Procurement can be incredibly variable in its workload. Some weeks we’re running flat out with multiple contract signatures, RFPs due, and technical evaluations completing ready for the next step. Some weeks are quieter with RFPs in flight, technical teams going through proposals, and contracts waiting on legal review. Over the years, I’ve found that both as an employee and for my main clients, summer tends to be a little quieter. While we always have things to do, the summer months when everyone around us is on vacation can crawl by, with only busywork to keep us moving. This is especially true with e-auctions, because the e-auction only happens once the technical team has completed its evaluation, RFP responses are gathered and analyzed, and sometimes even after the legal team has reviewed the contract redlines. In the summer, at least one of those key people is on vacation every week, and so it takes a while until the e-auction team is active again. What is a procurement professional to do? For today’s article, let’s talk about working through the ebb of procurement work that tends to happen in the summer, and how to spend time in a way that moves your work and business forward.
Take a Vacation
This feels like a very silly option to put on this list, but it needs saying for many of us in the US. If your work is quiet, everyone around you is on vacation, and you have the vacation time available, take a vacation! Research shows that almost a quarter of US workers took none of their vacation, and almost half didn’t take all of their vacation time given by their employer. I am among those who don’t take enough vacation time (only exacerbated since I now own my company!), so consider this permission in case you need someone to give it. Take your vacation time while it’s quiet.
Side Note: I’m not talking about jobs that don’t give vacation time here, that’s a whole other issue and also makes me grumpy, but is not the common situation for procurement professionals.
Data Analysis
I am a data wonk, it’s true. You might not be, but that doesn’t mean you can’t look at some data and draw some conclusions. With AI tools at our fingertips, you can try prompts as simple as, “tell me what trends you see in this data” for your RFP or E-auction tracking sheet. Ask what made an RFP or e-auction successful or unsuccessful. Consider even running it through multiple AI/LLM systems if you have that access, but be careful about data confidentiality and what your company approves. If there are metrics you’ve always wanted to gather information on, now is the time. If you have upcoming bids where you need to gather quantity data (like by combing through invoices or digging through multiple ERP systems), now is a good time.
Review Training and Reporting
Reviewing training for your role is always on the list of things to review; what do you wish you had known when you first started? What super-secret cheat sheet did you make yourself that could be incorporated into the training for your role? If you’re a process map person, does your role have a process map and would it benefit from one? The thing about a process map is it’s a critical piece of implementing AI, changing ERP systems, or really doing any kind of software update. Rather than having a process map of your role due in chaotic November ahead of a January implementation, start it now.
Related to reviewing training, review reporting. Procurement is notorious for doing a LOT of reporting on various metrics; to finance, the business units, and even within procurement. Quiet times are a time to review if those reports are actually valuable to the reader, if they answer the questions that reader is asking, or even if the intended reader opens that report. I’ve been in multiple roles where I spent a significant amount of time building reports that I wasn’t even sure who read them, what value they got out of them, or if they focused on the right questions. Every metric reported should answer a question or an objection. If internal customers are objecting to how long a bid takes, tracking procurement turnaround times may be useful. Or better yet, give customers visibility to where a bid is in the process, who it’s waiting on, and why it’s “stuck.” (Every time I’ve done this, technical teams have discovered they’re the bottleneck…)
Review Annual Goals
You’re probably either nearing the end of your fiscal year or you’re smack in the middle of your year. How are your goals doing? Did you read that business book you said you’d read? Did you attend that training? Have you written up your notes from them so you’re ready with the “Yes, I did that” come annual review time? How are your savings/contract/timing/bid goals doing? You still have time to get them on track if you take a moment and figure out what you need to do so. If you lead a team, is there someone who is burning out and needing help? I’ve said it before, but burnout is not when we have too much to do. People in burnout mode often still go home and volunteer for hours at nonprofit organizations or do a myriad of other activities instead of simply staring at a wall. Burnout is when people are doing too many of the tasks they hate. Patrick Lencioni would call these tasks outside of their zone of genius. Does someone in your team love spreadsheets and hate calling suppliers who can swap those tasks with someone who is the opposite? Teamwork means the team succeeds, not that everyone does every part of their own bids.
Part of this topic: Did you know in large companies with a calendar fiscal year, your boss probably starts looking at your annual review/raise/bonus in August? Because a board has to approve things during their Q4 review and large companies have a LOT of paperwork that goes into annual reviews, chances are good your boss is doing that work earlier than you might think. While it shouldn’t be this way, human nature does care about how recently someone made an impression and good performance in August just might impact your whole year.
Build Relationships
Procurement is about relationships. Not just supplier relationships, but internal relationships with our key stakeholders. This might mean a casual catch-up lunch or coffee (virtual or in person depending on proximity), but it also might mean digging a little deeper. What is your customer worried about? Are they meeting their goals? How can you help? In addition, look at what you’ve accomplished for the business that helps add to revenue, not just decreasing costs. Did a marketing bid lead to a stronger sales funnel and more customer conversions? Did an infrastructure build increase revenue in that area? Procurement gets stuck in the trap that we don’t affect revenue, and we have to change that perception. Go hunting for revenue impacts from your team and then build on them. Bonus points for building some kind of case study or 2-slide powerpoint on it that can serve as an executive summary and help procurement improve your image within the company.
Educate Yourself in AI
There are lots of resources out there on AI in procurement, an afternoon on YouTube watching videos implementing Agentic AI might not be the worst use of time. Even better, if you already have access to an AI building software, see if you can become the resident expert on how to build a bot to streamline POs, detect contract leakage, etc. Related to this, ask yourself about any company debt stopping you from implementing AI and see what you can do to clear it (details found in my article here).
Work Ahead
Do something that will make your future self thank you. This might mean pulling out the previous scope of work for a bid you know you need to re-run this fall. Or it might mean building a complicated pricing schedule in your Source-to-pay software based on what your previous contract looked like. Think about the task that future, frantic you will be most grateful is already done and do it as much as you can. (Then in the fall, thank your past self for doing it!)
If you’d like to talk about your tasks while it’s quiet, or anything else, let’s chat. If you’d like to get these articles weekly straight to your inbox and never miss one, sign up for my newsletter.
My book, Transform Procurement: The Value of E-auctions is available in ebook, paperback and even hardcover format: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F79T6F25
My chapter in the powerful anthology Femme Led: Hard-Learned Lessons from Women in Leadership is now available in ebook and paperback format: https://a.co/d/0bOzma8F
