5 November 2009
What's new in the world of CIPS? CEO David Noble gives SM the details of some upcoming benefits
CIPS is now by far the largest procurement and supply chain community in the world.
Following details of offerings to corporate customers announced in September, CEO David Noble now outlines new and existing benefits for the 54,000 members across the globe.
"It's been necessary to spend some time focusing on the commercial side to get the institute strongly into the corporate sphere, but our members are core. We are here to support them and want to help them get to the top table of whatever business they're in," he says.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Two benefits introduced this month are access to Regus office facilities and the relaunch of a legal advice line.
From this week, members (around 20,000 FCIPS, MCIPS and affiliates) will receive a Regus Business World gold card granting them unlimited, walk-in access to 1,000 Regus office spaces worldwide. Card holders will be able to use business lounges and cafés with complimentary refreshment and internet services in 450 cities across 75 countries. A 10 per cent discount is offered on meeting rooms, day offices and videoconferencing.
"This is an international benefit worth £200 a year which MCIPS members, fellows and affiliates get free."
In addition, fellows will be given two vouchers enabling them to access personal office space.
All studying members will receive an email voucher to trial the Regus service, and can join as blue card holders to receive various discounts.
In addition to this is the relaunch of a former benefit: access to free advice via the Law Express (LX) telephone helpline, which will be open during business hours. This is particularly for UK-based members who want assistance with personal or business-related legal issues, including EU law. There is also legal information online, available for all members: LX personal and LX business. Members can access these sites via www.cips.org once they have logged in.
The CIPS site also now includes more interactive content for members, including a regular CEO blog, podcasts, video content, newsfeeds, Twitter links as well as member surveys. Members can network through live online discussion forums and use them to discuss points of study, seek advice or share information and knowledge.
Also accessed via the website is an existing and popular service called CIPS business intelligence. This online resource contains more than 3,000 sources of information plus 10,000 company profiles, 5,000 industry reports and 1,100 economic country reports. It gives access to global publications and updated company reports, which can help inform supplier selection, as well as academic articles of particular use to those who are studying. Alongside this, there are also more than 200 "knowledge works" documents in the professional resources part of the CIPS site.
PROFILE-RAISING WORK
Meanwhile, the institute continues to help members by working to raise the profile of the profession. One key way it achieves this is through its world-renowned qualification which attracted record exam entries once again this month.
The International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM), a union of 43 national and regional purchasing associations, which met in Las Vegas last month, is considering recognising the CIPS qualification as the benchmark for the profession. And it is Noble's ambition that it will become the international standard for procurement and supply management.
Employers are increasingly seeking candidates who have MCIPS. Salary reports such as the Croner Reward Survey this year demonstrate that buyers who possess it generally earn a higher salary than those who do not. David Smith, commercial director for the UK Department for Work and Pensions, insists that the majority of its workforce has MCIPS. In fact two-thirds already do.
In Africa - where CIPS is the most recognised procurement and supply chain qualification - two countries, Zambia and Malawi, have mandated that procurement professionals must have a qualification in order to practise. The New Zealand government is considering awarding visa application points to purchasers with MCIPS who wish to work in the country and is at white paper stage with the proposal. And the first Chinese student graduated with an MCIPS qualification this year.
Noble has already visited China on behalf of the institute: "The Chinese national education authority is supportive of CIPS, and students' enthusiasm for the CIPS qualification was incredible.
"These are the purchasers of tomorrow. In future China will be dominant in the global economy and its trained procurement people will be major players."
Another profile-raising area is the CIPS/Markit purchasing managers' indices (PMIs). Published every month with a focus on activity and outlook for the construction, service and manufacturing sectors, these are followed closely by the national and international media and there is now increasing awareness of their importance.
"More than 200 articles were viewed by tens of millions of readers in September, including coverage in the Times and the FT. And we're using the PMIs as a way of highlighting the importance of procurement and supply professionals - not just to comment on the economy," he says.
In the UK public sector, Noble is working with Office of Government Commerce CEO, Nigel Smith, to lobby government about the importance of procurement and supply management. "We want to communicate that rather than slashing public sector funding, smarter procurement could be the answer."
Noble is also meeting with heads of central government departments, including Dame Helen Ghosh, permanent secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He also recently presented CIPS certification to Xerox, the first global Fortune 200 firm to receive this.
MORE PLANS
There are more plans in development with CPOs around the country and abroad. The annual conference will return next summer.
Noble adds more will be done to appeal to the younger generation: "We need to attract school-leavers and graduates to the profession. We're good at helping our students and we're good at the senior level, but we need to offer more for those in between. I also want to see more emphasis on events for people in this area to ensure they're not forgotten."
He is also determined to attract more high-level members to become fellows. The institute has about 400 but would like to have 10 per cent of the membership among these higher ranks. "We need more senior professionals engaged with the institute."
To better communicate with members, the CIPS Update pages of SM are to be relaunched. They will contain regular content from Noble, an events diary and other items of interest about the work of CIPS itself and members of its branches. Complementing that, international and UK editions of the CIPS Upd@te e-newsletter will continue to be sent out to all members every month.
And Noble has reorganised CIPS departments to ensure they are more customer-orientated. "All staff are now measured on their responsiveness."
CIPS is bringing forward the branch chairs' conference from March next year to next month to support them and advise on new ideas to engage members. "We appreciate our members' loyalty, they come first and are core to everything we do."
