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Season’s Greetings…

CIPS Australia wishes you a festive holiday season and a safe and happy new year. CIPS Australia would like to thank all of its members for their support over the past two years and we look forward to working with you again in 2007.

New Chair for Queensland Committee

Billie Gorman MCIPS, has been appointed the new Chair for the Queensland committee, and CIPS Australia welcome her on board. Billie has been a huge help in the past helping run Queensland’s very successful events, and her enthusiasm and commitment to the committee attributed to her placement as chair.

A bit about Billie

Billie Gorman commenced her career in procurement in 1995 when she started as an IT Buyer for London Underground Limited. Within 3 years she moved to Oracle to become the Senior Buyer of Marketing and Services for Oracle. This was a fantastic opportunity to travel around the UK and Europe managing the commercial and legal aspects of events such as the Oracle 8i launch, Oracle Open World and the Oracle User Group conferences. Billie has also worked at BskyB as the Head of Procurement before being invited to head up the IS Procurement Department back at London Underground. In 1999 she gained her MCIPS qualification through Thames Valley University.

In 2002, a brief return to Australia has so far lasted 4 years, and seen her move from the Procurement and Contracts Manager at Pine Rivers Shire Council to recently take up the role of national Category Manager at Parmalat Australia. She firmly believes in the value procurement adds to an organisation, is passionate about developing the skills of the emerging procurement professionals and spreading the word amongst senior management whilst promoting the benefits of CIPS. In terms of taking up the role of the Queensland Chair, she is excited by the prospect of working closely with such a fantastic, passionate and dedicated committee and foresees great things happening for CIPSA in 2007.

New Deputy Chair for Queensland Committee

David Allen MCIPS, has been appointed Deputy Chair for Queensland. David is currently consulting to BHP Billition Mitsubishi Alliance implementing investment systems and process across the business.

Until recently David was the Manager Strategic Sourcing for Santos Ltd. based in Adelaide. David introduced Web based trading allowing electronic Requests for Information, Requests for Quotation and Reverse Auctions.

Previously David was Contracts Manager for Santos based in Santos’s Brisbane Office covering Business units covering South East Asia, Central Australia, Timor Sea, PNG and Southern Australia. David has an engineering background with a Post Graduate Certificate in Procurement and Materials Management from RMIT University.

A big thank you to the retirees from QLD Committee

After 18 months as Queensland's inaugural regional Chair, Rene Kling has decided to stand down from the committee in order to focus on his training and consultancy business "Supply Chain Management Education Australia (SCMEA)". Rene's passion and commitment to promoting the procurement profession was instrumental in developing the committee's presence in Queensland over such a short period of time. During his reign Rene guided development of CIPS to being a relevant procurement body in Queensland, and membership numbers in Queensland have increased by 55% since early 2005. All members and especially the committee wish to thank Rene and look forward to a continued association with him in the future.

Other changes to the committee are the departure of Carl Jansma (Vice Chair) and Tony Fitzgerald (Secretary) and the appointment of Alan Robertson, Eleanor Jackson and Ben Smith.

While we welcome the new members to the committee and look forward to a very busy and exciting 2007, we thank Rene, Carl and Tony for their time and effort over the past 18 months as founding committee members and look forward to keeping in touch with them at upcoming events.

Bosses for Breakfast

The final Queensland breakfast session for 2006 was held on Wednesday November 15 in Brisbane. Members were invited to bring their “boss” and that they did. More than 50 attendees participated in a lively interactive Panel question session, focusing on the hot topics in procurement. The panel comprised:

In response to the questions of “Key challenges for the Procurement Profession” and “Procurement recognition”, the clear message from the Panel was the ability to demonstrate value add to the organisation. Being integrated into the business rather than operating within a “silo” capacity was also a key message. This lead nicely into the question regarding skills and experience required of procurement personnel. The view from the panel was that necessary competencies required the ability to influence all levels of the organisation, service attitude and be able to lead and facilitate cross functional teams. A very different skill set than is traditionally considered and not generally a focus for University graduate programs. John Hands indicated that the primary selection criterion for procurement professionals was an inherent service attitude.

CIPS Australia Booklist

For a complete list of all our current books available and to order, please download the CIPSA booklist (PDF)

CIPS Australia PMI/PSI/PCI Monthly
Service for Members

CIPSA endorse the Performance of Manufacturing Index [PMI], Performance of Services Index [PSI] and the Perfomance of Construction Index [PCI] which are compiled monthly by the AIG. Other supporters include PWC and NTC Research. As a benefit for CIPSA members, these indices are available monthly from the CIPSA newsletter.

PMI report for November (PDF) PSI report for November (PDF) PCI report - November (PDF)

Office closure times

After an amazing second year, with around 2000 members on board, many successful conferences under our belt and a challenging new year ahead, it is time to take a break and recharge our batteries. Please note, CIPS Australia head office will be closed from 12.30pm on Friday December 22, 2006 and will re-open again at 8.30am (Melbourne Time) on Monday January 8, 2007. Any queries during the closure can be emailed to info@cipsa.com.au and you will be contacted as soon as possible in the new year. Due to the end of year break please note there will be no January newsletter, the next newsletter will be issued early February.

Procurement Professional Magazine

Issue 10 of Procurement Professional (PP10) is out now! Featuring coverage of the 2nd Annual CIPS Australia Conference, essay and scholarship winners, and many other innovating and cutting edge procurement stories, this is an issue not to be missed. Also enclosed with PP10, is the latest White Paper, a research paper written by the Portland Group. Procurement Professional Issue 11, will be due out the first week in February 2007.

CPO Agenda is the global business review designed specifically for chief procurement officers and senior purchasing executives in larger organisations.

CPO Agenda is published four times a year by Redactive Media Group in conjunction with CIPS. It reaches several thousand top purchasing, sourcing and supply management professionals worldwide who collectively control hundreds of billions of pounds, dollars and euros of expenditure.

CIPS members receive a significant discount, and Australian subscription rates are available on www.cpoagenda.com/subscribe

To subscribe download the attached PDF file, or secure online at https://secure2.subscribeonline.co.uk/CPOA

CIPS Australia have mini samples of CPO Agenda to give away. If you would like to receive one, please email your request and mailing address to marketing@cipsa.com.au

Sydney Conference – 7-8 March 2007

Don’t forget to mark your 2007 diary now, for all of the CIPS Australia conferences coming your way. First up next year is the Sydney conference, Emerging Trends in Procurement, on March 7 & 8 at The Shangri-La Hotel. Based on current research, this programme will focus on the key emerging trends facing procurement professionals in Australasia, while considering the similarities and differences with emerging global trends. Any sponsors interested in participating should contact Deanne Bergsma at CIPSA Conferences on Tel. 07 5573 5632 or email: deanne@bttbonline.com at the earliest opportunity.

Conference Fees
CIPS Members - $1,195 + GST
Non Members - $1,395 + GST

Other conference dates are:

The 2nd CIPS Australia Public Sector Procurement Forum
17-18 May, Hyatt Hotel Canberra

The Inaugural CIPS New Zealand Conference
14 June, Auckland SkyCity

The SMART Supply Chain Technology Show
20-21 June, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre

The Queensland Supply Chain Conference
2-3 August, Brisbane Sofitel Hotel

Strategic Procurement
22-23 August, Perth Novotel Langley

The 3rd CIPS Australia Annual Conference
16-17 October, Melbourne

For more information visit www.cipsaconferences.com.au

Smart 2007 Conference

Smart Conference takes places once every two years at Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour. The last conference, in 2005, had more than 900 delegates from six countries attend. On June 20-21, 2007, Smart Conference will once again bring together leading local and international supply chain practitioners to share their knowledge and experience of the latest supply chain technologies and implementations. For more information visit www.smartconference.com.au, registrations open in February.

The Knowledge Club 4

The next issue of The Knowledge Club, the fourth quarterly digest of briefings on hot topics for procurement practitioners, is due out in mid-December. Members with suggestions of what topics they might like to be covered, specifically in the coming issues, should email their suggestions directly to info@cipsa.com.au please.

New website timetabled for February 2007

Work is progressing on populating a new website for CIPS Australia, with many new features and benefits becoming available for members. Benefits such as online payments, purchasing, registrations and an e-learning portal are just a number of the new features on the upcoming new website. If you have any suggestions for content you would like included on the website please email marketing@cipsa.com.au with any suggestions.

Another 29 MCIPS for CIPS Australia

The 29 graduates of the first two Corporate Award programmes got together on November 29 for a graduation luncheon in Melbourne. Attended by the graduates and their workplace mentors (from workplaces such as Australia Post, Coles Myer, Telstra and BHP), a good time was had by all as the graduates and their employers celebrated the achievement of MCIPS.

Sophie Jarvis from Australia Post won the CIPS Award for Excellence, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to this Corporate Award Programme, namely through her commitment to the course, enthusiasm in her learning in the workshops and in achieving a consistent standard of excellence in her work and her assessments and project.

For those members not familiar with Corporate Award, it is an 'applied learning' fast track route to MCIPS (Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply) and runs for up to 15 months. The programme not only provides successful delegates with the globally recognised industry accreditation of MCIPS, it also directly benefits employers through better skilled and qualified employees, and also through a work-based project which delivers significant return to the business on the training investment.

Good year end result for CIPS

The CIPS Board of Management is due to meet in London on December 5 to review the institute’s performance for 2005/06 and is likely to be very satisfied by the results. Figures for the year end on October 31 show that CIPS revenue is up on budget and has grown by almost 11% on last year. Membership is also up – having ended the year with just under 42,000 members around the globe, of whom around 2,000 are in Australia and New Zealand. This represents overall growth of 5.4% (last year 4.4%), an encouraging upward trend when some other professional bodies are struggling to retain members.

Elsewhere in the world

CIPS has just signed an MoU with PISM, the Philippines procurement institute, to deliver CIPS qualification programmes on the same model that is already working very successfully in Thailand, where the second graduation ceremony for Certificate students has been held at the British Embassy. In Singapore, negotiations are progressing with the Workforce Development Agency and Economic Development Board to offer CIPS training in Singapore and Malaysia.

In China, Beijing University of International Education is launching a new procurement degree in January which includes CIPS syllabus content and will be accredited to CIPS Foundation Diploma level. CIPS are also in discussion with the Chinese National Education & Exams Authority, which is responsible for 30 million students, who are interested in offering a similar programme.

Following a very successful second annual conference in Dubai, increasing interest in CIPS among the procurement community in the Middle East has led to an agreement to set up two new member groups, one in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. It is early days, but these groups could in time mature into a branch network to support members throughout the Gulf States.

Membership Grades Update

The green light had been given from the Privy Council to introduce the two new membership grades, Certificate Member and Diploma Member, from March 1 next year. The Privy Council, which regulates CIPS as a chartered body in the UK, has confirmed that the necessary changes to the bye-laws will be finalised by the end of the year. This gives CIPS time to put all the new systems and processes in place to manage the change to the new grades ladder. An article will be published in the next issue of Procurement Professional which explains the changes and what they mean for existing and new members. Look out too for Q&As about the new grades on the website from January.

CIPS Supply Management Awards Evening

Australia was represented at a ‘Purchasing Superstars’ dinner held at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London in November. Craig Lardner, whose presentation was one of the highlights of this year’s CIPS Australia conference, was one of a select group of procurement star performers honoured at the dinner, hosted by our UK publishers.

Almost 1000 people attended the CIPS-SM Awards ceremony at a gala evening on London’s Park Lane in October. This event is growing from strength to strength and was voted by attendees the best awards ceremony yet. This year’s entries were agreed by the judges to be stronger than ever. Details of the winning entries from all categories can be found on the SM website, www.supplymanagement.com. CIPS Australia will be running its own awards next year. The Procurement Professional Awards will be held in Melbourne at the 3rd Annual Conference dinner in October. Any sponsors wishing to participate in these awards should contact Deanne Bergmsa, Sales Manager, CISPA Conferences, email Deanne@bttbonline.com or phone (07) 5573 5632.

CISPA JOB SEARCH

Visit the Jobs area of www.cipsa.com.au to view the latest jobs in procurement. If you would like to advertise a position on the website, jobs are $49 + GST per month, download the attached flyer to find out more.

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