What Makes a Good Category Manager Podcast

In this podcast episode I interview Lucy Mason and Edward James, experts in procurement and supply, about what makes a good category manager and what is needed for category management success.

If you would prefer to review the transcript of the podcast, see below.

Mo
Welcome to Health procurement Africa and the knowledge hub. Our mission is to explain how procurement and supply can be harnessed to help millions of Africans have access to the best care and treatment available. Our insights and advice can help your businesses thrive by connecting with people, products and services you need on your procurement journey. My name is Mo, today we are joined by the delightful Lucy and Edward, who are experts in category management, they will be sharing their insights and experiences with us, they will be talking about category management, and how we can save money by changing the way we buy products and services.

Edward James
Thank you very much for the introduction, Mo. My name is Edward James. I'm Deputy Director of commercial at the department of health and social care in England. And I'm joined today by my colleague.

Lisa Mason
And I'm Lisa Mason. I'm the Strategic Procurement manager for the department of health and social care in England.

Edward James
So we've been asked to talk about category management and what our view of category management is and how it works.

Unknown Speaker
We have indeed

Edward James
So I guess the best place to start is what is category management.

Lisa Mason
So in my view, category management is a structured process for procurement. So it kind of starts in terms of understanding your business need, undertaking that research and analysis into the business need, developing a structured procurement, to get you the right supplier on board for your business and then working with that supplier to get the best possible outcome.

Edward James
And in terms of experience, how do you think a organization should, I guess split their categories, and what's the best sort of way to identify the categories that you want to have in your procurement team?

Lisa Mason
So in terms of the way that we tend to work, my team are responsible for three broad categories. We cover digital services, professional services, and Corporate Services. And we work very closely with our business stakeholders to understand their need, and what their demand is in the short, medium and long term that enables us to really start to understand the market, and to develop our knowledge of that market areas and suppliers in that area, to be able to develop to be able to work with them in the long term to meet the business need.

Edward James
So category management sounds as if it's something very simple and easy. And it's in the way that it's been set up, especially in the Department of Health, I guess there's different sizes of organization, and people will split their categories, depending on the size of their organization and their areas of spend.

Lisa Mason
So in terms of categories' strategies, for example, have you got any examples of maybe how you've developed some of those in your area?

Edward James
some categories strategy wise, and the how we set up our category management across the whole family wall in the in England, is really look, by looking at the areas of spend that we have breaking those areas of spend down and looking at how we can pull those things together to try and make the most of our spend to go out to market together. For me in Category management's about a couple of things. One is around making sure that we've got single points of contact within the business who are responsible for that area of spend. It's about going out and talking to stakeholders and getting stakeholders on board around how those categories should be structured and how the product should be purchased. And also having that single point of contact who's looking at the supply market, and understanding what the risks in that supply market are as well. The NHS in England is quite big, it spends a significant amount of money around about 15 billion pounds. And to help us with that level of expenditure, we have split categories of spend up and we've set up a structure known as supply chain coordination limited who look after 11 different categories of spend. So the way those categories were identified was looking at the spend of the NHS across England, and basically identifying where those pots of money are going to bind the supply base as well as the category. Bringing those together means that all of the different sort of 300 NHS organisations across the country can rely on that one buying organization. And that one buying organization will be responsible for going to the market, hopefully securing savings and better deals through collaborative procurement and sort of larger offers to the supply market. But also having the ability to manage those markets, manage the risk in the markets and give guidance to the different NHS organisations which allows them to then go and look at either things that are specifically they need to purchase. Or it allows them to be doing other things in the day job that they wouldn't have time to do otherwise. So yeah, category management's very simple. In terms of how you would go about it, I think the starting point is that you would look at your spend areas, identify those categories or buckets of spend, and split those up in such a way that you can align different people to work in those categories and resource them to manage the supply base appropriately.

Lisa Mason
I think I'd agree with that. I think some of the critical elements for me, are really about being able to segment into those critical market areas for the business, to work with the business to understand the need and demand in those areas, then to have the teams working to understand the market, and then to work in collaboration with both the business and the supplier to really deliver on and get results as well. So in terms of a lot of category management, we know that you can see a good return on investment, if you if you get it right, and I think examples in early stages of category management have been between kind of 10% and 30%, in terms of improvements on costs that have been seen in the first instance. But of course, because of that very structured, collaborative process that you're putting in place to work with the supplier in the longer term, you also have the opportunity to work with them through the contract delivery, to get continued improvements and efficiencies there as well.

Edward James
And one of the benefits I've seen from from this before, is where you've got a number of different organizations buying the same product, you open up the opportunity for suppliers to come in and play those organizations against each other. So in the NHS, we've definitely seen suppliers who have gone around to different NHS organisations and said that we're offering you the best deal in the market across the country. And it's only when you get those organizations talking to one another do they realize that perhaps they haven't got the best deal or the deal that they thought they had, and that somebody else has got a much better offer than they did. So by bringing all of those different dispersed bits together, it's possible to to make sure that you do have the best deal.

Lisa Mason
It really is. And I know that there is an argument that you could make this: why would suppliers go for this because potentially, if you've got lots of different suppliers, and you're moving to look at one larger strategic supplier, then suppliers might not be interested. But actually many suppliers will see the opportunity. When we're consolidating the requirements into one, we have an increased volume and an increased leverage from a commercial perspective. And that is inherently interesting to suppliers. Also, many of them will be really interested in the longer term relationship development opportunities and the ability to link in as a strategic partner for the organization as well. So it does offer commercial advantage to both the customer and the supplier base as well.

Edward James
It certainly does. But one of my headaches that I've got as the small and medium enterprise champion at the department of health and social care is that category management can reduce the opportunity for the small suppliers to come into the market. By pulling together all of your buying requirements, you end up with larger suppliers. And it's just those larger suppliers that can sort of meet the financial tests that we look for, meet the delivery schedules or the production that we're looking for. So it's a real balance of trying to find which categories, it makes sense to do a centralized procurement versus which is better decentralized so that we are getting the small and medium enterprises involved in a procurement process.

Lisa Mason
And I think that's a really interesting question. And actually, I can bring in some experience of a previous role when I worked in in manufacturing, where for sure, we would have large scale commodity strategies for big areas of the vehicle. But actually, the area that I worked in was far more niche and lower volume, which actually enabled us to kind of adjust that category management process to meet the needs of our area. And it enabled us to work with a series of smaller businesses who were more able to meet a kind of a lower volume requirements. So I think there is the opportunity to be flexible around it. And there is the opportunity to bring smaller companies into that process. But you have to understand business need, you have to be working with your stakeholders across the business to understand what the short, medium and long term requirements are. And you have to have that market analysis in place to really understand what's going on in that area out in the market so that you can take advantage of it.

Edward James
The market assessment is really important as well for understanding the risk that centralized category management can bring. So although bringing category management together and having one single supplier and hopefully a lower price is a good thing. There's the risk though that you end up building monopoly markets and only having one supplier in the future who's able to supply and that's where you then sort of see the price starting to escalate when that supply knows that it It has the stronghold on the buyer. So it's very important the same time. Although Yes, category management is about bringing volume together to get better price. It's also about managing those supply markets so that you maintain value for money, good price over the long term and into the future. So I think we've seen certainly within the UK, a number of suppliers who have either developed that monopoly market and prices increase, or the risk of suppliers exiting the market at short notice, and buyers being left in a position where there isn't a supply base for them to go to. So one of the things that we've done in the UK, through the cabinet office is looked at a project called the outsourcing program. And that brings together some really good guidance around how do you manage markets, and links into category management? So it's considering: What does the market look like? How best Do you structure your procurement to meet the needs in the market, but also to look at continually developing the market bringing in new suppliers and bringing in innovation as well?

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, I think innovation is critical to this aspect. I really agree with your point

on the risk of depending upon one strategic supplier. Certainly in some of the work that I've done in other sectors, we actually had a series of strategic suppliers so that we could balance that risk across different areas. As an example, if we were looking at an exterior body part a commodity on a vehicle, for example, bumpers, we might have two or three suppliers that we would engage across the vehicle range that would enable us to not put all of our eggs in one basket, but still enable us to have strategic relationships with those suppliers in terms of bringing that innovation piece in, because of the nature of the way that we were working with them through the category management process, we would bring them in to talk to us at product design stage. So we were using their expertise within our within our product development and in our design, and our engineering. What that enabled us to do was to engineer innovation and improvements into the process, which essentially resulted in much better cost efficiencies for us in the longer term. It also meant that the supplier had a really good understanding of our strategy, and where we were going, and they were able to use their expertise to contribute to that. And that gave us much less risk as we moved into supply in terms of ensuring that we had quality parts at the right time. And obviously at the right price.

Edward James
And technologies are really key area for us and our category management plan around: How do you balance off bringing together everyone's requirements centrally to get that better price versus bringing in the innovation of new it. And the speed at which it is moving at the moment means that we we need to leave the doors open to new suppliers to small and medium enterprises with really good ideas about how we can improve not just the way that we deliver the services that we do in the country, but also how we can make it easier for people to interact with healthcare as well. So our current Minister for Health Secretary of State, he's really keen on patient apps and making sure that patients can interact with healthcare, digitally, having that sort of balance for those suppliers to come in and to be able to sort of develop things and not be locked out of the markets really key. I know our category manager in your team Lucy's working quite hard on how do we structure that. So we keep the market both open, but we make sure that we're getting good value for money.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, I think it's really important. He is working very closely with the business to understand some of their forward requirements in relation to this. And we're also working very closely with our colleagues and crown commercial services, who are setting up kind of dynamic marketplaces that enable us to access the right suppliers who can provide these solutions. And actually, what we are looking for here is a lot of times smaller suppliers who can meet a more flexible requirements, who can react quickly to our demands, and provide a product to us in a defined timescale.

Edward James
So now from the difficult question, I guess, from your experience, do you think that suppliers like category management as an approach? Because from my experience, I think there's pros and cons. One is that obviously those suppliers who win the business, love category management because it can mean that they've got a long term contract and earning money over a period of time, those who don't win and then lock down the market and potentially aren't winning.

Lisa Mason
I think that's probably a fair assessment. It really does depend on the on the situation. The reality is if you are in a business that is operating over a number of different sites, let's say 20 sites, and across those sites, you have different teams buying the same product or the same services. You may have one supplier quite heavily predominant in there or you may have many different suppliers. Obviously from a business perspective, there is a real commercial interest in pulling that together. And using category management to manage that process, from a supplier perspective that has its positives, and it has these negatives, and a positive perspective, if you win that business, then that's a really strong commercial opportunity for you as a supplier. Obviously, if you lose it, then potentially you're out of out of the game. So I'm guessing suppliers, it will depend. And I would expect that many of them will say, well, we are experts in our area. And actually, we value this opportunity. Because obviously, the latter side of that as well, is that a longer term strategic relationship, which of course is of advantage to any supplier in market.

Edward James
So at the end of the day, it all comes down to having a good category manager imposed managing their category. How important do you find that it is that that category manager has got experience with the category they're working in rather than just good procurement experience that they can develop within that category?

Lisa Mason
So again, I think it depends, I think what you need is a category manager who has an interest in understanding that area. So somebody who is who is really willing to work with the business to understand their strategy, their objectives, and what they're trying to achieve. And then to actually go away and really investigate and analyze the market and find out all the data that they can set out to they build their understanding of that side of it, as well. So I think for sure, having somebody who is expert in an area is a really strong position to be in. But I do believe that can be learned, as well by somebody who is willing to do that analysis, and create that understanding. For me, the key skills that you're looking for, is somebody with really strong interpersonal skills, who was willing to work with a variety of stakeholders, both internally within the business, and external, somebody who's willing to do that data and analysis, and really interpret that information. So that they can start to create a really strong sourcing strategy that will meet the needs of the business.

Edward James
And that's something that I found as well that you can pick up your procurement skills and transfer them to any category quite easily. It's not a case of meaning to sort of develop your skills in one category and stay with that category for a period of time.

Lisa Mason
Totally agree with you. And actually, a good category manager will also use the the expertise around them. So they will use the expertise within their business stakeholders, and they will use the expertise from the suppliers that they're working with, as well. And that gives them a huge amount of strength. So, Ed, overall, what would you say were the benefits of implementing a category management approach?

Edward James
I think there's multiple benefits to implementing category management. So one of the big benefits is around having somebody within your business who understands the market in which you're buying in. So they understand the supplier, they can talk to that supplier on a very regular basis and develop a relationship with them. That category manager can also develop knowledge and experience of the category, their buying force, and they can engage with the business a lot better, they can create the relationships within the business and become a trusted partner to the business, they can start doing things such as mapping supply chain risk within the categories that they're working in, they can really understand the scope of the category that they're managing, and how the decisions that they make influenced the way in which that market works, the suppliers behave and their stakeholders respond to that. So I think there's a really wide range of opportunities to category management, I think it's also very important to make sure that in the same way that we're suggesting that people get into the categories and understand those categories that they don't become siloed, in the same way that if you were buying that product to multiple different parts of the business, you created those silos. So I think it's really important that you get the category managers working and talking together, because there's always going to be products or services that don't sit neatly in one category, they actually overlap multiple different categories. And those people within the business will be influenced and talking to the different category managers. And it's got to be a one joined up approach across the business to the way in which category management works. And I know that's something that you're really keen on in getting your category managers doing because of those sort of blurry lines between the categories. I think

Lisa Mason
I think that's a really excellent example. I mean, certainly in the areas that my team are working in, we definitely we've had the discussion recently over things like consultancy services, where actually we can we can potentially buy those in each of the different category areas that we have. Yet we have category areas specifically for professional services. So actually, so where do you place it? At the end of the day, and actually, the only way you overcome some of those things is by having that joint collaborative approach, not just with our stakeholders and suppliers, but actually across the team. as well so that we can have those sensible conversations within the team and present a single point of response back to our, our internal customers, I think I'd like to pick up the collaboration side for me is a really critical element of category management because it builds understanding. But it builds awareness, and it builds trust between you, your customers, and your suppliers, which inevitably leads to a better final solution. And what we're finding in our teams as we work with our different stakeholders, is we're becoming embedded in their business planning process. So we're no longer in a situation where they are developing their strategies, and then doing things on their own. They're actually engaging us right up front, as they're thinking about how they develop these strategies, which gives us the opportunity to understand their needs, and to develop a sourcing strategy to help them achieve their business objectives at far better value for money for the overall business.

Edward James
And the thing that's really key to me is part of what you've just said is around linking those parts of the business together is really important. Because although you might buy a product or a service in a specific area of the business, essentially, how does that affect the whole of the business and the way that the business operates? So healthcare is really complex, and there's been lots and lots of discussions around if we were to buy a single product, cheap because that makes sense for that product, and we deliver a saving, and what does that mean to the business as a whole. And there's definitely been some examples whereby a cheaper products actually lead to a different outcome for the patient, which has meant that the patient stays in hospital an extra night. And although you may have saved a couple of 100 pounds on a cheaper product, you've actually incurred 400 pound extra night by keeping a patient in hospital. So having those bits of your different categories talking together, not just focusing in the silo with the category, but looking across the business as a whole. And understanding the way the business operates is really key to make sure that there are sensible decisions being made, not just for the category on its own, but also for the business as a whole.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, because at the end of the day, it's it's the end result and the impact on the patient that we're all really looking at achieving here. And by better understanding how we all work, we can get the better result for the patient who is receiving the treatment, who's receiving the service from us.

Edward James
So actually, at the end of the day, the category manager may make the decision that buying the product at a higher price is actually better, because you get a much better outcome for the patient, and a lower cost of treatment overall, even though that product is more expensive.

Lisa Mason
This is about really working with the business to understand what the end objective is, because we're probably looking at it more from a value for money perspective than than reducing cost. Because reduce costs may not give us the quality of result, the full service that we're looking to achieve. So if we can assess what we're looking to achieve, we can get that at the best value for money.

Edward James
And you mentioned value for money. I think one of the other things that each of the categories really needs to work together and understand is how do you define what that value for money is, because value for money in one part of the business may be something that's completely different to the other part of the business. Healthcare, as I say, is really complex. So when we're looking at research on very complex health matters, spending more money, and that is a good thing to do, because it could give you better value for money in the long run, versus looking at short term wins and short term gains to deliver a saving sooner rather than later.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, you know, and of course, you know, things like whole life costing return on investment would certainly be a part of a category management strategy that the the buying team could look at. That's certainly one option. And obviously, again, coming back to the point that you work very closely with your supplier throughout the delivery of the service or the product as well means that you can throughout the entire process, look at efficiency saving opportunities too.

Edward James
serve in terms of setting up a category management approach within the procurement team. I think there's a couple of things that needs to be taken into consideration. One is how good those categories get built, developed and structured. But also how do they engage with the business and from my experience, category boards and category meetings can work very well, whereby those category managers are reaching out to the business, inviting them in to talk to procurement, discussing different approaches, not just within a single department, within the business, but across that business or in our experience across the NHS as a whole.

Lisa Mason
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. So I think if you are in a position where you your category has many different stakeholders from different areas, then actually you're probably in that position of moving into some kind of category board or category committee, where for sure the buying team or the commercial team will be represented. But actually you will have representation from all the other stakeholders as well and that will really help you to drive your strategy in the right direction across the business because each different area will have an opportunity to feed into that. So everybody understands each other's goals and objectives, you understand how you can align those in the best possible way. And then of course, you bring your supplier in to ensure that they deliver it in that way as well.

Edward James
So yeah, one of the things I think you've done really well with your category management team is to make sure that they're not just having meetings with the business and developing those category boards, but that they're seen as part of the business. So it's about going out sitting down with the business, pitching up at their desk, and sitting down next to them understanding what they're working on that day. And just being there in the background as a sort of trusted friend and advisor, not just having a meeting once a month or once a quarter to review ideas, because that's by sitting next to them on a daily basis. That's where you pick up what the problems are, and what's going on in their world. And perhaps the things that they think that aren't important enough to come to a category board, but are causing them significant headaches day in, day out.

Lisa Mason
Now, I think that's a really valid point, and you've hit the nail on the head. Really, the word trust is so important here because we need to be part of that conversation that may be happening across the business, so that we understand what they're looking to do, where things might change, and how we might need to redevelop things to ensure that we're still meeting their objectives too, so it's really about opening ourselves up to working with all of our stakeholders sitting down, talking with them sitting next to them, being part of that conversation, so that we can really understand what is driving them. And then as we undertake our analysis and our work in the in in terms of understanding the market, making sure that that addresses the needs that they are trying to deliver into the health economy. And that goes wider actually, then than just our own internal stakeholders. You know, we're looking at how we do that across the entire health family, as well so that we better understand the needs that are driving many of our partners, and look at how we can better focus some of our solutions to support the wider health family as well.

Edward James
So I guess we've spoken a lot about the benefits of category management, and the route to implementation. But it's not always easy. across my experience, the hardest part about implementing category management is around that change process. And people's reaction to any change process. In particular, the procurement staff, who may have be working on specific products or in specific markets, then you will be in a position where they're being asked to potentially change to look at new markets to work on different products. And it's trying to explain to those procurement professionals the benefits that category management can bring not just in the business, but also to them as individuals and their career path in the future.

Lisa Mason
I think that's a really fair, fair comment, a notion in many aspects, change is sometimes a little bit scary. And it's hard to get people over over that barrier and see the the opportunities that are available. And it's really taking that one step at a time in terms of educating people on the opportunities that are available, supporting them through the process in terms of how to engage with their stakeholders, these sort of questions to ask how to generate the information that they need to determine what the next steps may be, and help them understand what can be achieved both by them individually and wider within the organization, through through this type of, of opportunity.

Edward James
And it's not just the headache of having your own procurement staff that you need to sell the concept of category management to it's also going to be the business and the supply base. So from a business perspective, you may be bringing in the responsibility for buying into a central function where it's it's been out within the individual departments previously, and there'll be a level of resistance to that. Because those people out in the business over time will have developed relationships with suppliers and will have been told that they're getting the best deal possible out in the market. It's only when that's brought in centrally in there's that sort of joint working between procurement and the people within the business do they realize that there were additional benefits to be had by category management

Lisa Mason
It is very much so and uncertainty is always a difficult thing to to manage. So if you are looking at centralizing an opportunity that may create uncertainty out in the in the regions now from from my perspective that has to be managed on a database basis. So by talking to the different areas, understanding the data that you have there, you can pull that information and start to evidence the improvements that you may be able to achieve through the process. As people start to understand that data, they start to see the opportunities that may be coming their way and we'll be more interested in engaging. Similarly with some of the business units who may be worried With category management being a slightly more structured approach, that is going to limit them in terms of what they can do will remove their flexibility, for example. So again, that is really about talking them through the process, building that trust about the process, but also listening to them in terms of what they're trying to achieve, and ensuring that the strategies that are put in place meet the objectives that they are, they are looking to achieve.

Edward James
And in healthcare, where I've done this before, one of the most difficult customers to influence is definitely the doctors and surgeons who have the relationship with the suppliers. It may be that they are working with the supplier on product development, and it links in with the training that's offered to new doctors. And it's trying to convince them that actually, procurement has something to bring to the table in terms of working with suppliers, bringing in innovation, and maybe changing suppliers as well. But there's a level of nervousness there in healthcare, especially from the medical staff. We've also got the issue of the suppliers as part of this as well. And the suppliers will be slightly reluctant around an approach to category management because it's either going to mean that the procurement teams find out that they've been playing different departments off against each other, giving different parts of the business different pricing for the same product. Or it could mean that actually in the long term, they could lose business because the category management plan could suggest moving to a fewer number of suppliers.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely. And part of this is about working with the suppliers to educate them about the the processes that we intend to take forward. The reality is, quite often, we have to look at what is best for our business. And getting the best deal for our business with the right suppliers on board is often going to be the way forward here. So we certainly shouldn't be apologizing for that. But we have to be a data-based approach that will lead us down that route.

Edward James
So the hardest part about category management implementation definitely sounds like winning the hearts and minds of the procurement team, the business and the supply base at the same time.

Lisa Mason
Indeed, it can be I think we've spoken a number of times today around that trust element. And it's not a simple job, it can take time. You know, we're not saying that you can put a category management strategy in place in a couple of weeks, and it will all be fantastic. But actually, if you follow the process of engaging with your business stakeholders, educating them about the process and understanding their needs and drivers doing that really good market analysis and research. So you understand the market forces that are in play in that area, putting in place a structured procurement process, and then developing that relationship with your strategic suppliers who are going to deliver the service that you're looking for, then you can really achieve some significant value.

Edward James
So it sounds like from what you've said, and what we've covered so far, that actually a category manager and someone who's working in these category teams is actually a very good plate spinner, there's a lot that they need to be doing in both making sure that they understand the data and what the data is telling them to inform decisions. They are engaging with the supply market and developing relationships there. And they're also developing the relationships within the business to understand how they structure their category plans moving forward.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, it's about managing those priorities effectively. And actually, I think that most procurement professionals are really good at that because it is a part of their daily job. And so it is about keeping all of those plates spinning at the same time.

Edward James
And for me, I've worked in categories before, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It has been really good fun, you get to understand a lot more about the suppliers you're working with, the markets they operate in, you get to get underneath the skin of the just sort of usual procurement process by understanding the decisions they make in their pricing structures and why they make those decisions, because of the way that we work with them as buyers. So I personally think that category management is a great approach. It's a rewarding approach for a procurement professional and should be something that different companies look out.

Lisa Mason
I would totally agree with you. I think category management has been operated for for some years now. And there are many examples of where it's been very successful. I'm not saying it works for everything, but I think that is part of the process of really sitting down and understanding the environment that you're working in talking to your stakeholders understanding their objectives. And actually what that helps you do is understand where you will want category management to apply. And when you do apply it for sure, you can see some fantastic results both from a cost perspective, from improving value for money and the quality result for the business. And also in terms of the relationships that will build across the business, the understanding there embedding the commercial or the procurement team as part of the business process. And of course that in itself also has an impact upon the way that the commercial team is viewed across the business as well because you are operating to support the business need and achieving value for money in that space too.

Edward James
So from my perspective, when we look at category management, and we look at implementing category management in a business, for me, step one is always looking at the data and spend of the business to understand where those categories are, where they sit, and how you would set up and structure those categories in the first place. I think once you've got a really good idea of what those categories need to be to help you achieve the outcomes that you want to get to, it's about aligning your procurement resource into those categories. It's about making sure that you're not siloing those procurement people into the categories alone. So there is a bit of matrix working across the business. It's about relationship management and engagement at the same time. But I think step one really does have to be: look at the data of what you spend, to work out how you develop that structure.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely, as part of the segmentation process, it's really understanding how important those different products are to your business. Because category management does often work a little better where there is a bigger spend associated with it. So understanding that spend data, understanding the future forecast data for those areas, is really very important. And a significant part of the analysis work that's done alongside the market research.

Edward James
I know that Health Procurement Africa, are there to support companies along that journey. And they can draw on the knowledge and experience of procurement and supply professionals across the world. And working together, procurement and supply can ensure that patients get access to the right product at the right time. And that healthcare is enhanced within each of the different countries. So in summary, category management has some real benefits for the company. It allows you to better understand your levels of spend that allows you to better map the risk management. It's not an easy process to put in place. There's a lot of hearts and minds to be won that is in terms of you procurement staff, your department, your suppliers. But the procurement team should besold this on the basis. It's not just a benefit to the business, but it's also a benefit to them personally. It will allow them to become experts in their field and hopefully get greater job satisfaction. And I think having Health Procurement Africa there to help and support along the process in giving those sort of tools and techniques and sharing best practice across the piece will really help people in turn to putting this in place.

Lisa Mason
Absolutely. I think the the work that Health Procurement Africa can do will help procurement teams along that journey and to help them achieve it successfully.

Edward James
And I think it's really key that those procurement teams track the benefits that they deliver along the way. Recognize that this isn't something that gets put in overnight and the benefits follow the next day. It is a long process, track the benefits as you go and make sure to celebrate those benefits and feed them back. Not just in procurement team, but right across the business.

Lisa Mason
Ed it's been fantastic talking to you about this subject. Thank you so much.

Edward James
Thank you Lucy. It's great to be able to bring your knowledge and experience into the discussion.

Mo
Thanks to our guests, Lucy Mason and Edward James for joining us and sharing their experience on category management with us all. Listeners I hope you have learned something new today that you can share with your colleagues. Come back soon to explore new content from our growing community here on health procurement Africa.