About Us
Welcome to Procurement Online.
Let’s rewind to the 1980s – Typewriters were being replaced by word
processors and in 1983 a certain Microsoft Word first came to the market. The world was a sea of floppy disks, cubicle desks and shoulder pads. Fax machines and brick sized mobile phones were cutting edge technology. Business was booming.
Air travel was getting cheaper and if need be, you could fly from London to New York in the same time it took to drop the kids at school, do the weekly shop and put a load of washing on. The feeling at the time was that we lived in a truly amazing era.
Although much of this technology has improved significantly, the WAY that we work hasn’t really changed. Simply put, we go to the office for a set number of hours and get paid for it, regardless of how productive we are. Employers don’t get the best out of their staff and we as employees have to build our lives around work – not really the best outcome for anyone.
The irony is that we have the tools to work in a better way, without compromising the quality of our work.
What’s the idea behind Procurement Online?
My background is major oil and gas projects, where it’s fairly common to work between multiple geographical locations. A typical day might be getting to the office for 8am to have a meeting with South Korea, followed by a late afternoon call with New Delhi, rounded off with an online presentation to Houston at 5pm. What happens in between?? I’ll tell you..
Head down to Starbucks for a coffee, bump into James. ‘How’s the little one, feeling better?’ 45 minutes later, back to desk to check some emails. Forgot to have breakfast, let’s pop out and get something quick to eat. Tax return is due next week and I haven’t completed my forms. It’s valentines day, lets check out Gumtree etc.etc.
My question was always, if I can work between South Korea and the UK on a daily basis, why can’t I work from home? OR if I finish my work to the required standard, why can’t I go early and spend that extra hour with my family? What about bad weather or a train strike?
This is so frustrating because these issues are so common – and yet we still refuse to fast-forward to 2020 and use a format more suitable to life in… you guessed it, 2020. At Procurement Online we aim to challenge the traditional structure of exchanging your time for money. We propose a work and payment structure based on deliverables and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – this is how large companies operate. For every task or document you complete, you get paid a lump sum. Best of all, the whole platform is based online so you can work whenever and wherever you want. Make work suit your life rather than the other way round.
Time is the only commodity we can’t get back
Having a young family, I am very aware of how much free time I don’t have. Throw work into the mix and we have at least two key components of my life that require my full attention and require me to give my best every day. Throw friends, aging parents, an old car and Tuesday night’s salsa class into the mix and time becomes very tight.
What if you could save 5 hours a week in travel, 5 hours a week on coffee breaks and 10 hours a week on general procrastination? What if you no longer had to sit on the M25 for an hour and a half, while your wife curses you because you won’t be back for dinner or bath time?
Now imagine you’re working on your own time and could dedicate yourself with no interruptions. You can fully immerse yourself in the task and not have to worry about overhearing Simon blab about what happened in yesterday’s episode of Game of Thrones. Instead of taking your allotted 8 hours to complete the task, you do it in 6 and can now go to the hairdresser to get those roots done – result.
Our Vision
For many the dream is to retire on a beach somewhere and drink cocktails all day without a care in the world. This is great for all of a month, then as with all repetitive tasks boredom creeps in. As human beings we need a bit if structure, something we can get our teeth into and be proud of, something we can do to improve the world around us. With a few cocktails sprinkled in of course.
You don’t have to give up your career to enjoy flexible working life – we truly believe you can have the best of both worlds.
The vision is to create a community of procurement specialists who can be contracted out to major projects individually or as a team. If additional training is required we can provide it, if the community has questions, we can help each other.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help out.
All the best,
Pete
Founder of Procurement Online