|
The role of the Civil Services professional is rapidly changing. While in the past the civil services area of responsibility was clearly relegated to efficient “processing” of purchase orders, the pace of today’s business environment has expanded that role to control of the entire sourcing and acquisition process. To be successful in this rapidly changing, dynamic marketplace requires not only the traditionally disciplined approach to managing critical business relationships but also the ability to quickly understand and employ strategic new methods and technology. Purchasing managers today must have the ability to assess and respond effectively to current market conditions and the foresight to envision the future needs of the organization, setting into motion plans that will respond to the changing dynamics of the continually reinvented organization. Finding such relevant information about civil services is not much harder to find on internet or any other e-source. Indeed, today’s purchasing manager must be a master of change. And to facilitate that dynamic of change, the purchasing manager must also be a master of best practices—methods shown to provide outstanding results—to continually ensure that change drives improvement in the business process and does not simply replace one poorly functioning system with another poorly functioning system. That is why we begin our preparation for the C.P.M. exam by reviewing the key elements of those processes and best practices that are fundamental to excellence in procurement and for which you will have ultimate responsibility. Information about civil services exam is available over various sources, but finding the best suited one for the exam is the typical work for an aspirant. This sound practice requires that you understand and can clearly describe to a prospective supplier the requirement of your purchase. Unless you can describe to a supplier exactly what you need, the purchasing process will not be successful. As we will detail below, this description often takes the form of a specification for materials or a statement of work (SOW) for services. Most commonly, it is the internal user who generates this information—often called a requirement—and it is the purchasing manager’s responsibility to ensure that it is properly conveyed to the supplier in the purchasing document (such as, the Purchase Order or Contract). In the case where a purchase is particularly complex, the process of stating organizational needs is so critical that you may find a face-to-face meeting with your supplier is in order. That way, you can ensure that there are no misunderstandings or faulty interpretations of the requirement. A well-developed and well-stated requirement describing exactly what it is you expect to receive is the key to successful procurement. For this reason, you must ensure that there are systems in place that accurately convey the needs of your customers to you so that you can formalize them into a contract or purchase order.
Related Articles -
about civil services, about civil services exam,
|
