Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC), part of the wider UK Universities Purchasing Consortia (UKUPC), has recently updated its Procurement Maturity Assessment (PMA+).

The PMA+ programme has been hailed as a game-changer for procurement in the HE sector. Since the inception of the programme, over 100 institutions have taken part and there has been a continuous improvement of sector-wide scores in each category of assessment.

SUPC's PMA+ reviews where your organisation is now, and helps you to progress to where you want to be.

What is a PMA+?

A Procurement Maturity Assessment is an independent detailed assessment of your procurement activity. It provides you with a bespoke action plan for improvement, a baseline to measure improvements, and benchmark scores against similar organisations. 

What will a PMA+ help you do?

• Elevate the importance of procurement efficiency and effectivenessto your senior executive team.
• Make use of valuable reporting insights to show improvement over time, your position in the sector, and a clear improvement pathway.
• Drive qualitative input and engage with senior stakeholdersincluding Finance Directors and decision-makers behind major purchases in Estates, ICT, HR and all key areas of spend.
• Provide your Audit Committee with the assurance that your institution is meeting sector benchmarksand performing both effectively and efficiently.
• Demonstrate to the Office for Students that procurement best practice is delivering value to your institution and its beneficiaries including improving the focus on ethical and responsible procurement.
• Save time with a streamlined question set and Office 365 evidence submission platform that improves the process without compromising rigour.

What's new to the PMA+?

• Greater focus on Responsible Procurement and sustainability, allowing procurement to be an integral part of your university’s sustainability plans, and prioritising responsible procurement as part of your longer-term goals.
• Engage with your senior university stakeholders using the PMA+ to facilitate closer working relationships and aligned priorities across the wider organisation.
• Encouraging procurement to play a full commercial leadership role across your university and the wider sector, with improved PMA+ reporting to demonstrate your impactand support delivery of the corporate and procurement strategy.
• Streamlined and remote delivery processes, making it quicker and easier to gather evidence that supports the PMA+ scoring.

If you would like to know how the PMA+ can help your organisation, get in touch with SUPC’s team of experts here.