User:Kayleighryan/The Procurement Intelligence Unit

The Procurement Intelligence Unit (PIU) is a market intelligence provider for the procurement function. The company is structured to provide intelligence services for both the Executive and Operational levels of the function, supporting CPOs and their teams. Its core services include online daily market intelligence, strategic research and continuous improvement tools, and a full programme of peer networking activities.

The PIU headquarters are based in London, which covers its global and European remit. It also has a base in New York serving North America and a Sydney Office covering the Asia-Pacific region.

History
The PIU was created in July 2009 by Mark Perera, co-founder of the IPAC award-winning Procurement Leaders Network (PLN) and publisher of the multi-award-winning Procurement Leaders magazine.

Perera founded Sigaria, the holding company for PLN (or European Leaders in Procurement, as it was known at the time) in 2004 with Alex Martinez and Richard Pope. Increasing demand for specialist procurement research and benchmarking from PLN’s members highlighted a gap in the market, which subsequently led to the birth of the PIU and the phrase ‘Procurement Intelligence’. Perera’s idea was to create a “Bloomberg for procurement”, centralising and commoditising buying intelligence for procurement teams across multiple topics and categories. Initially, the PIU acted solely as a shared intelligence provider, but in October 2010 a bespoke intelligence service was launched, responding to client requests for niche, sensitive research. Following this, July 2010 saw the release of the PIU’s Procurement GPS web-based tool.

Sigaria currently acts as the holding company for both the Procurement Intelligence Unit and the Procurement Leaders Network.

Shared Intelligence
The PIU’s shared Intelligence offering provides a centralised intelligence resource for corporate procurement professionals. The shared model is drawn from member needs and provides subscribers with access to insight on the latest trends, market drivers, benchmarks and best practice at both Executive and Operational levels. Analysis is primarily provided by in-house and onshore analysts, supported by a network of senior associates. The PIU’s shared intelligence is delivered through a fully categorised web portal, delivering a high volume of focused content created around key member priorities. Content includes market insight articles, category studies, supplier market studies, technology reports, risk reports, case studies and white papers. The shared model also provides solutions to member challenges via a programme of online and offline activities and events, enabling members to share their solutions and challenges in a secure, corporate-only forum.

Bespoke Intelligence
The PIU's bespoke intelligence is a separate service catering to the custom, specific or sensitive intelligence requirements of its customers. Its hybrid model aims to deliver the quality insight of a management consultancy firm, but from a fully independent viewpoint, while leveraging the efficiencies of offshore research support.

GPS
The Procurement GPS was developed after 30 years of academic research and operational testing by Dr Ian George. It is a web-enabled toolset and methodology that helps procurement teams to assess current and required capabilities in order to meet explicit business objectives. Organisations that use GPS have generated over £2 billion of savings to date.

Events
The PIU hosts a range of worldwide events including roundtables, conferences, workshops and webinars on a variety of topics for CPOs, their senior leadership teams and category managers.

Membership
Membership of the PIU works on an annual subscription or licensed basis, depending on the service line. Membership grants access to the relevant functions.

Current PIU members come from a range of industries, including:
 * Financial Services
 * Oil and Gas
 * Pharmaceuticals
 * Telecommunications
 * Retail
 * Food Processing
 * Recruitment
 * FMCG
 * Manufactoring
 * Public Sector
 * Media and Publishing