Natalie Lambrou offers several key services.
Working with clients, Natalie tackles every aspect of both direct and indirect procurement, and continues to work with them until results are fully delivered.
Excellence in Procurement requires a clear vision and strategy and best in class performance across all key areas, including people, process and technology. The benefits that can arise from performance improvement in Procurement can be substantial and can include, in my experience:
- The delivery of cost savings of up to 40% of spend;
- Improved customer service levels either in terms of better quality products and services and/or reduced lead times;
- Improved management information for future key decision-making.
Natalie Lambrou can help improve the Procurement performance of an organisation by:
- Undertaking an initial opportunity assessment, covering an analysis of current spend and the identification and prioritisation of opportunities by category, the assessment of the capabilities of the existing team and an assessment of current technology;
- Developing a clear vision and strategy for Procurement and plan for transformation (if required), linked to a business case for change.
Supporting implementation:
- The delivery of cost reduction through the utilisation of a variety of techniques including focussed supplier negotiations and effective category management;
- Supporting the recruitment and training of procurement staff;
- Assistance with the development of procurement systems requirements and methodology for implementation.
Many companies have conducted successful spend category analysis, but have later discovered that these savings do not materialise, and very little change can be seen to the bottom line. In other instances, companies who do not employ a full-time purchasing team may be yet to visit spend analysis, and simply add the job of purchasing to an existing role. Achieving deep and sustainable cost reductions across categories is not an easy task; it requires excellent data, well thought-out sourcing strategies, powerful negotiations and stakeholder involvement.
Natalie Lambrou Consulting is committed to delivering significant savings that can be directly traced to the bottom line. By investigating the current level of expenditure by category, establishing the client's future requirements, and conducting in-depth market analysis, sustainable long-term cost reductions can be identified and delivered.
The success of direct cost reduction is less dependant upon cross-functional teams than in-direct costs reduction, with delivery and support the only real concerns for the operational stakeholders. With this in mind, a review of direct costs can be conducted with little involvement from our clients, allowing them to get on with their day to day role safe in the knowledge money is saved in the background.
As for in-direct costs, experience tells it is only when an organisation commits to investing stakeholder time can it be guaranteed that the delivered solution meets the needs and objectives of the entire organisation. Natalie will continue to nurture and develop new relationships until the clients consider themselves resourced to manage the relationship in its entirety.
Natalie Lambrou Consulting understands the importance of deploying the right people to the right tasks; managing a tender, whether for a new or existing service or product, is no different. With a full understanding of procurement strategies, Natalie Lambrou Consulting will deliver traceable bottom line savings.
Success in this area is only possible when working together with formally seconded stakeholders to create a truly cross-functional approach, rather than one driven by a single agenda. By working this way, clear and effective communication is delivered effortlessly and savings achieved are realised.
I work closely with my client's cross-functional teams to ensure that there is stakeholder representation throughout the process. This facilitates fully encompassing tender documents and guarantees that the chosen solution is fit for purpose. Senior stakeholders are consulted at key stages of the process and always carry the right to veto any proposal. Once the supplier has been selected, I will remain with the client until the chosen solution is implemented and client feels comfortable to take complete ownership of the relationship.
Disputes often occur in business between clients and suppliers. It is the method adopted for dispute resolution that is key if the relationship is to stand any chance of surviving. By introducing a new party to the proceedings, both client and supplier are able to talk frankly and openly, thereby getting all of the issues out in the open, resulting in the most effective dispute resolution process.
Natalie Lambrou Consulting is ideally suited to dealing with these types of disputes, providing a valuable mediation facility, which inevitably leads to an agreed solution and a return to a productive partnership. Although rare, where it proves impossible to find common ground upon which the relationship can move forward, a strategy should be identified which allows all concerned to exit the arrangements, and avoid detrimental impact to either business. Even when either party is completely entrenched, careful handling by a specialist will achieve an amicable outcome with the least amount of disruption.
One of the many challenges facing businesses is the move from short-term cost savings to long term relationships. This type of strategic move can deliver significant and powerful rewards such as increased service levels, a more complete cultural understanding, co-development of products and services, and improved pricing at re-tender.
For Natalie Lambrou Consulting, supplier relationship management (SRM) is fundamental to maintaining long term procurement success, and should be adopted as 'business as usual' rather than the exception to the rule. At its most simplistic, SRM is a mechanism designed to help ensure that suppliers meet every aspect of their commitments. However on a more sophisticated level, SRM facilitates working with suppliers to reduce costs, maximise value, identify more effective ways of achieving the same goals, and deliver a closer working relationship.
Selecting the most capable and economical suppliers is critical as SRM can only be introduced once the organisation is confident that this has been achieved.
Natalie Lambrou’s consultancy expertise has a proven track record of supporting organisations during the selection process resulting in 'best in class' suppliers, and thereby allowing effective SRM initiatives to be implemented. N Lambrou will continue to nurture and develop new relationships until the client considers themselves sufficiently resourced to manage the relationship in its entirety.