One of our goals at Wolf and Oak is to make procurement more effective for clients, not by asking them to outsource the process to us in its entirety but through strategic engagement at key points in the buying cycle. Making investment decisions on technologies and suppliers is simply too critical for a business to completely hand over responsibility to a third party.

It’s equally unrealistic, however, to expect an internal procurement team to keep up with fast-changing technologies and a complex vendor landscape. We make it our business to keep on top of what’s happening in the global market, so you don’t have to. Our market knowledge informs our right-first-time approach to technology procurement, removing the risk of making disastrous choices, and dramatically increasing the likelihood of a technology project delivering on goals that were set out at the start.

Too often, I come across companies that have made the wrong choices and invested in technologies that are a bad fit for the business. Large enterprises with big budgets can clean up the mess and go again – they frequently do – though there may be a reckoning and possible head rolling for getting it wrong. Smaller, more financially constrained companies might have to live with an ill-fitting solution. I’ve seen it happen, where IT departments throw cups of water on a raging fire, paying a small fortune for each cup and still falling short of the outcomes they expected.

Because we understand the big picture around technology capabilities, our subject matter expertise can support the scoring, analysis and recommendations around important buying decisions. By the time a procurement decision is signed off, we’ll have made sure it’s aligned with a client strategy that was agreed at the start of the engagement.

The time we spend understanding a business at the outset is rewarded tenfold at the end because of our attention to detail. This includes familiarising ourselves with a client’s security posture, how new technology investments might impact defence layers or create new vulnerabilities.

Our procurement process is transparent with an audit trail that tracks decision-making processes around a range of factors, including security. By maintaining appropriate records and enforcing correct controls and procedures, we create a foundation for delivering long-term strategic value, where the procurement history provides a proven pathway towards continuous improvement.

Along the way, clients are encouraged to lean into us, as and when needed, not just to select the right investments when it comes to technology but to get the best deals. We leverage our supplier relationships and economies of scale to deliver long-term value. We manage supplier negotiations and vendor selection, using all our experience to forge long-lasting relationships, based on openness and a shared understanding of what’s in it for both parties.