Taking the Procurement profession to the next level together

Inside Procurement is the knowledge network for procurement, contract, and supply management. In this community, professionals and experts share knowledge, skills, experiences, and other valuable information. The community platform was launched by Nevi, the association focused on the procurement profession.

Not just a ‘platform’

“Inside Procurement is not just a ‘platform.’ Inside Procurement is a real and close-knit community. I see many Procurement Professionals returning every day, to ask or answer questions, or to share news.”, writes community manager Harold Kip in a detailed blog in the Inside Procurement platform (click the “Translate to English” button to read it in English).

The benefits of Nevi’s community:

• Public – openly accessible (excluding closed groups) to anyone interested in the procurement profession.
• Find solutions to procurement issues faster, more efficiently, and better.
• Free of cost and free of advertising and spam (through Single Sign-On).

Heading in the right direction

“The Inside Procurement platform is becoming quite successful in the world of procurement, contract, and supply management,” says Harold. “And that’s very nice to see. Because it was quite exciting in the run-up to the launch; we put money into it and then it’s still a question of whether we will earn it back somewhere.”

“You know: the ROI story,” Harold continues. “And I see that we are moving in the right direction. We don’t make any money from Inside Procurement (yet), but I do see very clear savings on the horizon. That’s also nice to see. Because that is a business case.”

A broad target group

“Everything we do in Inside Procurement is not aimed solely at our members,” says Harold. “Our mission is to take the procurement profession to the next level. For the individual, for organizations, and for society.”

“So, if you broaden that, you can’t limit yourself to the six thousand paying members that Nevi has: you have to involve the entire procurement community. That’s why Inside Procurement is a public community, with a few exceptions of closed groups. Anyone who works in procurement or is interested in it can join Inside Procurement.”

There are around 50,000 Procurement Professionals in the Netherlands, of which about 1,750 have joined Inside Procurement after a year. That number is still increasing: every month, dozens of new participants join, sharing knowledge, answering questions, sharing documents, and/or reading the latest news.

Cost savings

To make Inside Procurement a success, Harold spoke to six Business Unit Managers at Nevi. He asked them what they had to earn money with and where they had to save costs. “After those conversations, I had 12 objectives that I could translate into Inside Procurement.”

“One of them told me that his team had a lot of work facilitating all the volunteers who organize Nevi events. They wanted to make that as much self-service as possible so that they could focus on other important things instead of arranging ad-hoc matters at such an event.” The solution lay in the special events page. It is now fully self-service. “It’s one of the ways to achieve cost savings.”

99% Community-driven

“We promised our community that we wouldn’t spam them with training and education. After all, we already have nevi.nl for that. In fact, for Nevi employees, it is “forbidden” to post messages or engage in conversation, unless it is truly opportune. For example, if it is specifically asked for. Inside Procurement is truly 99% community-driven. And we are very happy and proud of that.”