The World Bank’s new procurement framework has come into effect, designed to be more flexible to governments, by offering a more modern and nimble system. This is something that businesses across the UK and beyond need to consider, in order to discover how they can adapt their procurement department so that it is able to cope with potential uncertainties ahead.

Farida Gibbs, Founder and CEO of Gibbs S3 comments: “One of the biggest budgets that businesses have to manage is their staff, including external consultancy personnel. Cost management in response to business needs is a huge part of the CPO’s role, and one of the best way to achieve this is by adopting a flexible approach to workforce solutions. “Often it is crucial to scale up, or scale down personnel, but procurement departments need to be working with the right partner that can offer these services. Consultancies need to offer a much better value proposition, tailored specifically to a clients’ needs, so that it becomes more economical for procurement to approve.”

Businesses should be looking to implement a hybrid approach to workforce solutions that is beneficial for procurement departments. A flexible approach allows for companies to secure the best freelance talent, building a team that can complete projects at a lower cost than it would be for the business to hire directly. IT projects often require additional personnel, but rather than a company being forced to source their own talent, taking risk on-board, Gibbs S3 specialises in bringing additional consultants that have the experience, skillset and knowledge, to complete the required development.

Farida Gibbs continues: “We allow businesses to get the talent they require, more quickly and easier, in a cost effective manner. Our hybrid approach was created to provide what our customers were calling out for. Especially in the digital era when IT projects are critical to business growth, it is vital that businesses have the capability to scale up or scale down in response to challenging market conditions. As we are seeing a lot of uncertainty in the economy, is it vital that procurement departments have the flexible framework in place.”