My takeaway from the current Brightpoint/Emptoris lawsuit is the same that I had years ago when I was first involved in the spend analysis market. If a client has inaccurate expectations with respect to the commodity mapping process -- for example, if the client believes that there is a magical error-free automated or other mapping process -- then this will lead to unhappiness. This is because any commodity mapping process requires extensive manual review and correction, and the result is inevitably quite far from perfection. Contrariwise, if the client is educated regarding the commodity mapping process, and furthermore is provided with the ability to easily correct mapping errors themselves, then everyone has their eyes open from the start of the process, there is no unhappiness, and there are no unreasonable expectations.

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At the beginning of summer, I had a run in with a close colleague, an executive and co-worker in this market. The individual, who will go unnamed, had truly reached a new low, going beyond not having the gumption to stand up for what she believed in with her superiors. She had become a political tour de force, approaching each and every situation with a philosophy focused not on what was right for her organization or her peers, partners and team inside and outside of it, but only her career.

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