#ExpertiseMatters: Category management and building team skills
For November, our focus is #ExpertiseMatters. To introduce this topic, Parmjit Gill, Senior Category Manager in Facilities and Office Solutions, explores the remit of category management, building the skills and expertise of teams and bringing added value to our organisation, customers, and suppliers.
My category management role within Facilities and Office Solutions stretches across a number of areas including textiles, curtains and blinds, medical pulp, and catering consumables and equipment. Managing my team and keeping up with changes can be challenging, and there is only so much intelligence you can get from internal reports. The key to category management is getting out and meeting suppliers and customers. We are quite fortunate in some of our categories in that our suppliers manufacture in the UK, so we can learn a lot very quickly. We can draw on the expertise of our suppliers in terms of new products and the customer markets; so, we can use that intelligence in terms of trends, what’s happening in the market and what changes are coming.
"One area of my role is category management, the other side of my role is sourcing; running tenders, making sure we execute the tenders compliantly, and delivering and implementing the strategy we have designed. Having both these areas within my role gives me a holistic view and ensures we can deliver the strategy as envisaged.
"I have accountability for six frameworks in total which includes ambulance and healthcare uniforms. I support a large team of procurement specialists, and this can be quite challenging.
"Since we launched the Category Management Service Provider contract the team has grown a lot in a short space of time. The make up of my team has changed a lot, I’ve had people who have been around NHS Supply Chain for a long time who have a lot of category knowledge, and I have people who are completely new to procurement and are just starting out in their career. It’s a real mix of abilities and part of my job is using my expertise and that of others in my team to share knowledge and support across the category. For me, it’s about being clear on what support people not just within my team, but the wider CMSP require; and how I can help with the more complex and delicate side of category management.
"Sharing our expertise with customers is a hugely important part of what we do, whether that’s through our own Implementation and Adoption team, or through the Hospital Care Team within NHS Supply Chain. Being able to develop that relationship and share the national picture, and understanding our customer’s requirements enables us to use our skills and expertise to get them the right product in the right place at the right price for them.
"There are a lot of changes on the horizon in the next few months for procurement professionals, and ensuring our teams are up to date on the latest changes and are applying their learning in their day-to-day tasks is hugely important for me as a category manager. Whether that’s NHS England mandatory training, or webinars with legal professionals on the changes the Procurement Act will bring. I also encourage my team to expand their expertise and knowledge for their own professional development through training with outside bodies such as the Skills Development Network.
"Sharing our skills and expertise internally within our team and applying that knowledge to our range of products is a unique selling point of our team and cements our commitment to delivering for our customers."
For further information or support, contact the Facilities and Office Solutions team.