Organisations should always concentrate on what they're best at, which is most often delivering goods and services to customers. In support of this they need to make careful decisions about how to procure or deliver support and ancillary functions (none core business) within their organisation.

Our procurement advice is based on providing exactly this careful analysis of options in order to secure the right solution. Experience tells us that this is in many ways a cyclical business: what once was outsourced wholesale might now seen as much closer to the corporate core, needing to be under direct management control; what once was sacrosanct might now be sourced in innovative ways.

We work with an organisation to assist it through the analysis process so that together we can carefully consider the strategic issues associated with every successful procurement:

• The business objectives;
• The options for achieving them, and the associated potential risks, costs and benefits;
• The business case for the selected option;
• The best procurement route;
• The implications for the rest of the organisation.

We can support organisations through the full procurement life-cycle, whether it involves a limited market-test, a specification and selection exercise, an outsourcing or a large-scale strategic partnership, including PFI/PPP arrangements. We are expert in all the procedural aspects, including OJEC procedures, in packaging functions to get the best offer from the market, and in evaluation, selection and negotiation.

We also won't forget the need for a managed transition to new supply arrangements so that the core business is not adversely affected by confusion and disruption.

Significant procurements represent significant investment and organisational change. Our approach ensures all that effort pays off, and above all, that our clients procure the right partner or supplier relationship. We call it getting the strategic "fit" right.