Jul23121 MEA | African Business Awards 2024 57 Leading Sustainable Procurement Consultancy 2024 South Africa’s ProcureSense is a procurement advisory and implementation service powered by technology, a leading status it uses to serve a variety of blue-chip and medium-sized corporations. Across its short journey so far, the firm’s sustainable impact can be seen through statistics, with it having aided South Africa’s corporate landscape demonstrably by putting more than five billion rand into black-owned businesses, all whilst saving clients a total of a billion across their total procurement spending. We catch up with Founding Director Trevor Naidoo for more. stablished in 2017, Johannesburg’s ProcureSense has been able to achieve its aims largely as a result of its three primary service offerings: procurement data analytics that help optimise cost and identify opportunities, outsourced procurement services, and finally, building integrated procurement, which covers the likes of ESG and supply chain strategies. Across this trio of services, five core values are rigorously adhered to, each of which is representative of the business’ behaviour-driven approach. From acting when in doubt to adding the highest level of value for its clients in a way that is ethical, moral, and integral, the team here recognise that to drive transformation across this space, they must first embody this change themselves. Only through this collective spirit can procurement problems be solved to a level fitting of ProcureSense’s industry-leading reputation. These company values have all been chosen due to their simplicity to be understood, implemented, and clearly observed/measured on a daily basis. It is ultimately these values, particularly the one concerning transformative change, which drove the aforementioned milestone that the company achieved concerning helping local black businesses in the country. As Trevor explains: “Our research shows that on average, less than 10% of corporate purchases in South Africa are with local black businesses. To our knowledge this percentage is similar across the rest of Africa. A key driver of this phenomenon is the antiquated procurement practices we see in play.” Revolutionising this space so that these businesses may find success, the team here strive to localise and unbundle corporate purchases, lessening the supply chain risk, reducing carbon emissions, and distributing the country’s economy more fairly to local businesses and their communities. Trevor and co. know that this goal requires a fresh-faced, multi-faceted approach concerning procurement, and this underpins the essence of what ProcureSense is doing across not only this industry but also Africa’s wider economy. Thus, the company’s overarching mission statement is, “to help create sustainable businesses by enabling access to market opportunities for supply chain contracts with corporate clients.” The team remain steadfast in their commitment to this cause, with them aiming to further localise procurement spend over the next two years by an additional R500m. This is not the only plan in place over the next 24 months for Trevor and the team, who are fortifying their focus on three key areas of the business, hopefully localising a total of R2.4bn in the process. One such area is centred around ESG, which, as touched upon already, is one of the firm’s defining’s features. This feeds into the company’s wider approach to sustainability and social responsibility, a pivotal factor across its solutions. Trevor describes this as a “collaborative, partnership-driven approach”, one that has impacted thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses in total since operations began. The other two areas of focus for the business going into the latter half of 2024 are expanding across Africa and bolstering its team. Commenting further on the company’s approach to its team, Trevor tells us, “we train our team on skills that are core to our business, such as problem solving, communication skills, and proactivity. We also have review mechanisms within all of our projects to ensure the quality of work is kept to the standards that reflect our brand.” It is a combination of these two areas that has seen ProcureSense achieve meaningful environmental and social impact across the supply chains and communities that it continues to operate in with excellence. Having a direct impact on the value chain through its remarkable enterprise development services, ProcureSense is driving innovation through new suppliers, and continuing to diversify and localise the country’s operations and supply chain in a way that is sustainable and changing the game for good. As a result of this, we celebrate this South African brand as the Leading Sustainable Procurement Consultancy 2024. Contact: Trevor Naidoo Company: ProcureSense Web Address: https://www.procuresense.co.za E
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