Procurement Category Lead - BPO and Material Supplier Governance

at  Aspen Insurance Holdings

Date: Nov 11, 2024
Location: London, GB, EC3M 3BD
Company: Aspen Insurance
Since Aspen was founded in 2002, we have become a leading, diversified specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We respond thoughtfully and creatively to find the best outcomes for our clients and business partners through carefully-tailored solutions.
We believe the way we work is just as important as the work we do, and we are guided by our core values of respect, honesty, trust and professionalism.
Aspen is a great place to develop your career offering an exciting and challenging environment where achievement is rewarded.
The role:

Aspen operates a federated Procurement structure which aims to directly align Procurement support and expertise to the relevant business area whilst acting within a virtual practice group. This role is responsible for delivering across 5 main areas:

• Owning the Policy and Framework related to Material Outsource contract governance, advising on and monitoring compliance across all outsourced business services.
• Overseeing contract and commercial management for major non-IT outsourcing. This involves ensuring contract resilience, regulatory compliance, and alignment with local standards
• Owning the commercial delivery of the contract, working closely with both Supplier and the business to maximise contractual value and minimise risk
• Lead the procurement review and remarketing of BPO outsource contracts and act as an SME on material contract standards and minimum commercial considerations.
• Directly support Service Owners and Procurement Category Leads in defining and implementing consistent standards for service performance management and governance related to Material contracts.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy and Planning

• In conjunction with the Function Lead and Service Owners to define and execute the sourcing strategy for non-IT services, ensuring we maintain optimal partners for service delivery
• Lead on procurement supplier selection and contract negotiations, ensuring supply contracts are fit for business need
• Responsible for ensuring Service Owners derive the best contract value to the benefit of Aspen that minimises cost to serve, maximises cost synergies and process effectiveness
• Leads the “Partner” relationship with the non-ITO outsourcers to support issue identification and resolution. Act as a point of escalation for both parties and through influence and relationships, seeks resolution
• Liaise between the business and the outsourcers to identify and align on initiatives for the further delivery of contract value. These may support performance enhancement, efficiency delivery and further process migration
• Drive the Supplier to innovate services through sharing initiatives for service growth/automation and technology advancements
• Maintains a current knowledge of the Supplier offering in the market for BPO and the demographic of both delivery within the locality and across our industry peers.

Policy, Process and Procedures

• Responsible for the development, maintenance and execution of governance frameworks to ensure compliance with Aspen Group’s Procurement and Supplier Management regulatory requirements.
• Ensure regulatory changes are effectively reflected through the material outsourced contracts
• Ensure maintenance of internal standards related to process documentation and controls design
• Ensure execution of Third-Party supplier contractual obligations to optimise contract performance

Environmental Awareness/Customer Focus

• Work with functions to enhance and define governance. Support performance review meetings and ensure appropriate escalations through an effective hierarchy of reporting
• Coach and train Service Owners on effective Supplier Management and governance
• Monitor execution of the contract against Budget, Ensuring accuracy of invoicing and charging
• Ensure, through influence and governance (“soft power”), that both Service Owners and the Supplier are supported in optimising service outcomes. Wield “soft power” and instantly bring credibility through expertise and experience both within Aspen and the Outsourcer
• Develop value-add relationships with key business stakeholders such that an improved understanding of governance frameworks and best practice is promoted, effective decisions are made in collaboration with functions, and internal stakeholders are empowered to identify governance red flags
• Drive the Supplier to innovate the service based on business evolution and market standards
• Maintain a network of relationships to give access to market insights and latest innovations.

Technical Performance

• Provide technical expertise and experience to equally manage the contract, manage the commercials and build a strong network with the Outsourcers
• Support the Head of Group Operations, Resilience and Third-Party Oversight in the delivery of the strategic service management agenda, driving operational and process excellence across partners and throughout the organisation.

People Management

• Build and nurture relationships creating high levels of trust where parties can raise issues, feel supported and successful in their respective roles
• Provide strategic leadership, direction and support to operational management ensuring that end to end business processes are efficient and appropriately controlled.
• Adopt a culture and capability that effectively promotes management of strategic 3rd party partners to ensure the business is able to optimise existing and potential contract value and actively addresses sub-performance, building trusted relationships.

Skills & Experience:

• Successfully overseen the contracting and performance of a successful Outsource partnership
• Strong experience of overseeing the operation of an Indian based Supplier, including market, culture, and ways of working
• Experience of driving and enabling operational and process excellence Experience of setting and baselining SLA’s and KPI’s
• Experience of service recovery and improvement
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to build relationships and trust at all levels with internal customers.
• A consultative approach to working with our suppliers/ partners and address any commercial issues that arise.
• Analytical mindset, but also creativity to seek, encourage and find non-traditional approaches.
• Ability to persuade, influence and negotiate both directly and indirectly
• Ability to analyse and use data for decision making
• Able to communicate effectively orally and in writing
• Able to produce detailed reports at various levels
• Strategic and innovative thinker
• Strong reasoning capabilities-creative and lateral thinking, with strong problem-solving skills

At Aspen we know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is good for our people, good for our business and good for the environments in which we operate. We therefore welcome applications from people which allows us to draw on diverse cultures, perspectives, skills and experiences.

• Owning the Policy and Framework related to Material Outsource contract governance, advising on and monitoring compliance across all outsourced business services.
• Overseeing contract and commercial management for major non-IT outsourcing. This involves ensuring contract resilience, regulatory compliance, and alignment with local standards
• Owning the commercial delivery of the contract, working closely with both Supplier and the business to maximise contractual value and minimise risk
• Lead the procurement review and remarketing of BPO outsource contracts and act as an SME on material contract standards and minimum commercial considerations.
• Directly support Service Owners and Procurement Category Leads in defining and implementing consistent standards for service performance management and governance related to Material contracts