RISK & RESILIENCE
Courtney Rowlands, Head of Category Procurement at AllPoints Fibre Networks( APFN), is a strategic procurement leader with a track record of managing up to £ 20m( US $ 27m) in annual spend. Renowned for delivering rapid transformation, she recently achieved a 25 % cost reduction in high-spend categories within just six months. At AllPoints Fibre, she leverages this expertise to align ethical, sustainable sourcing with rigorous commercial performance.
At the Net Zero Summit, Courtney sat down with Procurement Magazine to discuss the seismic shift in the company’ s procurement strategy, the“ ugly beast” of software spend and why a 360-degree commercial mindset is fundamental to business success.
Q. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR CURRENT APPROACH TO TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP( TCO)?
» Generally speaking, if you are operating within a mature procurement function, TCO is always present. It isn’ t just about the initial price tag; it’ s about the entire life cycle of the product, including maintenance, support and eventual disposal.
At AllPoints Fibre, we are reaching a point of maturity where TCO can no longer be ignored. Previously, our approach was quite tactical and ad hoc – people were buying what they needed to scale and transform as quickly as possible.
“ In our business, software was just becoming this really, really big, ugly beast. Nobody had ever factored in the contract value at the beginning versus the contract value four years later”
Courtney Rowlands Head of Category Procurement AllPoints Fibre
Now, we’ ve reached a scale where we have to look at the“ compounding” costs. It is no longer just the cost of the service; it is the additional add-ons that accumulate every few months.
Q. YOU MENTIONED SOFTWARE SPEND AS A SPECIFIC CHALLENGE. HOW HAS THAT EVOLVED?
» Software was becoming a big, ugly beast because the life cycle was driven purely by demand. We brought in a Category Manager for software specifically to look at this. We discovered that nobody had factored in the contract value at the start versus the value four years later.
We saw our software spend jump from £ 4 million or £ 5 million to £ 11 million. By looking at licensing structures and decommissioning unused services, we’ ve managed to bring those costs down.
procurementmag. com
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