Subscribe to the blog

Get the latest Procurement insights from our experts

The Shift to Specialised Procurement Consultancies – Project Risk

by | May 5, 2020

Why specialised procurement consultancies can significantly help reduce project risk

We continue this blog series, based on our team’s research, with an article on project risk.

When talking about risk, the first thing that comes to mind is “We need to minimise it!” followed by “How do we do that?”

Xoomworks Procurement implementation consultants are experts when it comes to managing and minimising risk. They work with this concept every day and have become experts in predicting risk as well as minimising it.

We are a niche consultancy and have some of the most experienced procurement consultants in our team. They’ve worked with risk for years and have learnt how to manage it and “domesticate” it.

Getting into more serious things, when it comes to managing project risk, shouldn’t the challenge be greater for smaller consultancies? No, and there is a very logical reason as to why not.

Specialist consultancies tend to be very focused on the projects they are managing. For a specialist consultancy that works only in this area, it is going to be equally as critical that the job they do creates or enhances the references and credibility they have in this space.

Moreover, as we’ve explained in part 1, smaller consultancies have a stronger culture, so consultants working on your project will genuinely care about the success of both the project and the outcomes it achieves for your business.

The truth is, if the project fails, smaller consultancies have more to lose than big GSIs.

However, it’s not all about culture and having more to lose. Niche consultancies have more specialised and experienced resources. There will be no trial and error when it comes to delivering projects – but because of their vast experience and specific industry knowledge, specialist consultancies know how to address the issues the first time around.

Specialists are more likely to have encountered similar issues or peculiarities before, meaning they already know the right strategic approach to tackle them.

We believe the above explains the shift to specialised procurement consultancies, which we described in more detail in our latest eBook, when it comes to project risk. There are, however, several other reasons as important as this one as to why this shift is happening.

Going deeper into our research we noticed that there is a real shift in the wider commercial world, as we see the media highlight high profile, large-scale project failures from established companies, while at the same time consumers choose challenger solutions for critical aspects of their lives because they offer fresher ways of working, delivered in a more agile way that better reflect their needs.