Procurement Advisory Consultant

Bytes is a top provider of premium IT solutions and services, working with SMEs, corporations, and public sector organisations to modernise and digitally transform their IT infrastructures. Founded in 1982, Bytes has experienced significant growth, now employing over 750 people across seven locations in the UK and Ireland, with a turnover surpassing £1.8 billion in 2023. At Bytes, we nurture talented individuals to achieve remarkable outcomes and are dedicated to supporting our employees through continuous training, guidance, and development to help you advance and fulfil your career goals. We foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, recognition and inclusivity and offer a wide range of benefits to support staff wellbeing.

Operating from modern, hybrid working environments with offices in Leatherhead, Reading, London and Manchester:

• 25 days holiday per annum plus bank holidays and Christmas period
• Excellent learning and development opportunities
• Open plan office with collaborative working spaces, on-site gym, outdoor tiki bar, coffee bar, and lunch area
• Company wellbeing and social events
• Sports and social clubs
• Incentive trips
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounted private healthcare
• EV scheme and Ride to Work scheme
• Winners of an array of industry awards
• Great Place to Work Certified
• Sunday Times Top 100 Best Places to Work
• Supporters of 85+ charities with strong commitment to diversity and sustainability

POSITION DETAILS:

Reports to: Procurement Advisory Principal Consultant
Team: ITAM Delivery Team
Department: Services Division

PURPOSE OF JOB:

Bytes works with our customers to help them achieve their business outcomes through delivering a comprehensive range of technology-focused support/professional/managed services. We actively seek to drive consumption, adoption, and customer satisfaction with the objective of tangibly contributing to customer success and growth. The Procurement Advisory Consultant will join our growing diverse team of experienced IT procurement professionals to deliver commercial and procurement advisory, renewals management and transaction services for software assets by defining and implementing a professional, structured, and repeatable process resulting in optimal commercial routes for renewals and new purchases, based on existing and planned Customer strategies. These activities will be delivered to a portfolio of mid-size UK-based businesses through to global enterprises through a managed service framework. The overarching function of the role is to drive savings into our customers by removing operational overhead and optimising spend. The Consultant will also provide ad-hoc support to pre-sales/sales effort as an evangelist for the potential range of Procurement related services that may address a specific customer need.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Proactively review renewal and new-purchase transactions for Customers with a managed service to ensure that the activity results in the optimal financial and strategic outcome for the customer.
• Review existing software on the estate for functional overlaps with a view to discontinuation of one product thereby reducing volume of transactions.
• Consider alternative products, versions, editions, or suites where that would provide added value/reduced costs.
• Review software contracts for alignment with future strategy.
• Engage with vendors and internal vendor specialists to secure competing quotations and demonstrate that the quotation offering greatest value is selected.
• Attempt to co-term to reduce volume of transactions and secure discounts based on larger single transactions.
• Analyse historic spend to identify opportunities for consolidation or shift in structured commercial agreements that would provide the customer with lowest costs and/or increased benefits.
• Create Service Review contributions demonstrating volume of activity and evidence of value delivered and suggest service improvements.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with the procurement and SAM functions within the Customer business.
• Ensure timely delivery of a quality service as defined in the contract between Bytes and the customer meeting and exceeding SLAs.
• Provide ad-hoc procurement/commercial advice and services to individual customers.
• Maintain and continually develop knowledge of software contracts and vendors.
• Contribute to the delivery of related programs of change from an Asset Management perspective.
• Identify opportunities for Bytes where Bytes may propose new/additional Services.
• Escalate potential service issues within the business and to Bytes management.

The description above reflects the core responsibilities/activities of the role but is not intended to be all-inclusive; other duties may be required in addition to changes in the emphasis of duties as required from time to time. There is a requirement for the post holder to recognise this and adopt a flexible approach to work. Job descriptions will be reviewed regularly and where necessary revised in accordance with organisational needs. Any major changes will be discussed with the post holder.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

You will at all times maintain open communications with the Customer, your Services team colleagues and the Bytes Account Management teams throughout an engagement. You will be both accountable and responsible for the successful and complete delivery of the defined services.

WIDER TEAM NETWORK

Internal: Bytes Services Division including PMO, ITAM and Licensing Services. Bytes Account Management and Sales Support Teams. Bytes Head of Technical Solutions.
External: Customer Resources (EXCO Sponsor, Service Owner, Contract Owners PMO Team, Delivery Team etc.) Delivery Partners/Sub-Contractors. Software Vendors. Software Distribution Channel.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE, & SKILLS:

Educational Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant subject.

ESSENTIAL Professional Qualifications: CIPS Diploma (Standard, Advanced or Professional). ILIL Foundation. Project Management Accreditation i.e., PRINCE2.

ESSENTIAL Work Experience: Greater than five (5) years demonstrable experience of delivering Software Procurement/Contract Management services, specifically focussed on contract optimisation. Detailed and comprehensive exposure to legal and commercial negotiation of software contracts. Demonstrable experience in delivering Procurement services and delivering savings (cost avoidance and cost savings YoY against budget) within a complex organisation. Knowledge of key vendor licensing schemes and contract offerings/structures - Must include Microsoft and at least one of the following; Oracle, IBM, SAP, Adobe, RedHat, Veritas and Symantec.

ESSENTIAL Other Requirements: Legally able to work in the country in which the position is based. Able to demonstrate the ability to undertake the defined Key and Individual responsibilities for the role. Experience reviewing and negotiating software contracts, identifying, and understanding key clauses that would require negotiation on behalf of the customer. Extensive knowledge of licensing terms and metrics and IT markets. Experience of working with Tier 1 technology partners (Microsoft, Oracle, Citrix, Checkpoint, Adobe etc). Experience of running both standard and complex contracting and sourcing strategies. Ability to manage RFI and RFPs and handle vendor negotiations. Advanced level of Microsoft Excel skill to facilitate analysis and presentation of data. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with excellent customer facing/customer service skills. Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines. Able to demonstrate a high degree of flexibility including occasional out of hours working. Excellent organisational skills - able to manage and prioritise tasks and time efficiently. Able to manage customer sensitive and sometimes confidential information. Able to understand contracts and terms and confident to suggest best purchasing strategies. Previous exposure to working with P2P, eProcurement tools, Contract Management systems and request management/support ticketing systems (ServiceNow). Able to work with other technical teams and stakeholders to provide end to end Software Contract Lifecycle Management.