Shortlist 2024

SOCAR Türkiye's project involves integrating an AI-supported system into an operational framework, fundamentally enhancing occupational health and safety (OHS) compliance processes. This advanced application has necessitated a complete overhaul of traditional safety protocols, ensuring a higher level of precision in safety monitoring and incident detection. Critical to the project's success was developing human-centered communication strategies to facilitate smooth adoption among its' workforce. Experiences from implementation highlighted the importance of adaptability and foresight in employing new technologies effectively. This initiative not only boosts safety and efficiency but also sets new industry standards, reinforcing SOCAR Türkiye's commitment to innovation and excellence in all operational facets.

In 2022, PepsiCo embarked on a strategic expansion of Popcorners into the APAC region to capitalise on its success in the US. However, in 2023, challenges arose when production capacity reached its limit, compounded by scarcity of key raw materials and escalating costs. Through proactive measures led by procurement, including securing additional investment, sourcing alternative raw materials, and implementing cost-saving initiatives, the project successfully addressed these challenges. Within four months, the commissioning of the production line exceeded expectations and achieved significant cost savings emphasise the project's success. Moreover, sustainability initiatives aligned with PEP+ Scope 3 targets further enhancing its impact.

Engaging the right expertise and perspectives was critical to tackling the daunting and complex issue of modern slavery within Balfour Beatty’s supply chain. Recognising the apprehension surrounding audits, especially within a modern slavery context, 'Balfour Beatty's procurement leadership function sought to redefine the narrative. Through business-wide teamwork, the procurement function integrated risk management, supply chain upskilling, and relationship building into its approach, ultimately improving supply chain relationships, and driving sustainable change. Cross-functional team's dedication culminated in a Modern Slavery Supply Chain Audit Programme of 123 audits in Q4 2023, highlighting the power of collaboration in achieving impactful change in human rights.

With little over a year to deliver, a new small team with procurement being a key feature, British Airways were tasked with setting-up a new short-haul airline operating under the British Airways brand. The airline, called BA Euroflyer, would serve short-haul destinations from London Gatwick - representing a remarkable turn-around for British Airways at the airport having very nearly permanently ceased its short-haul operation there following the COVID pandemic. In that time the airline, underpinned by entrepreneurial, empowered and collaborative minds, has risen to become one of the largest operators of flights out of Gatwick Airport.

Coventry Building Society has expanded opportunity and access for diverse firms by including questions about supply chain diversity and inclusion in its onboarding due diligence for new and current suppliers. We host an annual supplier awards, where diverse suppliers are shortlisted by colleagues because of the great outcomes they receive from them. Our sustainable procurement working group host an annual diverse supplier event to inspire potential suppliers. In 2024, The Head of SRM co-hosted an educational video with the CBS Executive Sponsor for Race, featuring ethnically diverse led suppliers to support the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.

Digital and Legacy Application Services (DALAS) is a new £6bn IT framework, created by HMRC in partnership with CCS, and is the latest stage in HMRC’s commercial change programme. DALAS provides a strategic gateway to support the delivery of future application services. This gateway helps move HMRC toward an application services support model that is less dependent on legacy technologies, and more focused on HMRC being a products and platforms organisation. DALAS successfully delivered phase 1 and phase 2 by April 2024, paving the way for greater engagement with the market, fostering fair and open competition and delivering innovative solutions to complex challenges.

The aerospace supply chain has historically faced a significant lack of gender diversity, limiting the potential for varied perspectives, ideas, and discussion. A group of women at Rolls-Royce decided to tackle this by creating the Women Powering Change Network. The network, which welcomes colleagues and suppliers, was designed to be a safe space for women, free from from the influences of competitor dynamics. Throughout 2023, the network was a forum for virtual discussions on topics including gender bias, mental health, female qualities in the workplace, and positivity during difficult experiences.

'The CCS's Crown Hosting data centres are modern, hugely energy efficient, secure, and importantly provide reliability for the dependent business of the UK public sector. An innovative procurement approach undertaken by Crown Commercial Service has delivered realisable savings for the public sector, but at the same time has significantly reduced associated CO2 emissions, which is a critical (social value) component to “Fighting Climate Change”.  'Crown Commercial Service has an impeccable record of saving public sector customers over 54,000 tonnes of C02 emissions per year - equivalent to planting 2.3 million trees, twice the amount of all new forests planted in England in 2020-21.

At National Highways, social value is defined as “the benefits that National Highways and its supply chain delivers for people, the environment, and the economy”. We want to ensure that we are delivering the maximum value to the communities we work in as we operate, maintain, and enhance the Strategic Road Network to ensure that we leave a lasting legacy. Our organisation-wide Social Value Plan aims to not only achieve but exceed our ambitious objectives. We're looking for innovative ways to deliver differently and maximise the positive impact we have on communities through our delivery of schemes and our procurement activity.

The Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework is a Crown Commercial Service (CCS) led agreement delivered by AMS. It is one of the largest MSP programmes of its kind servicing over 140 customers and delivering contingent labour, statement of work and recruit, train, and deploy services to the UK Government. Led prior to PPN 06/20, with no contractual obligation to deliver social value, the organisation recognised the importance and opportunity to provide added value to its customers by developing a comprehensive Social Value programme to widen the diversity of the contingent workforce. The programme would help to break down barriers to underrepresented talent to address industry wide skills shortages.

Protecting worker rights/human rights is a core and foundational element for any sustainable supply chain. Global corporations largely adopt a risk-based approach, which involves assessing high risk suppliers for malpractices and rectifying identified gaps. However, studies by the UN and post-COVID labour research show vulnerability and exploitation of the global workforce are at an all-time high. Thus, proving the ineffectiveness of traditional risk-based approach. Schneider Electric has adopted a three-pronged approach: 1. De-risk high-risk suppliers to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. 2. Ensure continuous improvement by mandating suppliers to adopt leading policies. 3. Be aspirational by deploying preventive controls to reduce the likelihood of any potential malpractice.

TfL's Women into Transport and Engineering (WiTnE) Pre-Employment Programme is designed to bridge the gap between unemployment and stable employment for adults facing job market barriers. This initiative focuses on skill development, job readiness training, and personalised support to enhance employability. The programme includes professional skills workshops, one-on-one career counselling, and work placements with key suppliers. These elements are tailored to equip participants with both the hard industry specific skills and the soft skills crucial for overall career success. The WiTnE Programme has established partnerships with over fifty local businesses, enriching the community and strengthening the transportation and engineering sectors.

Identifying the need for a transformative approach, we developed a solution that not only bridges the gap between procurement and operations but also enhances visibility, accessibility, and searchability of our partner innovations. This initiative aimed to elevate client satisfaction, contract retention, and growth by showcasing exceptional client outcomes driven by supply chain collaboration. This initiative represents a significant stride towards integrating our supply chain more effectively, demonstrating our commitment to innovation, client satisfaction, and operational excellence. As well as addressing our immediate challenges, we've laid down a robust foundation for value creation across our global operations.

Retirement Villages Group (RVG), a leading retirement community facing a fragmented supply chain with 5,000+ unmanaged suppliers and no PO system, launched Project Phoenix. With 16 siloed villages struggling to locate suppliers often onboarded post-invoice causing quality, cost and compliance issues. RVG's commitment to local suppliers was hampered by late payments, exceeding the 30-day mark and souring relationships. Project Phoenix implemented a state-of-the-art P2P and ERP system, ensuring seamless integration, supplier visibility, and timely payments. The initiative not only addressed critical challenges but has helped to foster stronger supplier relationships and operational efficiency.

Scout is the one-stop-shop for every employee’s purchasing journey in AstraZeneca. Scout delivers four tangible benefits to AZ – it directs 90,000 people, whether they are a scientist or part of the salesforce, on how to make a purchase through an AI powered search application. It also simplifies the supplier onboarding process, integrating several existing technology platforms, encouraged faster purchasing methods, and streamlines the support model for users to get help. Scout has created a single pathway to purchase; saving time, effort, and costs, allowing our people to focus on following the science, making new medicines, and saving patient’s lives.

Reflecting increased margin pressure in the core business, our procurement function has sought to contribute more value faster. This required a transformation led by the principles re-group, accelerate and level-up. The transformation was addressed comprehensively and was accomplished in less than 18 months. Procurement changed their role within the organisation but also how they collaborate within procurement. Thanks to the efforts driven by the leadership, the team, and the newly established Centre of Excellence, procurement are now delivering more and faster. This was achieved without much noise, and with a team who were continuously involved in the transformation process.

RSPCA undertook a journey in 2022 to transform Procurement with breakthrough results. Collaboration was secured across all functions to deliver more for animal welfare and reduce cruelty. Savings, risk and cost avoidance was achieved in the millions. The team underwent extensive category management training, deploying new tools and techniques to challenge embedded relationships resulting in more creative contractual outcomes and value including revenue generation. The profile was raised at Executive leadership level with Procurement now being regarded as a valued-added and essential function.

Monsha'at's platform is a ground breaking initiative designed to transform supplier relationship management in Saudi Arabia. It empowers SMEs by facilitating their access to public and private sector procurement opportunities. In doing so, it addresses longstanding challenges by streamlining eligibility verification, providing capacity-building resources, and fostering communication between buyers and SMEs. The platform has achieved significant success, with over 1,000 SMEs registered and partnerships established with 20 key stakeholders. User feedback highlights increased transparency, efficiency, and access to new opportunities for both SMEs and buyers. Jadeer demonstrably aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 goals for economic diversification and SME growth.

The Vendors Portal project was all-in-one solution and initiative that aimed to resolve different challenges we had, including delayed payments, inaccurate data and expired documents, long and lengthy processes, manual vendor registration, and finally delayed certificate of completion issuance. This project is a great example of suppliers and customers working tirelessly together to achieve great results and create a culture of storytelling which expanded to other organisations.

MTN buys billions in goods and services every year for its 17+ operating companies. With more than 20,000 suppliers and 10+ ERP systems, MTN wanted to enhance its supplier compliance and governance significantly. Achieving this for 22,000 suppliers required the use of big data and advanced machine learning algorithms. MTN's Procurement Excellence team developed an in-house algorithm to perform automated due diligence and checks on its entire supplier database. Aptly named as Compliance Passport, the algorithm scans the supplier database for due diligence non compliances and high risk events, identifying potential risks for upcoming and ongoing sourcing events.

Crown Commercial Service, operating as part of the strategic partnership NHS Workforce Alliance, has been actively driving improvement across the healthcare temporary workforce market. Through a programme of remediation and supplier training, improvements across audit results and trends have been widely evident. This supports the overall goal of improving patient safety across all public sector settings.

QBE and Sedgwick, a strategic supplier, collaborated to reduce carbon emissions. Using Sedgwick’s carbon values calculator and their carbon reduction surveyor, we identified suitable property claims to promote low-carbon alternatives for building and contents repair options. The pilot, involving 70 losses valued at a total of circa £7 million, ascertained that 80% of customers supported sustainable repairs. The results of the pilot have indicated that the emissions attributed to commercial property claims can be reduced by as much as 70% by using low-carbon alternatives, and at little or no extra cost.

With a bold commitment to carbon reduction and a clear customer need, the Sainsbury's procurement team partnered with the business to develop and roll out a retail-first, ultra-rapid charging network across our sites for Electric Vehicles (EVs). “The procurement team have been the driving force behind accelerating positive change and reducing carbon across Sainsbury’s and our supply chain. They have changed the way we talk about value," says Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury's. He adds that "the team’s dedication to re-imagining what procurement stands for is shown in its fantastic results.”

BP fast-tracked digital transformation for the procurement team, managing $30bn+ in spend and 12,000+ contracts annually. Building a one source of truth analytics platform enabled data-driven decisions, presented targeted and actionable alerts, automated requests, and reduced cycle times from days and weeks to seconds. The enhancements addressed a substantial third-party contracting risk and resolved the root cause of multiple process inefficiencies, derived from a high number of expired contracts and those without a contract owner. In six months, data quality improved exponentially to 98%, saving over $18m, while building a foundation for the procurement’s function’s AI implementation strategy.

Driven by the visionary leadership of the UAE, the Digital Procurement Platform redefines the procurement landscape for federal entities and suppliers alike. Through the strategic utilisation of digital technology, this platform revolutionised the entire procurement journey, compressing what once took 60 days into a mere 6 minutes. Rolled out across over 30 entities, this cloud-based solution facilitates supplier onboarding in less than a day, expedites the procurement cycle, and delivers significant cost savings exceeding 30%. At the heart of this digital transformation are innovative features such as catalogues, e-auctions, digital signatures, and a fully paperless contracting process.

The innovation landscape in the Scottish public sector can be challenging to navigate, with suppliers finding it difficult to identify appropriate contacts to pitch their innovation solutions. Scotland Innovates is a supplier-led innovation service developed to provide an easy to use, secure online route for suppliers of innovative goods and services to connect with the entire Scottish public sector, including NHS Scotland. Scotland Innovates also provides potential suppliers with information, guidance and support on how to develop ideas and innovations into products and technologies that may be of use in the provision of public services in Scotland.

Lloyds Banking Group is going through one of the biggest ever transformations in UK banking, including ‘digitising the bank’. And two of our digital deliverables have transformed our support for suppliers and colleagues. A new way to verify bank account details – moving from 26 days to just seconds – has transformed how we onboard suppliers for payment. A new chatbot means that colleagues buying goods and services can get 24/7 support for the first time ever. Both mitigate risk and have developed colleague skills and competencies, making us fit for the future.

Current legacy solution is outdated for all global warehouses. As a result, warehouse workers rely on paper-based processes to capture material movements and subsequently return to a desk to enter those movements into the system of record. This results in delayed and inaccurate system data as well as inefficient processing. Time in motion studies have indicated that over 30% of transactional activity is non-value adding. Warehouse workers should be able to perform all the required transactions that correspond to physical handling of materials on the go, using mobile devices and scanning of labels with minimised data entry and simplified screens.

Retirement Village Group (RVG), a leading retirement community established Project Phoenix to tackle legacy systems by incorporating a full ERP system and P2P system. These innovative solutions set the cornerstone to bring together 16 siloed villages with manual systems, resulting in payment delays, manual reporting and limited spend visibility. Implementing Coupa and MRI systems revolutionised RVG's procurement. Real-time insights improved transparency, minimising delays, and enabling informed decisions. Cultural shifts fostered collaboration and accountability. Tangible benefits include reduced cycle times, enhanced reporting accuracy, and strengthened supplier relationships. The new systems’ ability to continually improve allowed RVG to embrace digital transformation.

MTN buys billions in goods and services every year for its 17+ markets. With more than 20,000 suppliers and 10+ ERP system, MTN wanted its digital procurement transformation to align with overall procurement transformation. MTN’s developed a neural engine for procurement by using open-source data science and machine learning libraries. The neural engine is an ensemble of algorithms that leverages data from various tools and brings together one view for whole organisation. Aptly named Procurement Excellence 360 (Px360), the central procurement intelligence platform focuses on 3 principles: sourcing intelligence, supplier governance and behaviour modelling, and knowledge.

The ProcExperianTools initiative represents a groundbreaking leap in procurement efficiency, harnessing the power of generative AI and Microsoft's suite of automation tools to redefine the procurement landscape. Our project has revolutionised the way procurement processes are managed across our global operations, delivering unprecedented efficiency gains, cost reductions, and enhanced user experiences. By empowering our team with cutting-edge technologies and fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning, we have set new standards for operational excellence in procurement. The initiative underscores our commitment to driving sustainable, technology-driven transformations, making a profound impact on the industry.

Freight Forwarding is a critical business capability for our Supply Chain. Shell wanted to improve the structuring of multi-million-dollar Freight Tenders to improve Centralized Governance, increase Transparency, deliver Cost Optimization, and include CO2 Emissions for Freight Forwarding Tendering. In 2022/23, Shell conducted an extensive market scan to identify a solution for Freight Tender Management. Shell partnered with SHIPSTA, a market leading technology solution provider, because the platform was both configurable and we could integrate into our complex technology landscape. SHIPSTA has addressed our business pain points and has delivered significant commercial outcomes across the Shell Supply Chain, and we estimate the annual savings from avoided costs to be in the $multi million range.

Unitel LLC, part of Veon Group, has prioritised diversity and inclusion since its inception in 2006. With a mission to facilitate communication for all, Unitel's internal culture champions diversity across age, gender, race, and abilities. Despite being in a male-dominated sector, Unitel’s procurement team is predominantly female and multinational. The company has also enhanced service accessibility for individuals with disabilities by delivering SIM cards nationwide, addressing logistical and infrastructural challenges. These efforts reflect Unitel’s commitment to DE&I, resulting in improved customer satisfaction, a more inclusive workplace, and positive stakeholder feedback, reinforcing the company's strategic objectives in Uzbekistan.

EDF's nuclear operation supply chain team has made a significant effort in fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As part of this journey, EDF engaged with external organisations, implemented inclusive meeting practices, utilised a bespoke font for accessibility and hosts challenging yet educational discussions based on cultural events. A review of procurement processes was also undertaken identifying where D&I practices can be further embedded. These actions are bringing about positive changes evidenced by results of the employee survey and recruitment statistics, and the team continues to learn and drive for meaningful change towards greater equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Innovation is not about solo genius; it is about collective genius” – professor Linda Hill, Harvard University, extols the power of collaboration being the secret to unlock creativity. The strong relationship between Lloyds Banking Group technology supplier management and supplier board intelligence teams, was the springboard for an exciting collaborative initiative, driven by a shared sense of purpose to promote diversity in the supply chain, specifically gender diversity. By engaging in a dynamic exchange of ideas, both parties sought to challenge conventional thinking focussed on internal considerations. The result was to create a successful flagship panel event, comprising both internal and external executives.

SABIC’s global procurement team has achieved many successes in achieving its strategy and has taken steps on its transformational journey to position itself within the first quartile for efficiency, performance and value added. Human capital has remained the foundation block that has allowed the evolvement and transformation of the business. We remain certain that the talent within our procurement team will enable us to meet our business needs going forward. Such focus in investing in employees through our human capital strategy pillars – attract, develop and retain – has supported SABIC in being a profitable enterprise.

Defra’s introduction of a learning and development strategy in June 2021 has enabled the commercial function to support staff to acquire both the technical and those “softer” skills needed to work in a modern commercial environment. Our blended approach to learning and development is highly innovative, based on a 70/20/10 model, it is volunteer led and has yielded some remarkable results, including substantial savings and had led to Defra being the highest ranked department for learning and development across the Government commercial function in 2023.

The culture and ethos of the Contract Management Capability Programme is very much one of experiential learning and putting the principles into practice back in the workplace. To promote the developmental nature of the programme and reinforce that it is more than just numbers through training, the team set about creating that essential culture of “contract management plus” – to give learners and alumni more. Much, much more: more good practice, more organic skills, more resources, more experiential learning. This award nomination represents the journey undertaken in 2023/24 to realise that ambition.

Recognising the importance of developing people at every stage of their career, the EDF Nuclear Operations Supply Chain Team set out to review and enhance their approach the continuous learning and development. Through the implementation of a dedicated working group and greater collaboration across business units, enhancements have been made and carefully curated tools have been introduced to supplement existing resources. As a result, the EDF Nuclear Operations Supply Chain Team has created a more intentional, accessible and effective programme for development from those on early career schemes through to the most experienced professionals.

In a pursuit to combat modern slavery within the construction industry, Balfour Beatty (BB) procurement identified a need for action alongside valuable opportunity to upskill the function and supply chain. Exemplifying the multifaceted role procurement functions often play, BB procurement’s Modern Slavery Audit programme embraced the often-dreaded ‘audit’ concept as one that could address a critical industry issue, provide cross-departmental support, and drive meaningful change. Through a rigorous internal upskilling initiative, BB procurement equipped itself to effectively audit the modern slavery risks within key supply chains, expanding the function’s capabilities, whilst positioning BB as industry catalysts in unethical labour risk-mitigation.

The success of our innovative people development programme is helping execute one of BlueLight Commercial's core objectives – to “deliver commercial excellence” across blue-light services, working with members to increase commercial capability, encouraging collaborative working and sharing best practice to transform commercial and procurement activity. Our training for commercial professionals, operational managers and suppliers across the commercial lifecycle, together with the collaborative approach embedded into the commercial forums, is developing a single voice to market, smarter contracting, improved specifications, whilst resulting in both savings, efficiencies and improved market stability in an inflationary market. Ultimately leading to better value for the public purse.

Roads Academy is a leadership development programme developed by National Highways and its supply chain to equip leaders with the skills and experience required to meet evolving sector demands and ensure the attraction and retention of talent. Roads Academy is delivered by a collaborative team between National Highways and EY, steered by a federated advisory board. Roads Academy is delivering impressive outcomes through increased accessibility and a dramatically improved uptake, empowering leaders to develop skills focused on improving customer outcomes and social value. Roads Academy drives value across the sector by developing more skilled leaders, able to deliver against National Highway imperatives.

The Sellafield team’s initiative was far more than just process enhancement or the attainment of immediate procurement objectives, it catalysed an unprecedented transformation within the nuclear sector. The multi-award winning team, having already achieved record cost savings, sought to further excel through the implementation of their capability programme and learning pathways. The initiative helped to reshape procurement practices and embed a culture of agility and innovation in an industry traditionally defined by caution and conformity. The programme has created a new culture of continuous improvement and innovation, resulting in a comprehensive uplift in procurement practice, team integration and operational excellence.

In today's ever-evolving world, we are constantly navigating change. It's imperative for employees to adapt to this transformation. Thus, within Turkcell Procurement, we've elevated talent development as a cornerstone strategy. Through meticulous research, we conducted skill gap analyses, crafting projects and programmes in formats optimal for individual growth and aligning targets accordingly. We have equipped our workforce with competencies such as innovative thinking, leadership, game theory, stakeholder management, effective communication, representation, digital literacy, RPA development, mentoring, crisis management and sustainability. We've also incentivised them through numerous rewards. Consequently, our programmes have yielded exceptional participation, project outputs, and financial contributions, surpassing expectations.

PwC partnered with private-equity-owned Corden Pharma to improve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) via procurement as a value-creation accelerator. Having been carved out from a parent company, Corden lacked any dedicated procurement capability. Utilising spend analytics, the project achieved a significant EBITDA uplift, enhanced gross margins, reduced corporate costs (in a growth business) and consolidated spend with select strategic partners. Notably, key direct material costs significantly decreased, whilst also improving supply chain resilience through dual/low-cost sourcing. To sustain savings, a transformation was delivered which elevated procurement's role, introducing global category management and business partnering, and automation through S2P platform implementation.

WestRock, a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions, faced challenges leveraging the full potential of it purchasing power and maximising value. The Fortune 500 company partnered with GEP to enhance sourcing velocity and identified over $80 million in additional savings but could not realise its full extent due to process gaps and siloed operations. GEP collaborated with WestRock to drive a rapid procurement transformation programme, centralising and streamlining processes, strengthening business alignment and partnership, improving supplier management, optimising indirect spend, and positioning it to realise the identified savings in a sustained way.

Novo-K has worked closely with The Children’s Society (TCS), as its procurement team, with a multi-skilled resource of three. Novo-K developed, implemented and continues to support a centralised buying centre, the purpose of which is to educate and streamline the procurement process, successfully engage stakeholders, and ensure best practice procurement is accessible at all levels across the charity. Novo-K supports both self-services buying as well as leading on the strategic and high value/high risk procurements. Our objective is to provide TCS with clarity of expenditure, implement the right controls and provide confidence to donors and trustees that funds are spent correctly.

ProcureTech Accelerator is the only accelerator on the planet for corporate procurement teams to scout, select and scale innovative digital procurement solutions. It's a 7-week, fast-track, co-creation programme built by ProcureTech with companies like Roche, Fidelity, AXA, Walmart, JLR, and digital procurement providers. The Accelerator employs deep digital procurement expertise and co-creation to shape solutions, alongside proof-of-concept evaluation to transition from pilot to scale. Using an agile approach, cross-functional teams quickly grasp solution capabilities, ensuring future-proof design, completing business cases, due diligence, and ensuring solution fit. This collaborative effort yields faster results, maximising cost, risk, and innovation impact at scale.

Marston Holdings Ltd (MHL) embarked on a remarkable journey of growth, through a major business transformation programme, commissioning Curzon Consulting’s expertise to design and lead a transformative procurement programme unlocking £3.9 million in annualised savings across MHL's non-pay expenditures. In the face of a challenging economic landscape marked by a 40-year high in inflation and the complexities of long-standing opaque supplier relationships, our strategic partnership exemplified resilience and innovation. We exceeded expectations by delivering results 28% above target. Our successes included quick wins amounting to £0.5 million and immediate cash impact savings of over £2.0 million within the fiscal year.

MTN’s Global Sourcing and Supply Chain (GSSC) department oversees a substantial operational scope, managing a $7 billion annual spend with a network of 22,000 suppliers. This team, comprising 350 procurement professionals spread across 18 different countries, in partnership with Agility Arabia, they embarked on a ground-breaking journey to reshape procurement in an age where flexibility and agility are paramount. In just 6 months, this agile transformation project had delivered exceptional outcomes, not only to the department, but the wider organisation. The project reduced costs while delivering increased speed, quality and team engagement.

Efficio entered a strategic partnership with a government body in KSA to support the development and transformation of the procurement function. Efficio worked closely with the client to embed critical supply chain capabilities, develop a revised functional strategy, implement robust procurement planning capabilities, and support the team to increase overall capacity and specialist capability. The government body is responsible for safeguarding and developing the culturally significant region in Saudi Arabia that's the size of Belgium. The client aims to make this region a sustainable archaeological and cultural destination, targeting two million annual visitors by 2035, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Vision2030.

The project aimed to transform ISG's supplier management with a robust S2P solution. Partnering with Touchstone Spend Management (TSM), ISG automated onboarding, integrated risk checks, and optimised payment cycles using the Ivalua platform. Key outcomes included reduced onboarding time, enhanced risk management, and streamlined payments. The project fostered collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, setting a benchmark for excellence in procurement.

E&I, a leading US-based group purchasing organisation that offers procurement services to the education sector, partnered with GEP after facing challenges in streamlining its procurement processes. GEP transformed E&I’s procurement by designing and implementing a new operating model, upskilling its team’s capabilities through comprehensive training, finding new and diverse suppliers, and securing favourable contracts. The programme yielded remarkable results, including a 100% year-over-year increase in revenue forecast, fourfold increase in efficiency and significant acceleration in sourcing activities. The project has set a new benchmark in procurement excellence, highlighting the value of strategic partnerships.

The Scope 3 Maturity Benchmark is a pro bono project designed in collaboration with a peer group of organisations seeking to tackle their Scope 3 emissions faster and with more certainty. To date, over 170 organisations have participated in the benchmarking project, with a combined turnover of $ 2.7 tr, and employing over 8 million people. This is the economic equivalent to the world’s eighth largest economy, all working towards a unified goal of decarbonisation. And it continues to build. Whilst each organisation receives tailored feedback and direction, we are now using the insights to identify and start-up industry collaborations.

The Costa Coffee procurement team was forced to radically reform and reinvent itself following a challenging company restructure and demanding macro economic conditions. Through exceptional leadership, a growth mindset and close business partnering, the team delivered record breaking results whilst implementing a wide variety of transformational change programmes, embracing digital practices and broadening responsibilities. During 2023, the team stuck together, continuously improved and addressed poor engagement results to emerge as a high-performing strategic function with world-class business partnering capabilities.

EVRi is a dynamic and rapidly growing business with a strong culture of continuous improvement and huge ambitions for decarbonisation. The EVRi procurement function is able to continuously deliver high impact results to the business across executive change agenda topics down to operational headaches. The procurement team is universally respected and sought out in the business early in strategic planning. The team is well known particularly for its members’ improvement mindsets, which focus on being truly curious to make sense of complexity, courageous to ask and stand up for hard choices to do the right thing, and incredibly collaborative across the business.

National Highways seeks every opportunity to improve the communities touched by its construction and maintenance activities and those who benefit from using the strategic road network. Two key areas of focus during 2023 were reducing carbon emissions and increasing social value benefits. The Lower Thames Crossing programme involved road building and tunnelling so presented a fantastic opportunity to decarbonise construction involving the supply chain right back to OEMs to find innovation in off-site construction and use of hydrogen. Social value change included the creation of the Social Enterprise Dynamic Purchasing System, a first of its kind in England.

MTN group procurement wanted to transition itself from a cost centre to a strategic function to actively drive key strategic investment programs such as 5G rollout, 4G rollout, etc, in Africa that directly impact 290 million subscribers. With $7 billion spend, 22,000 suppliers, 17 markets in Africa and over 10 different ERP systems, this project was one of the most strategic projects for MTN. We identified three broad challenges. 1. Transform procurement operations from a cost centre into a value-generating function 2. Introduce ESG as part of sourcing and supply chain strategy. 3. Enhance the resilience of supply chain operations.

STC’s procurement team addressed challenges like ad hoc requests, poor planning, and manual data entry by adopting a comprehensive approach integrating best practices and innovative methods. This led to significant enhancements in performance, culture, and contribution, driven by a culture of continuous improvement and well-defined KPIs. The team reduced the proposal preparation cycle from three weeks to one week, achieved a 7% reduction in overall procurement costs, won opportunities resulting in a $35 million bottom-line saving, and supported a 28.35% revenue growth by Q3 2023. These achievements underscored their ability to drive transformative change, optimise processes, and deliver measurable value.

Schneider Electric’s sustainable procurement team is a well-balanced, multi-ethnic, and geographically distributed, which demonstrates comprehensive command over a range of sustainability issues impacting global supply chains. The team combines a unique ability to look at the big picture/emerging trends and interlinkages of various sectors and players and translate it into tangible actionable programs that can be implemented with suppliers and explained in a simple, lucid yet effective manner. Each member of this team owns a unique set of skills, which has been consistently proven by a variety of global awards and recognitions won for their strong work in furthering sustainability with suppliers.

The Submarine Delivery Agency commercial team delivers contracts for the Ministry of Defence and UK Government across the build, operation, and disposal of the Submarine fleet. Responding to a clear case for change, the team embarked on an ambitious improvement programme incorporating stretching operational, stakeholder, and team engagement targets. The results have been compelling, delivering measurable improvements across all facets of their operations and working more as a wider enterprise to deliver this critical national endeavour.

7 Force Commercial Services is a regional collaboration serving the police forces, and police and crime commissioners in the east of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk). The collaboration has been live since January 2020 and exceeded all expectations by delivering £60m of savings against a target of £10m through collaborative procurement, investment in team development and a more commercial approach to public sector procurement.

With this submission, we showcase the continued positive impact we have had over the last twelve months. We have improved collaboration with colleagues and suppliers, with a never-ending focus on our customers and residents. Despite a reduction in team numbers, we have increased our operational effectiveness, influenced and driven cultural change and increased compliance across our organisation. We have been deliberate about managing our team brand and reputation and engaged with our suppliers to deliver maximum value. This will be the third year in a row we have submitted and hopefully shortlisted – with hope, this will be “our year”.

Following the appointment of a new chief financial officer at Heywood early in 2022, a new procurement manager joined in December of the same year to kick-start a refreshment of the procurement function. The aim was to first look at the key fundamentals and build a solid foundation to start growing procurement in maturity, sophistication, and technology. There are a notable number of differences during the 16 months the procurement manager joined Heywood. Two procurement-focused software technologies have been implemented, cost savings realised, a list of all contracts created, unused licences and agreements removed, and more stakeholder acceptance.

The Vectura Fertin Pharma procurement team has played a key role in expanding the company’s purpose into a broader healthcare and consumer wellness business. The team has collaborated cross-functionally, shown great personal resilience and developed an enviable reputation for exceeding expectations. This has helped to extend its value proposition and innovative capability to commercialise products. The attitude shown when taking on new categories has been impressive and the energy from business partners has been first class. Delivering financial performance is one element, but doing this against economic headwinds of rising inflation, increased political unrest and unpredictable commodity markets was exceptional.

Monsha'at's dynamic procurement team embodies excellence and innovation. Our focus on value-based sourcing and supplier relationships optimises costs and mitigates risks. Through automation and data analytics, we streamline processes and make data-driven decisions. Our commitment to collaboration fosters internal alignment and knowledge sharing. Most importantly, we prioritise SME support through innovative selection methods and capacity building initiatives. This award nomination showcases our journey towards becoming a strategic partner, driving efficiency, and empowering Saudi Arabia's thriving SME sector.

The project was for the provision of motor insurance (and associated claims handling service) for the ten police forces that comprise the SEERPIC collaboration in a historically challenging market. A collaborative approach was undertaken to enable optimum risk financing arrangements arising from the collective knowledge, experience and joint purchasing power of the consortium members. The critical success factors for the procurement were to ensure that the collective forces were an attractive proposition to the insurance market through demonstration of their effective management of fleet risk, and that the contract was affordable to the forces.

Building Digital UK’s (BDUK) Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy procurement programme is a triumph of public sector procurement and shows the scale of what is possible when public procurement is done brilliantly. Successfully running 37 high-value procurements in just over two years, BDUK will now be able to deliver lightning-fast broadband to over 900,000 homes and businesses in rural locations, which are most in need, up and down the country. This procurement programme has brought an emerging market along with it, from strategy to contract signature, and set the UK up for success for years to come.

The Crown Commercial Service has successfully launched its new market shaping mobile voice and data services procurement frameworks borne out of the exemplar category strategy for mobile communications. Following a comprehensive discovery and consultative process, the agreement delivers an innovative step change in the procurement of mobile communications that significantly reduces the cost to the taxpayer, enhances government policy and improves public sector productivity. This new agreement uses the buying power that CCS has, to deliver cost effective and soundly procured services for hundreds of thousands of users right across the UK, offering an average of 65% savings.

The Digital Procurement Platform is a transformative, ‘Most Innovative Project’ award winning platform, driven by UAE’s visionary leadership. It has revolutionised the procurement journey for federal entities and suppliers by digitising and simplifying the end-to-end process – the procurement cycle has been dramatically shortened from 60 days to just six minutes! Implemented across 30+ entities with over 1000 users and a strong focus on SMEs, it has accelerated the procurement cycle and achieved a substantial (>30%) cost reduction. Catalogues, e-auctions, digital signatures, and a completely paperless contracting journey underline the transformative impact of this project.

ONGC, India's leading upstream operator, faced procurement challenges due to dispersed operations, limited strategic focus across categories, disproportionate workforce allocation, and process duplication. To meet the challenges, a three-pillar strategy was conceived and implemented consisting of setting up a centralised procurement department (CPD), creating a strategic procurement cell (MIND), and a technical user group (NTAs) acting as an interface between CPD and work centres. The introduction of MIND and CPD is a pioneering move in the Indian public sector landscape and reinforces ONGC’s dedication to industry-leading standards, including ESG excellence and innovative digitisation in procurement while boosting efficiency, governance, and productivity.

Serken is the Product packaging & storage manager and was involved in developing the first comprehensively integrated model of the 5S methodology for sustainability, which has enabled SOCAR Turkiye to achieve sustainability and strategic goals. We have improved our operational costs by using highly efficient engine technologies in our packaging lines. We have also implemented emission-reducing projects including switching to electric forklifts, making more use of daylight by installing skylights in our product warehouse, and reducing the use of single-use pallets by using returnable plastic pallets.

In the intricate web of global supply chains, PMI sustainability commitments transcend mere aspirations. As the senior manager for procurement sustainability, Halyna is at the forefront of these commitments, actively engaging with suppliers, fostering a collaborative ecosystem beyond procurement. She governs across stakeholders to create a ripple effect far beyond our immediate operations. PMI remarkable results in sustainability procurement garnered also external recognition; spotlighting PMI leading Scope 3 data accuracy and supplier engagement or applauding our efforts with electronics suppliers to commit towards shared goals. Halyna, a sustainability champion, plays a fundamental role driving positive change in our organisation, believing in its value and feeling proud daily.

Alina commenced her journey with Transport for London in 2018 as a commercial procurement graduate. Through her enthusiasm and performance, she swiftly advanced to her current position as a seconded senior category manager at Places for London, TfL’s wholly owned property company. Since joining TfL, Alina has contributed to various initiatives, including electric vehicle charge point installation in collaboration with the GLA and London Boroughs, implemented bus safety programmes and most recently, led a competitive dialogue procurement for a joint venture partnership which will deliver affordable homes across London. Alina holds an LLB in Law with Business from Aston University.

Having arrived in Canada only five years ago with a degree in Business/Commerce (Honors) from Delhi University, Rajan augmented his education with certificate programmes in marketing and data analytics. Joining BGIS as a strategic sourcing analyst in 2021, he immersed himself in building a strong understanding of the strategic procurement processes/strategies and continuing his education in sourcing. Passionate about sustainability, diversity and technology, Rajan has found a way to combine these interests to become a valued member of the BGIS procurement team. He has earned numerous accolades and is providing training to team members with more experience than himself.

In the male-dominated cyber and defence environment, Katie challenges diversity norms, leading high-profile projects worth nearly £50 million aged just 25. Representing the contracting authority, she confronts age and gender biases, whilst liaising with governing bodies. Achieving MCIPS at 25 validates her competency, fostering self-assurance and professional growth. Delivering complex IT programmes in cyber defence demands innovative strategies and influencing high-profile stakeholders, both of which she excels in. Navigating technical complexities, she realises the potential to drive real change, leveraging her influence for societal impact as evidenced through her delivery of a school mentoring programme tackling economic inequality.

Harrison joined HSBC’s procurement team in 2020 and currently holds the role of category manager. He is currently responsible for spend globally across HSBC global functions and digital business services workforce sourcing. Harrison has taken the lead on several key initiatives, not only in consultancy but across the team, where he continues to go above and beyond bringing new ideas and ensuring we are pushing the boundaries. Outside of the day job, Harrison has supported various people initiatives and demonstrates strong team behaviours across the whole of procurement.

Simon, notwithstanding his relatively short career, possesses an impressively varied background as a procurement professional across areas such as fintech, IT and corporate real estate, where he has been instrumental in leading many global initiatives that resulted in positive outcomes for the bank. Most notably, Simon co-led the global RFP that saw the bank launch to market with five individual global RFP’s simultaneously across the corporate real estate space. This RFP undertaking required meticulous planning, development, and management of stakeholders globally which resulted in a market-leading commercial outcome, including substantial investments from our partners to revolutionise our technology estate.

I am a highly driven procurement professional with a track record of delivering results through collaborative ways of working, leveraging my authentic leadership style. A BA Business Graduate at Nottingham Trent University, I started my career in the automotive industry on Nissan’s procurement graduate scheme. Having honed my technical skills, I moved to a broader buyer role in Sainsbury’s where, in a fast-paced retail environment, I’ve grown my skillset, procuring with a focus on value not just cost, evolving my influencing skills to drive outcomes at the highest levels, and approaching decision making with a customer-centric lens.