this is ongoing to develop category managers and help them acquire softer skills to aid in the transition towards our strategic contract management programme as it ’ s linked to our journey through the stages of the procurement maturity curve .” Jones believes that strategic contract management is a core component to optimising the supply chain in order to better understand supply chain performance and manage risk . “ The way to do that is by managing contracts in the right way and talking about innovation ,” he says . “ Our journey isn ’ t at an end yet ; it ’ s fix and fly . The plane is in the air and you ’ re fixing it as you go — we haven ’ t stopped , we continue to deliver value for the organisation .”
With technology becoming increasingly influential to operations in the supply chain space , Jones believes that procurement and purchasing teams can ’ t operate effectively without harnessing data efficiently . “ We ’ ve developed a range of inhouse bespoke solutions in terms of technology ,” says Jones . “ We have a data scientist who has helped us develop these solutions . We operate
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