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or not,” he continues.“ I see it as a huge opportunity to improve the services we currently offer. It will take away some of the purely clerical activities, reallocating those resources and time into strategic thinking, creating additional value by looking at how we can continuously improve.”
The procurement landscape is also being reshaped by the emergence of new suppliers and technologies, particularly in the field of net-zero solutions. Mark notes that these smaller companies can often struggle to break into public procurement contracting opportunities due to widespread use of established, long-term frameworks or agreements. To overcome this barrier, Translink is using dynamic purchasing systems to onboard these innovative suppliers more quickly and integrate them into its agile supply chain.
Procurement as a strategic enabler For procurement to be perceived as a strategic enabler rather than purely as a cost function, practitioners need to clearly articulate the value they can bring to their organisations.
“ If you want to have board presence, you’ ve got to have a reason to be there,” Mark asserts.“ You’ ve got to remove the barrier. The board has to actually understand why you are strategic and not transactional – why you are transformative.”
This involves highlighting the risk management and mitigation aspect of procurement – especially in the wake
8 translink. co. uk