DBA Developing procurement

best practice
The DBA will be joining forces with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) to look at how procurement professionals could be better equipped to purchase design services more effectively thus supporting the CIPS’ aim of "developing improved methods of purchasing and supply and promoting their use in all organisations".

CIPS is an international education and qualification body representing purchasing and supply chain professionals. It is the largest organisation of its kind in Europe and a central reference point worldwide on matters relating to purchasing and supply chain management. Its Professional Code of Ethics is the model for the international code and the domestic codes of many countries.

Launching in the New Year, a working group to be made up of DBA members, clients and representatives of the CIPS Advisory Group for Marketing Services, will embark on the development and implementation of a three-track programme.

Track one will involve the development of a training course for purchasing and supply chain professionals on how to best purchase design services that deliver effective results. The aim is to run this course as early
as May.

Track two will convert that learning into a publication on best practice to be made available via CIPS and the DBA. Track three will look at the Codes of Conduct by which both organisations’ members are governed to see if they could better support the outcome of this joint initiative.

Any additional activities that are identified during the process could form the basis for further collaboration.

This initiative will allow for the airing of concerns about procurement activity to be raised between the DBA and CIPS communities with a view to bringing them much closer together. This will also help shape a programme of activity currently being developed by the DBA that aims to make DBA members more ‘procurement ready’.

Collaborative projects of this nature will form the launch pad for the next three-year DBA strategy that focuses on raising the professional standards.