Procurement for fast flow
Procurement plays a crucial role in achieving fast flow within organizations involved in software-enriched knowledge work. Fast flow, defined as multiple ongoing streams of value to customers via software-enriched services done rapidly, safely, and sustainably, requires a strategic approach to procurement that aligns with this goal.
The benefits of adopting procurement for fast flow:
More informed strategic procurement decisions
Enhanced supplier relationships
Upskilled internal teams and increased expertise
Reduced time-to-market for new services
Improved quality and reliability of solutions
Looking to adopt procurement for fast flow within your organization? Book your discovery call today.
Strategic awareness and procurement
"Cold start" fast flow — See the full slide deck here.
Organizations at the forefront of this approach utilize strategic awareness tools and techniques, such as Wardley Mapping, Core Domain Charts, or Team Topologies, when procuring services and solutions. These tools provide your teams with a visual representation of the business landscape, helping your organization to make more informed decisions about what to build, buy, or outsource.
Aligning supplier contracts with the flow of value is another critical element, ensuring that the incentives of suppliers align with your organization's goals for fast flow. It may involve structuring contracts around outcomes rather than inputs or incorporating fast flow principles into your contract terms.
Procurement best practices for fast flow
Traditional procurement practices can create handovers between suppliers, which can introduce delays, miscommunication, and quality issues that impede fast flow. In a more flow-centric approach, your organization would structure its procurement to avoid such handovers by ensuring end-to-end responsibility for specific value streams, manifested in 'build and run' contracts. In this model, suppliers are responsible not just for building a service or solution, but also for running it for you for an extended period, typically many months or even years. This approach encourages suppliers to consider long-term operability and maintainability in their initial design and implementation, leading to more robust and efficient solutions.
Ideally, your organization should also incorporate knowledge transfer and upskilling into its procurement strategies, requiring suppliers to take responsibility for upskilling other teams when those teams are ready to take over the build and run of the service. This approach ensures continuous and smooth transitions, helping to build internal capabilities over time.
Implementing these procurement strategies for fast flow can be challenging. It requires a mindset adjustment away from traditional procurement practices that focus primarily on cost reduction, and may involve developing new skills within your procurement team, such as creating and interpreting Wardley Maps or structuring outcome-based contracts. By involving suppliers more deeply in the end-to-end delivery of value, you can tap into their expertise more effectively and foster a sense of shared responsibility for outcomes.
Procurement benefits from alignment
The benefits of aligning procurement with fast flow can be substantial, and organizations that successfully implement these strategies often see more collaborative and productive relationships with suppliers, bringing a range of benefits, such as:
Reduced time-to-market for new services
Improved quality and reliability of solutions
Better alignment between supplier incentives and organizational goals
Procurement for fast flow extends beyond efficiently acquiring goods and services; it involves strategically structuring your procurement processes and supplier relationships to support the rapid, safe, and sustainable delivery of value to your customers. As organizations continue to evolve towards a fast flow future, procurement plays an increasingly critical role in enabling this value delivery.
Conflux can help you optimize your procurement for fast flow
As the leading group of industry experts around fast flow and Team Topologies, Conflux can help you to become a thriving organization, delivering at speed.
We’ve identified nine key dimensions common across organizations using fast flow to shape effectiveness and alignment, and successfully drive innovation and growth.
Book your free discovery call where we’ll take a deep dive into your key areas of focus for alignment with fast flow, including procurement for fast flow:
Assess your organization against the nine dimensions of fast flow
Gain valuable insights into areas of strength and opportunity
Strategically prioritize initiatives for fast flow
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