Summer 2023

This year’s GSA Festival of Sourcing was clutched from the jaws of potential disaster and our heartfelt thanks goes to Eversheds Sutherland who came to our rescue offering their fabulous offices as a replacement venue when our contracted venue – an island in the Thames – was closed down by London Fire Brigade due to health and safety reasons, with literally 10 days notice.

Despite not having the full marquee festival theme, the event was a triumph. The presentations were dynamic. The debates were provocative and the side conversations inspirational. So much so that they have caused the GSA to adapt its program of work for the remainder of 2023.

Expect a lot more on modern sourcing to include the launch of our agile sourcing working group on September 8, soon to be followed by our service provider sustainability assessment service and our work on a global Impact Sourcing Standard. Social and sustainable sourcing will come even more to the fore, as will our work on promoting Supplier Diversity in association with the Council of Supplier Diversity and Inclusion UK.

These subjects are rapidly becoming much more than lip-service, as shared in the presentation by Aviva, who shared their approach to red-lining suppliers that were not performing well across the ESG agenda. You can view all these presentations on our website from the link below.

What also needs to become much more than lip service is the industry’s move towards standardisation. I believe we are at the cusp of the standardisation revolution and am very proud that the GSA launched an industry first standard terms agreement for professional and IT services - saving both buyers and providers significant amounts of time and money by standardising the clauses of the contract that really don’t need to be negotiated - and so levelling the playing field for smaller companies. But more than this, GSA Standard Terms are housed in a completely unique legal technology platform, Clausify, that locks the standard terms so parties are 100% guaranteed to be using unedited terms. Read more below.

The GSA UK Awards demonstrated the ongoing excellence of collaboration, innovation and transformation across the industry and resulted in 3 additional awards being presented on the evening. Read below to see who was Awarded the new Awards of: Best in British; Contribution to Industry and Industry Excellence. Congratulations to all the winners and all those companies shortlisted. At the beginning of September we will open the GSA Professional Awards which recognises the contributions of individuals and teams.

Here’s wishing an Indian Summer. See you at a GSA event soon.

Best
Kerry

UK Awards: MEET THE WINNERS

The Global Sourcing Association is delighted to announce the 2023 GSA UK Awards winners! The winners were announced on Tuesday 4th July at the GSA UK Awards Ceremony at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

Global Sourcing Association CEO, Kerry Hallard said:

“I’m incredibly proud of our industry. It was fabulous to see just how much the industry continues to progress at speed. The consistent themes that came from the GSA Awards submissions were all very much on partnership, collaboration, co-creation and trust with teams working together to deliver real tangible benefits back to the business. Congratulations to all those shortlisted and of course, to the winners!”

The UK Awards, now in their 20th year, recognise and celebrate the efforts of companies who have demonstrated best practice in Strategic Sourcing.

View the Winners here.

 CATCH UP ON THE FESTIVAL OF SOURCING & SUPPLIER DIVERSITY DAY 2023

We had the pleasure of hosting the Festival of Sourcing in association with the Council of Supplier Diversity over the space of two days at Evershed Sutherlands offices where industry experts joined us to speak on topics including Modern Sourcing, Sustainability, ESG, Diversity in Supply Chains, Collaboration and much more...

The Festival of Sourcing (Day 1) took a deep dive into all things modern sourcing covering topics that are affecting the industry. This includes Sustainability, Environment and The Journey to Net Zero, & Impact Sourcing. Industry experts shared their views but panel discussions were also to get different perspectives on modern sourcing such as the legal and analyst and advisor panels.

Supplier Diversity Day consisted of a morning looking at the progress corporates have made and the challenges and opportunities they face through supplier diversity. Open to corporates to develop best practice and open to diverse suppliers to learn more. The afternoon focused on diverse suppliers, how to win RFPs and how to increase inclusivity and remove exclusivity. Open to diverse suppliers to learn from corporates and open to corporates to learn from the diverse suppliers.

The event was a huge success in bringing individuals together to collaborate on current issues and potential solutions.

See the link to get access to the presentation slides of speakers and watch the individual and panel discussions.

It is so important for Service Providers and Enterprise Buyers to understand what a good DEI programme looks like, so we can improve as an industry. In this week’s SourcingTV, Kerry Hallard speaks to Donna Kelly, Senior Vice President Business Unit Lead for South Midlands and Chair of the DEI Working Group at CGI. The inspirational DEI programme at CGI won Diversity and Inclusion Programme of the Year at the 2022 GSA Professional Awards.

Donna shares how and why the programme started, how their DEI networks are run, why it’s so important to use the programme to educate others on different diversity groups, some examples of how the networks have had a positive impact on the workplace and parts with advice for anyone looking to implement their own programme.

Watch the full interview here.

THE LAUNCH OF STANDARD TERMS

The Global Sourcing Association launches Industry first Standard Terms for professional services contracts

The GSA Terms deliver several benefits to buyers and providers around the world which include:

• Reduced time in negotiation
• Reduced fees in contracting
• Accelerated time to commence projects
• A level playing field for smaller diverse suppliers

The GSA Terms will also be housed in Clausify, a legal tech company specialising in digitised, standardised contracts, which will ensure that the GSA Standard Terms cannot be edited, whilst designated negotiable terms can be edited / populated.

View the standard terms here.

THE INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE LEGAL GUIDE – TECHNOLOGY SOURCING 2023 IS NOW LIVE & AVAILABLE TO READ

This third edition of ICLG – Technology Sourcing is produced in association with Mark Leach of Bird & Bird and covers key issues in technology sourcing laws and regulations across 17 jurisdictions. 

The Global Sourcing Association was delighted to author an opening article, in which it explores the move towards standardisation in modern sourcing.

ICLG - Technology Sourcing covers common issues in technology sourcing, including issues relating to procurement processes, dispute resolution procedures, intellectual property rights, data protection and employment law

THE OUTSOURCE ACCELERATOR PODCAST - Setting Global Standards for Outsourcing 

In this episode of The Outsource Accelerator Podcast, Derek Gallimore speaks with Kerry Hallard, CEO of the Global Sourcing Association (GSA) and Chairperson of the Global Technology & Business Services Council (GT&BSC).

Some of the key points outlined in the podcast include:

• Open talent and new outsourcing dynamics
• Global Standardisation
• Positioning the BPO industry for good

View the summary to the podcast here.
Listen to the full podcast here.

GUEST BLOG: HOW THE FESTIVAL OF SOURCING REINFORCED MY SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

by Matt Clarke, Managing Director, Workforce Solutions at ADEC Innovations

Last week, at the Global Sourcing Association’s (GSA) excellent Festival of Sourcing event, I found my sense of responsibility reinvigorated.

On the one hand, that’s just what happens when you spend a few days with some of the most forward-thinking and purpose-driven buyers, suppliers and consultants in the world.

But I also think the GSA and SDUK deserve tremendous credit for managing to give vital topics like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), impact sourcing, Net Zero and supplier diversity the gravitas they deserve while still managing to create a fun and positive atmosphere.

All of the speakers were excellent. These were serious, emotive and thought-provoking discussions around critical, global issues, punctuated by sobering statistics of how much more needs to be done

Read the full article here.

THE NEWS ROUNDUP

• Meta EMEA: Connecting communities through supplier diversity.
• How IBM & Microsoft collaborate to help supply chains
• PwC UK up 16% as it invests £100m in emerging tech
  
• The role of diversity and inclusion in tackling biased AI
  
• Teleperformance launches new state-of-the-art global shared services center in Hyderabad, India

MARK YOUR CALENDERS - UPCOMING EVENTS