WA Region
Welcome to the WA Region page
Latest WA News & Events
WA Procurement Training 2010
The CIPSA Procurement Training Programme has now been set for 2010.
Please visit the Procurement Training page for a full list of courses, locations and dates.
Diary Dates 2010
23 July - The challenge: benchmarking your performance
4th August - The CIPSA Strategic Procurement Forum
Visit www.cips.org/australasia/conferences for more information
22nd September - Private Public Partnerships
20th October - Buying from China
25th November - End of year event
WA event provides strategies to prove procurement’s value
Procurement professionals in Perth gathered for a CIPSA WA regional committee professional development and networking breakfast at Central Park Theatrette on Wednesday 31st March.
The focus of the event was looking at strategies for measuring the value of procurement to your organisation.
Guy Callender (PhD, FCIPS, CPA), Foundation Professor and Chair of Leadership of Strategic Procurement at Curtin Business School, delivered a presentation that was well received.
CIPSA WA regional committee member Crag Medley says the presentation covered a variety of models that can be used to demonstrate value.
“Both in terms of the bottom line, and through highlighting opportunities for the organisation to take action to reduce costs or improve the understanding of the various factors affecting categories.
“A take-away was the need to bring the rest of the organisation along - especially management - and to use language that is common and accepted to gain buy in."
WA event provides insight into the demands of employers for professional development
The Western Australia regional CIPSA committee started off the year with a professional development event on 10th February.
Aiming to present both employers and educators perspectives of professional development for procurement people, the event featured presentations from global recruitment industry leader Michael Page International, CIPSA and the Curtin University School of Technology.
In the introduction it was noted that in order for a skill to be recognised as a profession, it must be backed by a standard. The Michael Page International presenter agreed, and spoke about the noticeable growth trend in the number of graduates working in the procurement profession, where competition for roles is beginning to heat up. The three most in-demand skills at the moment, according to Michael Page, are Category Management, Sourcing and Change Management.
Angelina Pillai, Education Manager at CIPSA, presented on the various pathways towards achieving Full Membership of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and supply (MCIPS) and focused predominately on the Professional Development Plan (PDP) process and the Professional Assessment Scheme (PAS), which are suitable for experienced procurement professionals.
The PDP was described as a suitable pathway for experienced senior procurement managers with at least five years experience in a strategic role and PAS was described as a suitable pathway for procurement practitioners with at least eight years experience and a minimum of five years in management capacity.
Curtin University School of Information Technology spoke about its Logistics Masters degree, which once complete would also accredit the graduate with MCIPS.
The WA committee hopes that attendees gained some insight into the demands of employers with regards to professional development and accreditation, and also into the options available when wishing to achieve MCIPS.
CIPS WA members explore the world of e-Business
Guido Kuehnelt, GM Sales Solutions with Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety, delivered an interesting and informative presentation entitled ‘eBusiness – Let the Data Do the Walking’.
The presentation reflected the evolution and current status of eBusiness, as well as the benefits that businesses were gaining from this form of business transaction. Along with some personal anecdotes and experiences of this form of business, Guido provided several transactional models; Seller-centric, Data Exchanges, eMarkets and Buyer-centric, and discussed the various attributes of each.
Guido’s overarching message was, ‘See your data as an asset, and use eBusiness to leverage it’. The event was very well attended by a broad cross-section of industry representatives and Guido’s presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session.
Contribute to your local news
Always considered yourself a bit of a Clark Kent? Procurement Super Hero by day, sleuth journalist by night? Well we would love to see your talent, and even if you don’t have the talent, we would still love to hear the gossip from your region. Got any news on movers and shakers, big contracts awarded, something local to your region, or country? Send in your article, or link to an article on the web and if we think its newsworthy we will publish it in the monthly newsletter. Deadlines for each newsletter is the last week of each month, so get in your submissions now. Submissions will be by-lined by agreement. Email news@cipsa.com.au with the subject line <Your Region> Newsletter Submission.
Meet Your WA Chair and Vice Chair:
WA Chair: Tony Davey
Manager – Strategic Projects, Rio TintoPrior to joining Rio Tinto, Tony had seven years experience as a supply chain consultant, working for both IBM Business Consulting Services and Deloitte Consulting. As a consultant he participated in the design and delivery of various supply chain improvement projects across many industries. He has a particular passion for strategic sourcing and delivered the Procurement Centre of Excellence at Lonmin Platinum. Tony holds a B.Tech (Ind.Eng.) and an MBA. He has been Chair of the WA committee since January 2008.
Email Tony at wa@cipsa.com.au
WA Vice Chair: Andrew Blitz
Business Development Manager, Western Australian Local Government AssociationSince beginning his procurement career in 2000, Andrew has led the development of a centralised purchasing program for Western Australian Local Government. He has fostered purchasing networks for Local Government locally and nationally, and guided initiatives to extend procurement training and professional development in the sector. He holds a B.Bus, an MBA in procurement related disciplines and achieved MCIPS by completing a CIPS accredited qualification. Joining the committee in January 2008, Andrew was appointed Vice Chair in January 2009.
Email Andrew at wa@cipsa.com.au
