Category management in practice

Stop buying per request. Send per category, with a plan that goes beyond the next contract.

Category management in practice is the two-day advanced training of the Supply Value Academy, in which buyers and category managers learn to manage a purchasing category: from spend and market analysis through category strategy to a category plan with a concrete value agenda. The training is intended for purchasing professionals with several years of experience and uses each participant’s own category as a common thread.

Why this training

When you send in categories instead of requests, you suddenly see the whole playing field: the spend, the market, the risks and the opportunities that you never capture in a single transaction. That’s the difference between buying and category management.

In two days you build the category plan for your own category. Analysis on day one, strategy and value agenda on day two, and in between the skill that makes the plan come to life: telling the story to the budget holders and the management team.

You can do this afterwards

  • You analyze a category thoroughly: spend, contracts, market, suppliers, and internal needs.
  • You determine an appropriate strategy for each category, ranging from bundling and standardization to partnership.
  • You build a category plan with a concrete value agenda: savings, risks, sustainability and innovation.
  • You present the plan in such a way that budget holders and management want to be involved in it.

Target group

Buyers, senior buyers and (new) category managers who manage or will manage one or more categories. Also highly recommended as an in-house program in which a purchasing team goes through all the core categories at once.

Prior knowledge: several years of purchasing experience; the Inkoop Green Belt covers category management as part of the learning path; this training delves into this topic for two days.

Program

  • Spend analysis as a starting point: what do you give away, and to whom?
  • Market analysis: power relations, trends and the question of who needs whom
  • Internal analysis: needs, contracts and the stakeholders of your category
  • Workshop session: the facts base of your own category plan
  • Choosing and combining category strategies, appropriate to the portfolio position
  • The value agenda: making savings, risk reduction, sustainability and innovation concrete
  • The category plan in one A3: structure, substantiation and decision question
  • Pitch to the group, with feedback from the trainer and colleagues in the field

Trainer

The training is given by senior procurement consultants from Supply Value who create and implement category plans for public and private clients. The sample plans come from their own practice, anonymized but lifelike.

Frequently asked questions

The Green Belt is the broad learning path in which category management is one of the building blocks. This training focuses entirely on the category plan itself for two days. Green Belt alumni often use the training as a refresher for their own category.

Yes. Category management is now standard practice in the Dutch government and large implementation organizations; the training explicitly addresses the public context, including the relationship with tendering schedules and CSR goals.

Practical information

€ 1,395 p.p., excluding VAT

€ 3,950 per group per day (up to 8 participants; hall and catering provided by the client)

Duration
2 training days, preferably with a two-week interval (with analysis assignment)
Next date
21 October 2027
Location
Zeist (office), another location by arrangement, or in-house at your location
Training format
Open registration and in-house
Educational level
HBO/WO
Group size
Maximum of 12 participants
Study tax
Training days plus approximately 2 hours of preparation per day
Language
Dutch
Certificate
Certificate from the Supply Value Academy
Sector focus
All sectors
Bookability
Open registration according to the scheduled dates. Without scheduled dates, the training can only be booked in-house.
Included
Training material, certificate and lunch
Payment
Invoice immediately after registration; payment term 14 days

Prices exclude VAT · free cancellation up to 4 weeks in advance

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Start learning

Check the start dates and sign up.

Check the start dates and sign up. Want to examine all the core categories with your team at once? Request an in-house proposal.

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