PRZOOM - /newswire/ - Water Newton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, 2009/01/06 - Health organisations, local authorities, and other public bodies as well as companies can now improve their approach to commissioning by learning from best practice.

A range of services are being promoted to help people adopt the approaches of commissioning superstars. They are based upon the findings of a research team led by Adaptation's Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas which reveal organisations that excel at purchasing behave differently from their peers. According to the Professor “Those who want to raise their game can learn from those who secure the benefits of effective purchasing and identify areas for improvement by benchmarking against best practice.”

The research study examined 137 purchasing questions. The resulting 175 page A4 report ‘Effective Purchasing, the critical success factors’ can be used to review an organisation’s approach, strategy and practice, and assess where it stands in relation to the achievements of others. Various policy issues are examined, including relationships with suppliers and ways of measuring purchasing performance.

The Adaptation chairman believes world class commissioning will be a priority for public as well as private organisations in 2009: “NHS Primary Care Trusts and other UK public bodies, and organisations in other parts of the world are adjusting to a new regime of commissioning. Instead of providing services themselves they are increasingly purchasing services from other organisations.”

According to Coulson-Thomas: “A comprehensive benchmarking service is also available to help people assess their organisation’s performance. Completing a questionnaire enables you to compare your approaches with those of peers and high achievers as recorded in the database.”

The resulting bespoke and confidential benchmarking report includes comparisons with the average for all organisations participating in the research and those that win most benefits from their purchasing functions, as well as a ‘top ten action checklist’.

Prof. Coulson-Thomas explains: “To help users pinpoint the issues which are really important for their firms, the benchmark reports contain a ‘top ten action checklist’ which highlights where the particular organisation falls furthest behind the most successful. This can enable those who are already successful to identify and address particular weaknesses.”

The ‘Effective Purchasing’ report contains 79 diagrams and checklists of key action points. Further information on the critical success factors report and the bespoke benchmarking service can be obtained from Policy Publications Ltd.

Reviews of the approach adopted by a particular organisation and various presentations, courses and workshops on the critical success factors for effective purchasing are also available. Those who would like further information on the study led by Professor Coulson-Thomas and the resulting services, or would like to discuss the key findings can contact Adaptation Ltd.

Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas is an experienced consultant and author of ‘Winning Companies; Winning People, making it easy for average performers to adopt winning behaviours’. He has reviewed and improved the processes and practices of over 100 companies, helped over 100 boards to raise board and/or corporate performance, and spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate conferences in 35 countries. He can be contacted via Adaptation.

Over 2,000 organisations have participated in various investigations led by Prof. Coulson-Thomas into what high performers do differently. The critical success factors which have been identified are set out in a series of reports produced by Policy Publications.

Agency / Source: Adaptation Ltd

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