Agile Procurement

Janne Järvenoja, Director, Legal, Avanade, Finland

The contemporary state-of-art procurement is a well-organized, centralized, robust machine that gains benefits through ability to issue comprehensive RFP processes aiming, inter alia, for volume discounts. Through standardization, it is possible to compare proposals and costs, drive cost savings through higher volumes, and thus better bargaining power. It is easy to understand how company-wide solutions are easier and more cost efficient to maintain and manage than a set of solutions purchased by each unit or even individual employees. Considering the on-going demand for this contemporary-art of procurement, it may be fairly assumed that a large number of companies has some effort to do to reach a level that is currently considered as desired.

Avanade Inc. was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft to serve an untapped market for Microsoft-focused consulting services. The company provides IT services focused on the Microsoft platform for mid-sized to large enterprise organizations. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company has 70+ locations worldwide and employs more than 19,600 professionals. Today, Avanade is majority-owned by Accenture.