, helped customers to mend broken supplier relationships and identified improved ways of working that have helped customers optimise cash outflow, maximise operational efficiency and innovate to drive top-line revenue growth.

Our Peruvians, prior to joining us, have also worked in some of the largest supplier and service provider organisations in the world - for example helping suppliers to identify and root out inadvertent errors in their bid financial modelling which were making their proposals commercially unattractive to customers. Many Peruvians also have a client-side focus and can appreciate the pressures clients are facing in these times and how to relate to their priorities, goals and strategies.

At the end of the day we believe supporting suppliers and service providers to better align their services to meet customers’ needs is a virtuous circle – both suppliers and customers win. Let’s be honest, we are a supplier too and as such need to heed our own advice. Helping organisations thrive is what we do, its hard-wired into our culture…its common sense, business sense and no nonsense.

To find out more about our range of services tailored specifically for suppliers and service providers please visit: https://peruconsulting.co.uk/peruvian-views/what-customers-want-how-to-thrive-in-times-of-disruption/

To find out more about our overall sourcing and commercial services, capabilities and experience please visit: https://peruconsulting.co.uk/sourcing-commercial/

Steve Watson is a Principal Consultant at Peru Consulting and specialises in IT Transformation and Commercial Strategy.  He has worked with organisations including British Airways, BT, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Travis Perkins.

I think we all feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Like our hands are tied and we’re watching this huge disaster play out, unable to do anything about it. But, at times like this we’re judged by our actions, not our words.

That’s why I’m so proud to be part of a UK-wide team that have donated all our surplus masks and hand sanitisers to those on the frontline, from the emergency services to care homes.

In a matter of days, we’ve donated thousands of facemasks and hundreds of hand sanitiser units, to help people stay safe.

How did it happen?

In late 2019, when we first heard reports of Covid-19, we bought masks and extra hand sanitiser to protect people working in our offices. As Covid-19 worsened we started sending masks to Aviva’s most affected offices – like Italy and Singapore.

I’m Italian and worked at our Milan office in 2019 as part of an Aviva Pride initiative. My friends there said they were relieved and grateful. They said they felt part of a close-knit Aviva family. I felt so proud of our Italian colleagues.

Fast track to March 2020

The pandemic has affected us all and almost all of our UK workforce is working from home. As our buildings emptied, the need for the stocks of masks and sanitisers diminished.

The idea to donate all our surplus stock came from someone in one of our Risk teams. We soon got the go ahead. I was asked to work with my colleagues across the UK to identify stock we could donate and where they were needed.

By the end of the day...

We’d found 12 recipients from Bishopbriggs in Glasgow to Southampton who would receive much-needed face masks and sanitizing products. At the same time, we have made sure we have enough of these essential items at all our UK sites where Aviva’s own key workers are continuing to work and that all our buildings have enough stock for when they re-open.

On day one, we delivered 800 face masks to the Metropolitan Police in London’s Upton Park. I was particularly moved by a call I made to a PC there at the station, he was so thankful for the donations.

We’ve had lots of amazing feedback since our first delivery.

I am humbled, proud and happy at the same time to see how this has benefitted so many essential, wonderful key workers. It’s been a real team effort from teams across the UK, our legendary security colleagues, and our leadership teams who provided unwavering support to make this happen.

“Adversity introduces a man to himself,” Albert Einstein

We’re all just trying to get through and it’s the times we’re helping each other that really stand out. I hope when this is over and we look back, the moments of kindness stay with us and the fear and worry fade. That we emerge aware of just what we can achieve when we’re up against it.