“The Institute for Purchasing and Supply (IPSA) has been growing from strength to strength over the last number of years and is continuously improving its capacity in terms of service offerings to the extent that it had to increase infrastructure and resources to accommodate the recent growth” IPSA CEO, Marius Bosman, told Smart Procurement.
IPSA is currently looking into and developing several projects such as
the “ISAPA” (Institutes of Southern Africa Academy with CIPS inside)
Project and the “IPSA Pan African Awards”, to name but a few. They are
further looking forward to take advantage of the other numerous
challenges in the marketplace.
Currently, organisations are relying on procurement and supply chain managers to lead the way, especially now with the fuel prices rising, inflation on the up, possible electricity rate hikes, and even load shedding. Exchange rate hikes with the weaker Rand against the important currencies such as the US, Euro and British Pound does not soften the blow either. The alarming part is that these are only some of the many factors influencing P&SM at the negotiation table. It is for these reasons that it is important for procurement and supply management professionals to prepare themselves to cope with these challenges.
IPSA, with its newly formed collaborative agreement with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), as well as several other educational institutions, is better equipped to take up these challenges and make sure that you are sufficiently prepared in terms of knowledge and skills to cope with the ever increasing demands in the marketplace. Keeping abreast of continued education and training is the only way to raise your personal profile to the levels of competency required by the marketplace and for you to live up to expectations of the company you work for.
IPSA and CIPS (UK) entered into a collaborative agreement in 2007 to deliver the Integrated Capability Capacity Procurement Programme (ICCPP) for Public Sector Procurement. The initial roll-out was to State Owned Enterprises (SOE) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, working in conjunction with the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) of South Africa.
ICCP contains three elements, namely the On-line Academy (ISAPA), organisational interventions and supporting DPE’s SADC roll-out strategy for ISAPA. As a result, IPSA had to re-focus its operations to launch ISAPA and to this effect, have recently appointed two new team members and created a new post, namely:
Chief Executive Officer: Marius Bosman
Marius has many years experience in procurement and supply management in different mining houses and has close links with both the public and private sectors.
He worked as Manager: Supply Chain Development at Exxaro Coal. Before that he was the Group Procurement Manager for Eyesizwe Coal.
Marius has been involved in the Procurement and Supply environment for more than twenty years and led the organising of the first IFPSM (International Federation of Purchasing and Supply) World Conference that was held in South Africa during 2001.
Marius started in his role as CEO of IPSA on Friday, the 1st of February 2008.
New Operations Officer: ISAPA: Itumeleng Msibi
Itumeleng worked for the Financial and Accounting SETA. Her role at IPSA will be to support the Programme Manager and to be responsible for the effective implementation of operational issues of the program. Itumeleng also took up her responsibilities on the 1st February 2008.
New Programme Manager: ISAPA: (Vacant)
The Program Manager’s responsibilities include the development and effective implementation of the ISAPA Program.
For the first time in the history of IPSA and the Procurement and Supply Management environment in Southern Africa, IPSA launched the competition during the first quarter of this year and the first Awards ceremony will take place on the 19 May 2008 at 18h30. The awards function will be hosted at the Emperors Convention Centre and details to attend have been published on the IPSA website. Due to the outstanding interest shown, we will definitely repeat the event next year. It is further envisaged that the competition will become an annual event and we invite all our members to start focussing and prepare their entries for the competition which will be held during the first quarter of 2009 and the awards function during May 2009. This promises to be a prestigious event where performers in the Purchasing and Supply Management environment can gain public recognition for their efforts. IPSA will enter the winner of each category in the Logistics Achievers Awards and the CIPS Supply Management Awards, respectively.
Award Categories:
- Best cross-functional teamwork project.
- Best people development initiative.
- Best process improvement initiative.
- Best purchaser-supplier relationship.
- Best public procurement project.
Entry forms are available on the IPSA website: www.ipsa.co.za
It is with great pleasure that we confirm the annual event offered by IPSA.
The theme for the 2008 Conference is: “Procurement in the Global Marketplace – Opportunities & Challenges”.
The event promises to attract delegates from a wide audience from Southern Africa as well as from abroad. Some of the speakers at the Conference, including International speakers, are:
- Dr. Bola Afolafi: CIPS Vice President.
- Ms. Sillia Maisey: Director of Corporate and Social Responsibility, British Airways.
- Mr. Neil Deverill: Neil Deverill Associates Ltd.
- Mr. David Noble: Global Supply Chain Director, IMI PLC.
- Mr. Ian Taylor: Director Procurement, UK Dept Children, Schools & Families.
- Mr. Will Parsons: Managing Director Supply Chain Training and Development.
The full program, fee structure and registration forms are available on the IPSA website: www.ipsa.co.za
