BBC becomes first public service to win gold

Supply Management, Sep 22, 2005

CERTIFICATION

BBC procurement made the news recently when it became only the fourth organisation in the world - and the first public service - to achieve CIPS certification gold, the institute's highest standard of excellence for purchasing practices.

Huw Edwards, presenter of the broadcaster's Ten O'Clock News programme, joined the procurement team for a ceremony in the newsroom where Michael Campbell, CIPS director of business development, presented the award to Beverley Tew, chief procurement officer at the BBC.

Campbell congratulated everyone involved in the certification gold project and said how much BBC procurement had impressed the CIPS accreditation board. "Procurement is well connected with BBC strategy and the senior management team. There is consistent application of excellent practices. As well as establishing productive supplier relationships, procurement has also achieved good buy-in from internal customers across all departments and is well regarded for its delivery of genuine service and value for money."

Tew thanked everyone for all their hard work and said: "I am proud that the BBC has become the first public service to achieve this. It acknowledges our excellence as a pioneering organisation that is leading the way. It has been a stringent process involving assessment in 20 different categories ranging from the highest strategic levels to how we use technology, how we recruit and how we sell ourselves. It is giving us credibility, both within the organisation as well as outside in the supply market."

Tew emphasised procurement's commitment to delivering best value for money for licence payers. Development of the procurement team reflected changes taking place across the wider BBC community. The team is well prepared to achieve its high savings targets as well as being equipped with the expertise to meet future challenges, she said.

External spend - excluding independent production companies and programme acquisitions - is more than £1 billion. The procurement team's introduction of a category management structure is nearing completion. Sarah Ellis, head of sourcing at the BBC, said: "Category management is making us more focused and able to work closely with internal stakeholders, thereby delivering meaningful benefit for the BBC."

A key part of the certification gold process is testing the perceptions of relationships with selected internal customers and key suppliers through interviews and surveys. The CIPS accreditation board had noticed creativity from both the suppliers and the procurement representatives, Campbell said. This creativity and supplier collaboration includes the use of e-procurement tools from sourcing through to payment. "Making it easy for people to select and buy from the right suppliers and difficult to buy from the wrong ones is key to our procure-to-pay strategy" said Paul Bennett, head of P2P solutions at the BBC.

BBC procurement places great importance on relationship management, according to Hardeep Saran, senior category manager for production resources, who was project manager for the certification gold process. The strength of the working relationships it developed was shown by the attendance at the ceremony of several suppliers who had travelled from across the UK.

Development of relationship management expertise has enabled procurement to extend influence into new areas of spend such as production resources. Jamie Hindhaugh, head of sourcing for production resources at the BBC, said: "It's the first time that we have been involved in this area. We are achieving savings that enable programme makers to extract maximum value from their budgets."

For further information, contact Emma Wright on 01780 761566, e-mail emma.wright@cips.org or ring the main switchboard at CIPS on 01780 756777.