The Benefits of a CIPS Procurement Qualification

Working in procurement can be challenging, with many roles and responsibilities falling under your remit.

You're often dealing with balancing budgets, managing supplier relationships, sourcing products and other tasks that must all be juggled with ease and efficiency. This is why CIPS procurement qualifications are highly sought after by employees and employers alike, as they enhance your knowledge of procurement and supply processes and help make this balancing act that much easier.  

To give you some background knowledge, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) is the leading body for procurement with its globally-recognised qualifications, setting the global standard in procurement and supply management and providing the ideal training for procurement professionals at any stage in their career. 

In this blog, we'll take you through the benefits of a CIPS qualification and how it can enhance your procurement role. 

Enhance Ethical Sourcing

Now more than ever, we look to the ethics of an organisation to decide if we want to buy from or work with them. Maintaining ethical practices at every point in the supply chain is no mean feat, but with the right knowledge you can tackle this.

It’s essential for organisations to be aware of the implications of ethical sourcing, especially if they use this as a selling point for their consumers. Organisations that claim to be sourcing ethically, but don’t do their due diligence can be in for a PR disaster.

CIPS recommends that you should visit sites, research commercial business information and instil best practice in your suppliers. They believe that going beyond checking the box on ethical sourcing is essential to reduce this risk.

Beyond tier one suppliers, they encourage their members to use community-based methods to highlight issues with ethics in the supply chain.

Banding together with other organisations in your industry can spread the responsibility and help to share this load. There’s a high likelihood that you deal with the same suppliers and sources, so compare the results of due diligence and set industry-wide standards.

Create Equitable Deals

Negotiation tactics can drastically influence the outcome of a meeting. While many seasoned procurement professionals believe they handle these effectively, new tactics and concepts can take their skills to the next level.

It’s not always about getting the lowest price from a supplier, as creating an equitable deal can be more cost-effective in the long run.

For example, you negotiate a deal for a service at £1,500 per month, where other customers pay £2,000 per month, which costs the supplier £1,200 to provide. Should the cost of provision or demand drastically increase, the supplier will be more likely to honour high levels of service with clients that pay more. This may mean you switch suppliers more often, wasting time and money in the lengthy tender process.

Creating deals that are equitable for both parties creates better supplier relations and reduces risk within the supply chain.

Manage Supplier Relations

Maintaining great supplier relations requires you to go the extra mile, but there are also numerous benefits to doing so. With an insight to the supply chain, you can make strategic changes in advance, instead of reacting after the fact.

Viewing these relationships as partnerships, and working to preserve them, adds value to your organisation - an element that distinguishes buying from strategic procurement.

By communicating with and actively managing suppliers, you can reduce risk within your supply chain.

Build Accredited Teams

With accreditation and qualifications, entire teams can perform at their very best. While a qualified individual can pool their knowledge, an accredited team is more likely to understand and follow best practices.

This is an excellent reflection on you and your organisation, which can give you a strategic advantage over the competition.

Experienced procurement professionals want to work within highly-qualified teams, which will draw better applications to your organisation. This can also assist in negotiations, as suppliers will view the designatory letters of the team as a signal that they’re dealing with experienced professionals.

By offering continuing professional development, your organisation can retain top procurement talent. With the right mix of professional support and opportunities, you can build and retain an effective procurement team.

Reduce Wastage and Unnecessary Spend

Wastage and unnecessary spending can prompt procurement costs to spiral out of control. Errors with ordering or misunderstandings can cost your organisation dearly.

With a better understanding of procurement best practice, these costs can be drastically reduced. Qualified procurement professionals are better placed to re-examine processes, with a keen eye for those that may be causing issues.

When dealing with ordering at scale, small mistakes can quickly add up to large amounts of wasted revenue. Therefore, a base of expert knowledge is essential for a procurement professional.

Through a CIPS qualification, you learn how best to assess the value of different tender bids. Calculating the total lifetime cost of a service or product makes for a simpler comparison than

Tackle Procurement Fraud

Did you know that procurement fraud adds 10% onto the cost of procurement projects globally? These additional costs can make or break a project, with serious implications for your organisation.

Corruption, bid rigging, and bribery are all damaging to your organisation. Learning to spot and combat these issues ensures a fairer, more cost-effective procurement process.

There are many signs of procurement fraud, including:

• Members of staff enjoying gifts or financial benefits from suppliers.
• Lack of transparency in the selection process.
• Conflation or inaccuracy within invoicing amounts.

Procurement fraud can take place within your organisation, as members of staff are incentivised to favour a supplier. It can also come from outwith the organisation, with suppliers colluding to fix their prices in the tender process

Actively working against procurement fraud is the only way to reduce these costs. When corruption to the procurement process can run rampant, the organisation receives poorer service at a higher cost.

Read the Latest Research

Technological and economic advances can impact your day-to-day role. With a CIPS membership, you can avail yourself of the latest knowledge and research. They carry out in-depth research, with actionable results that you can bring into your own workplace.

Members can also sign up for daily news alerts from Supply Management, the official publication of CIPS. If you want to keep your ear to the ground for all the latest procurement news, then signing up for this publication is a must.

This type of up-to-date information can give you the edge over your competitors and impact your future procurement plans.

By understanding the shifting landscape of procurement, you can work to mitigate any risks. Major economic events change how we procure, and the costs associated, so give yourself all the information you need to continue to work effectively.

While working in procurement can bring on its fair share of challenges, the abundance of knowledge and benefits gained from a CIPS procurement qualification will help direct your decisions, enabling you to become all the more successful within your role and a more valuable asset to your company. 

Take your procurement knowledge to the next level or upskill with our flexible 100% online courses.