Most of our project work is long term and no projects have been pulled to date and our investment portfolio in new systems and projects remains constant and is unlikely to flex until 2010 at the earlyiest.

The general nature of the market place suggests that Demand for top calibre people with strategic skills remains and other than a few displaced contractors I have seen little evidence to date of the credit crunch effecting IT projects, undoubtedly investment decisions for future projects may be impacted but at the moment we have to get on and deliver what is already on the table.

Banks and the car companies are taking bail out money to keep a float, the banks do not want to lend money for fear of more heavy loses and the tax payer is effectively subsidizing their loses. Yet the banks still had the nerve to pay massive bonus payments to staff just before Christmas!, whats going on here a reality check is surely needed for the finance sector! The car company chiefs were dressed down in public , the same thing should happen to the bank heads. How can you a pay a performance bonus when these guys have screwed up big time?

The big question is what if everybody stops consuming because either they are out of work(displaced workers) or they have reached the max limit on there credit then we are in major trouble. Purchasing has had a part to play in this mess by continuing to out source manufacturing jobs to the East, no question of that , what they failed to recognize was that every time you displace a worker to the East you also displace a consumer ! So the short term gain is lost because the product that you are making so cheaply in the East fails to sell! Well guys that chicken has firmly come home to roost big time now where are you going to sell your product? I mentioned this issue back in 1998 to my boss at the time and everybody just simply ignored it and said we have to do it to survive!
Tax rebates direct into the consumers pocket are whats needed not cash going to the businesses, give it to the people the cash directly so they can spend on consumer products. The stimulus would have max effect that way, at the minute its getting diluted by going through third parties and they are using it to mitigate loses and save face with there shareholders. The oil and gas sector will be hit hard because it is capital intensive, the smaller oil exploration companies will not get funding and will go under no question of that or they will get purchased by the oil majors.
Its going to be a rough ride for ALL SECTORS of the economy, the over inflation of the economy was built on quick sand, the quick sand being credit.

These vacancies are mostly at the middle level (£35K to £45K), though more recently the senior manager director roles are visible again.

The most active sector is the the public sector with NHS heading that.

I think the public sector will also be impacted for the new financial as vacancy freezes arise rather than the less pallatable restructuring options

In the private sector, I wouild expect the main activty to be in interim and agency in certain less affected sectors – food and pharma

Rob Gillingwater

Cost Reduction programmes
Cost Containment strategy
Supplier Discovery
Procurement Strategy
Purchasing Policy & Procedures
Process improvement
EU Procurement advice
Tender Response
eProcurement (Purchase to pay)
eAuctions
eSourcing
Many organisations have excellent procurement strategies and practices in place for core or direct spend segments but do not have the resource or time to tackle its non core or indirect spend. This is where we can help with commodities and services such as: –

Temporary Labour
Energy
Fleet
Print
Distribution
Insurance
Protective Equipment
Telecommunications
Office Supplies & Machines
Building components

Partnerships and “Customer of Choice” positions will be crucial for the next 24 months.