Open Discussion this Friday on Indirect Spend

When I asked the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement LinkedIn group members to suggest topics for upcoming calls, there were a lot of requests pertaining to indirect spend. So, this Friday, the group’s July member conference call will be an open discussion on indirect categories (marketing and consulting will definitely be covered - if you have [...]

Agility rules in the New Normal

There’s more than one kind of agility. These days, agility is a key aspect in any discussion involving “The Cloud”. One of the primary benefits of the move to Cloud Computing is the ability to quickly respond to changing needs and disparate environments. However, it’s important to recognize that agility does not refer only [...]

Collaborative Question: “Should You Share Your Selection Criteria & Weightings With Suppliers?”

Charles Dominick, of Next Level Purchasing, recently posted a question to the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Group on LinkedIn that has been getting a LOT of attention: “Should you share your selection criteria and weightings with suppliers?” Needless to say, there are some very strong opinions for and against sharing this information. A few of the best answers [...]

Collaborate w/ peers: “How is the Gulf Oil Spill Impacting Supply Chains?”

I recently asked my fellow Strategic Sourcing & Procurement group members on LinkedIn for topics they’d like to cover on our monthly conference calls this summer. Lots of great ideas, but the one that caught my eye as an opportunity to have an immediate impact was the suggestion by a Supply Chain Analyst at a [...]

Digesting the June ISM Non-Manufacturing Index

The ISM NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) came in at 53.8, which is down from 55.4 in May. The Business Activity Index was 58.1, down from 61.1 in May, and New Orders was 54.4, down from 57.1 in May. The employment index came in at 49.7, slightly below the growth threshold of 50. Here are some bullet points about [...]

Does VAT factor into your spend management efforts? (video)

Robert Van Brederode of Ryan (a tax strategy firm that is an Ariba partner) shared his insights into the opportunity and risk posed by VAT at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam. Robert recommends that companies look beyond income tax since there is “too much money involved” in VAT and customs duties to ignore them. Justin Fogarty is [...]

Procurement Leaders’ Mark Perera on Managing Cash (video)

I caught up with Procurement Leaders‘ Mark Perera at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam earlier this month. A year after our first 2 interviews (Part 1 and 2) on working capital management, Mark gave us an update on managing cash trends, priorities and success stories. All of the interviews with attendees and speakers (about 40 videos) from Ariba [...]

Ariba LIVE: Behind the Scenes

As recounted here on Supply Excellence and on Ariba Exchange (as well as on Twitter — #aribalive), this Ariba Live season held a host of insights into how companies big and small and from all corners of the globe are buying better, selling more efficiently, and managing cash more intelligently. Yet, one of the best [...]

IACCM’s Tim Cummins on Contracts & Collaboration (video)

I had the good fortune of catching up with Tim Cummins, President of IACCM, at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam recently. Tim shared a few minutes of his time to talk about contracts and the role they’re playing in buyer/supplier collaboration. We’ll be posting more interviews with attendees and speakers from Amsterdam on the Ariba YouTube channel. So, [...]

15 Years of Reverse Auctions (video)

The Reverse Auction celebrates its 15th birthday this year (I know, they grow up so fast don’t they). At Ariba LIVE in Orlando recently, Harikrishnan Shankaranarayanan of Aegis Limited shared how their approach and results have evolved over the 10 years the company has been doing reverse auctions. Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence [...]

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