In one sense, you can never devote too much time and attention to your professional development. On the other hand, since most of us have overcommitted schedules, it is important to prioritize and be selective with your professional development plans.

An offering worth your attention is the Professional Development Seminar Series offered by the Center for Value Chain Research (CVCR) at Lehigh University. These live, in-person seminars address topics that are relevant to today's managers and executives.

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I wrote a piece awhile back about companies like Groupon, organizations that e-mail out a daily deal for local businesses to attract customers. The variety is endless: one day you'll get a deal at the Gap, one day half-off margaritas, sometimes a free entrée when you buy another one. It's good stuff -- but how often do these deals go to waste?

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Cloud vs. licensed?

Puridiom Tackles the Great Procurement Debate -- Cloud vs. Licensed -- Puridiom makes both. Should more companies move in this direction, instead of choosing one over the other?

Brush up on your...Windows 7.

Procurement jobs: Windows 7 migration pressure to create demand for IT services -- Those in procurement jobs may find themselves in action in 2011 and 2012, when Gartner predicts there will be a shortage of highly-qualified Windows 7 migration personnel. Demand for these contractors is expected to exceed supply over the next two years, which could also increase higher procurement service rates.

I'm equally mystified by Windows 7.

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What's happened this year, and where are we going? From the (disastrous) release of the iPhone 4 to many new sourcing solutions -- not to mention advancement in the legal realm, as attorneys look for jobs in procurement -- it's been a year ripe with innovation: both good and bad.

A Technology Revolution: Where is the Spend Management Technology Market Going? (Part 1)

How Much Can Demonstrations Teach You About a Solution? (Part 1)

How Much Can Demonstrations Teach You About a Solution? (Part 2)

How Much Can Demonstrations Teach You About a Solution? (Part 3)

Citigroup's Bundle.com: A Spending and Saving Social Networking Site

Using "The Google"

Finally, Graduating Lawyers are Considering a Profession That Benefits Society: Procurement

Open Government: A Year Later, and How Do We Use It? -- A Technologist's Viewpoint

- Sheena Moore

In August, IBM continued down its well-paved acquisition path by adding yet another vendor into its software portfolio. Datacap, a technology provider focusing on content and document data capture, entry and management, marks the latest organization to join the Big Blue application borg. According to Managing Automation's analysis of what IBM gets out of the deal, "Datacap's portfolio includes a broad sweep of applications, from document and invoice scanning and processing to records management." In the data scanning/OCR area within invoice automation, Datacap competed in a crowded market against providers with greater share including Basware, Kofax, Ariba and numerous other providers, nearly all of whom had a broader payables process footprint that extended and integrated more tightly into the purchasing, invoicing and payment processes.

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In the first post in this series looking at Pool4Tool, a European-based e-sourcing provider now expanding into the US market, I provided an overview of the company's background, architecture/technology stack and solution approach -- not to mention how they differentiate themselves from the e-sourcing pack. I'll continue this analysis today by immediately diving into some of the modular capabilities of their solution -- especially those that make Pool4Tool stand out from the crowd.

Perhaps first I'll point out that on a user level, several of Pool4Tool's capabilities might seem like overkill for a typical procurement team member focused on indirect and not exposed to complex direct -- or even indirect, actually -- categories requiring significant stakeholder input, feedback and hand holding. Yet experienced sourcing resources and functional business owners will immediately see upon demoing the Pool4Tool product how important these specific capabilities are.

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We all tend be such number junkies at times that we forget or ignore the concept of 'statistical significance'. Price indices rise slightly, savings dip, employment figures get skewed by temporary census taking job loss, spending rises ever so slightly and so on. Yet we crave the data no matter how absurd it may be to draw conclusions from it.

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Print production: my old stompin' grounds.

The State of the Printed Magazine Supply Chain in a "Digital World" -- The prediction of the demise of the printed magazine is extremely premature. Why? Because the printed magazine supply chain has evolved through innovations and collaboration throughout the supply chain. However, there remains a couple of huge issues that can make all of the progress achieved a moot point.

Where do you overspend?

NPI Identifies Top Areas of Supply Chain Overspending in 2010 -- NPI, a spend management services firm focused on delivering supply chain savings, has identified the top areas of overspending for today's supply chain organizations in three categories: transportation, technology and telecom, and energy. Based on a mid-year review of spending trends and supplier pricing, NPI estimates that today's manufacturers, distributors and retailers will overspend more than $415 billion in 2010.

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The future, or a wispy pouf of nothing? You decide.

Cloud Customer Confusion Continues -- Anecdotes from the Field

Beyond Frictionless: SAP's SaaS/Cloud Strategy Becomes Clearer

Friday Rant: Ariba's Cloud -- Net Impressions

Two Years Too Late? Ariba and Hubspan Partner to Address Cloud Integration

The Future of "The Cloud" – A Podcast from Ariba Live (Part 1)

The Future of "The Cloud" – A Podcast from Ariba Live (Part 2)

- Sheena Moore