Meeting 6 - South Hants IT group - Procurement

17 July 2019

I was very excited about the joint CIPS and South Hants IT meeting, as a bit of an experiment to see how different audiences would interact, and I was not disappointed. We managed about 35 attendees, broadly split 50/50 between Procurement and Channel Sales people, and lots of interesting dialogue was had. No fights broke out, no-one got injured. Result!

I delivered an hour and a half of content explaining my views on Technology Procurement and how the interface between Sales and Procurement could be improved. From the front of the room I didn’t see anyone dozing off, which is always a good sign, and a big thank you to large percentage of the audience who participated with questions and debate, many of whom got free CIPS stress balls. For a relatively dry topic, it was really engaging and we still didn’t manage to conclude whether RFP’s were a good or a bad thing…..

Meeting 5 - South Hants IT group - Security

19 May 2019

This month’s instalment of the South Hants IT group managed 22 attendees, which considering it was the Pompey Playoffs and nice weather outside is still a good result. It was not by design that the Sunderland team were staying at the Solent Hotel and walked out of the hotel just before our meeting started, and I was nothing to do with the alleged disturbances the night before to put them off at the game. Didn’t work anyway…..

Many of the attendees this time were repeat attendees, and the mix of people in the room continues to inspire me to carry on with the project. Clearly the promise of Vegan Nibbles and Branded Cupcakes drew most of the crowd, and a big thanks to Blondies Bakery and V-Feast startup catering units for preparing said nibbles – again most of which were left behind. I need to get more fatties to our meetings.

CIPS? Why?

25 January 2019

After 20 years in IT, a number of my colleagues have asked why I’m so interested in Procurement as a function, and specifically what I am doing within the CIPS network. It probably does look a little odd from the outside, so I thought it would be interesting to try and explain. Happy to discuss if anyone wants to get in touch.

Meeting 4 - South Hants IT group - DevOps

16 March 2019

So, the experiment continues….. With 25 attendees at our May DevOps event, we continue to pull together a range of skills and industries within the technology competency to form beneficial relationships. It was great to see a couple of new apprentices from NATS and Safran, and this should be encouraged to develop the skills in the local area. A massive thank you to all of those who came along, but a slight disappointment in your abilities to eat the cakes as we had two boxes left…. Just disappointing.

Roland Harvey from Contino delivered an excellent presentation on DevOps, a difficult topic considering the breadth of understanding in the room. He had to deal with questions from deep techies, business people and Procurement chaps alike (sorry mate), and managed to keep it interesting and informative for which I am very grateful.

Meeting 3 - South Hants IT group

18 January 2019

Well, that exceeded my already optimistically high expectations! With about 35 people in the room, the social experiment of trying to bring a bunch of local IT people together to learn some stuff and get to know some stuff, and raise some money for charity, is really starting to take shape. A massive thank you to everyone who attended, especially those who travelled in from the outskirts of the “South Hants” area.

Meeting 6 - South Hants IT group - Procurement

Meeting 5 - South Hants IT group - Security

CIPS? Why?

Meeting 4 - South Hants IT group - DevOps

Meeting 3 - South Hants IT group

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