Avoiding Budget Bleed in Procurement
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

We interviewed expert Anders Lautrup-Larsen and asked him how to avoid budget bleed when procuring information, research databases, discovery systems or subscriptions.

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Procuring information databases, journal subscriptions, ebooks and discovery systems can be a time-consuming process. It can be done in an ad-hoc way, even for resources which cost large sums, or it can be organised and ultra-efficient.

Expert Advice on Procurement

That's why we invited expert Anders Lautrup-Larsen to share his experience of the varying models of procurement, what the challenges are... and how the perfect supplier contract should look, as part of the FreePint Topic Series "All About Usage - From Content Sharing to Data Mining" (register for regular updates).

Anders is an independent information management consultant who's worked in the publishing, information and knowledge business for 20 years, making him well-placed to know what can go wrong, and which steps to follow for a more efficient set up and more effective research function.

Budget Bleed

In his article "Towards a Perfect Procurement Process", Anders explains, "As crazy as it may sound, it is very common, in fact the most common scenario for companies not to have any procurement organisation structure or policy, even in global R&D companies with high budgets. You see such companies often see double or triple up on global subscriptions and end up with many discovery or reference tools from different providers. This is typically because such companies operate without any structure, top management is not aware of how it works or how budgeting is working in practice."

Taking the time to gain a deep understanding of user needs is an essential first step, Anders advises. "The information specialist of today has a managing role and needs to be very proactive in finding out the exact user needs."

FreePint Subscribers can login now to read the article "Towards a Perfect Procurement Process", where Anders works through the differing models of procurement, pros and cons of the various models, the benefits of organised tracking and workflow, and how to understand the publisher model. He also looks at why it's essential to involve key stakeholders - and which departments should be represented.

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