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Meet the Buyer - Vicky Horsfield

Blog
Vicky Horsfield
08 Sep 2017

Name: Vicky Horsfield
Position: Building Supplies and Ground Maintenance Buyer
How long have you been working at YPO: Nine months

What do you like most about working at YPO?

I love that the role is varied on a day to day basis, every day is different. From creating and managing frameworks to meeting customers, visiting suppliers and attending events. By engaging with and supporting both suppliers and customers I have the advantage of meeting and helping people from a wide variety of different roles and backgrounds. There is nothing more rewarding than the knowledge that you have genuinely helped a customer and made a difference to their workload.

What are your main responsibilities?

Under the category of building supplies and ground maintenance, to increase YPO’s framework portfolio by identifying opportunities and gaps in the marketplace based on customer requirements and implementing new agreements as a result. Managing the current frameworks under my remit, conducting timely reviews with suppliers to measure performance against contractual standards and performance expectations and continuously check that my suite of customers are happy.

Create interest in frameworks by spreading the awareness of the YPO frameworks and the benefits to customers, while establishing long term partnerships with both these customers and high performance suppliers based on quality, cost, delivery and responsiveness. Continuously encouraging best practice processes and compliancy with EU procurement rules. In a nutshell, my role is to widen the service available to our customers and in turn increase the YPO customer base.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

Knowing the right amount of support to provide to each customer and adapting my style to suit them so that the process runs smoothly between the customer, the supplier, and YPO. Every customer is different, some like to be closely guided when utilising our frameworks and assisted throughout the process, whereas others prefer to work independently and call on us only for advice when required. By ensuring customer satisfaction we are increasing the likelihood of these customers coming back!

Describe your role in three words

Exciting, challenging, and rewarding.

How did you get involved in procurement

I applied for the post of Purchase to Pay Assistant at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC). The authority were in the process of centralising their purchasing activity and the procurement department was therefore new, this along with other projects was a joint venture with BT and it was an exciting opportunity.

Tell us a bit about your procurement experience?

I can’t quite believe it, but this is my 14th year working within procurement. At RMBC I was a Purchase to Pay Assistant for a year before applying for the position of Procurement Analyst working alongside the buyers. I was in that role for four years and was then successful in obtaining the position as a buyer myself, which is what I have done ever since. Working within an authority has given me an understanding of the daily challenges that public sector procurement faces in terms of compliance, value for money, stakeholder engagement and a lot more. It goes without saying that this experience has helped me a great deal within my role at YPO, I once was a customer!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I have two young children that take up a lot of my spare time and I love that, I love my role as a mum. I also go to a weekly boxercise class and I have just signed up for the Doncaster 10k run. Not forgetting the weekly yoga class at YPO! Other than that I love shopping, films, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends.

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Author

Vicky Horsfield

Category Manager for Facilities Management

YPO