Purchasing Analyst
Purchasing Analyst jobs
The procurement operation of any company will play a huge part in its costs, and therefore its profits and stability, so it is not something that can be left to chance. The purchasing analyst will be in charge of gathering data from various sources within a company and using the data to create precise performance charts to be viewed by key decision makers within the company. The quality of forecasting and the ability to spot areas where major savings can be made will be at least partly dependent upon the ability of the purchasing analyst to glean the most appropriate data from what could be a highly complex set of statistics.
The role will involve two very different but equally important lines of communication open: with people and with the digital resources. They should form close relationships with every manager and buyer who has direct contact with the materials or goods that are part of his or her remit in order to get a better feel for the direction the purchasing operation is taking and catch wind of any plans for the future that could affect the business, as well as to find out how any plans that have stemmed from their own analysis are going.
The digital channels will be the conduits to the raw data on which he or she will be basing the analysis, and thus a full understanding of the system(s) being used will be required. All members of the purchasing team and the purchasing analyst should be fully synchronised when it comes to using the computerised systems, and the analyst should be able to access any critical information held in them.
The skills required
Much of what the purchasing analyst does will be carried out at the computer, so he or she should be extremely competent at computing, particularly in extracting data from disparate sources and manipulating them to create meaningful analytical calculations. They should also be able to represent these data in clear ways, be it in figures and tables or graphically, using slide presentations and such like.
The whole range of interpersonal skills will be required to do the job effectively, so purchasing analysts will need to be as good at listening and absorbing information as they are at relaying their calculations and findings to the relevant parts of the company. On their data much of the company’s finances rest, so just as important as the accuracy of the figures will be the ability to clearly communicate them.
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