Purchasing Manager IT

Purchasing Manager IT

As Purchasing Manager IT, you will be responsible for IT suppliers that are mainly categorized within the IT Purchasing sub-categories Medical Applications as well as Middleware and Operating Systems, supporting Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Platform at end-customers.

You will manage those IT suppliers, whether they have a global or regional/local coverage, by identifying strategic procurement opportunities within their respective sub-categories, underpinned by qualitative and quantitative analysis to support the formation and execution of such strategies resulting in superior cost and performance.

Your role has both upstream and downstream strategic responsibilities, including engagement with thought leaders, developing positioning and supporting the planning and execution of content along the end-customer buying cycle, foster strong peer relationships with various key business group leads.

As Purchasing Manager IT you are responsible for:

• Leading all supplier-related issues in the solution development, implementation and maintenance cycle for Enterprise Imaging, focusing on innovation by pursuing new technologies and vendors, working closely together with Product Management, R&D, Customer Operations, Finance, different Regions worldwide, ….;
• Scouting IT suppliers within the Medical Applications as well as Middleware and Operating Systems categories, based upon the identified functionalities, selecting suppliers, creating RFP’s and scorecards according to the guidelines imposed by regulators (FDA,…);
• Executing a sourcing strategy, including the introduction of future solutions, innovation, new products and suppliers;
• Analyzing the market dynamics and supply base for each commodity, including supplier cost structure and drivers, economic improvement levers, and major trends;
• Negotiating the contract, monitoring its accurate implementation amongst the stakeholders, at a worldwide level, according to the Agfa standards;
• Meeting all the QDC objectives (Quality-Delivery-Cost) and Service for all projects, reporting its progress;
• Participating on the management team and other committees addressing the strategic goals of the organization.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Minimum of 5 years international purchasing experience in industries where IT is critical to the business (HealthCare/Medical, Software companies, Banking, Telecom, etc.);
• Preferably a Master degree in Computer Science and/or Management Science or equivalent through experience, e.g. experience in an hospital IT environment, SW IT;
• Solid experience in negotiating and setting-up software agreements;
• Ability to understand the consequences of negotiation and/or contracting decisions.
• Analytical skills, ability to process complex issues and perform sound, objective, data-based analysis to draw logical conclusions. E.g. Pricing analysis, business analysis, mitigating risks
• Project management skills, able to deliver scope within time and budget, mitigating risks professionally;
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, including the proven ability to network and build cross cultural relationships in a complex, global environment;
• Business sense;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Solid knowledge of English, any other language is an asset.

Location: Mortsel, Belgium

About Purchasing HealthCare CoGS:

Purchasing HealthCare CoGS (Cost of Goods Sold) is embedded within Corporate Affairs within Agfa HealthCare, and is responsible for the on-boarding and management of suppliers that are accounted for in the Cost of Goods Sold of the Enterprise Imaging Platform that Agfa HealthCare markets and deploys globally. Hence, the type of Purchasing is Direct Purchasing.

The CoGS supplier landscape is comprised of a broad range of IT suppliers, covering Hardware, Software, Professional Services, Support Services, Hosting Services, Public Cloud,… which constitute a full IT stack complementing and supporting the Enterprise Imaging Platform at the end customer. In that respect, the type of agreements/relationships are in the realms of OEM, Reseller, Sales Agent, …

The Purchasing HealthCare CoGS team ensures that the IT suppliers are qualified and controlled in a manner that is aligned with the quality and business risk of the supplied products and/or services.

The team’s mission is to increase the value brought by suppliers to Agfa HealthCare, both for the current product range but also for new solutions of products and services.

The performance and quality of Agfa offerings of products and services in general is a key contributor to revenue and profit enhancement. A significant portion of this performance and quality is linked to suppliers' performance and needs to be managed as upstream as possible.

You will be part of a global team, based in Belgium and in the US, comprised of seasoned IT purchasing professionals that have the responsibility of making sure that the supplier landscape remains best-of-fit to the business needs. Each team member covers one or more specific IT Purchasing Sub-categories (Clinical Applications, Medical Applications, Middleware and Operating Systems, Hardware, Services, Cloud).