Please click here for the first post in this series.

Continuing on in sharing insights from a MetalMiner series on sourcing commodities in the context of a falling (and/or highly volatile) euro, Lisa suggests that US buying organizations may wish to consider a range of sourcing strategies. These may include offsetting a falling euro "against the dollar with the contract in dollars." Under this approach, "the buyer should negotiate hard at the outset for a 'lower price,' as a declining euro will result in increased supplier profits over the course of the contract. In other words, the buyer should negotiate some sort of discount at the outset." An alternative approach might a contracting model factoring in a falling euro against the dollar with the contract in euros.

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Here at Spend Matters, we've spent quite a bit of time lately giving consideration to twenty sourcing, supplier management and related strategies companies are likely to take in the context of the falling euro (see our initial two posts in the series here and here). Yet much of the credit for these strategies, to be fair, should go to the sourcing experts at our sister site MetalMiner, including Lisa Reisman (my better half) and Stuart Burns (our UK-based metals sourcing expert and the often behind-the-scenes but ever present third owner/partner in our parent company). Not to be outdone by Spend Matters, MetalMiner is taking some of the ideas we've introduced around sourcing raw materials in an environment where the Euro is falling and fleshed them out further in the post Sourcing Metal Categories in a Volatile or Collapsing Euro Environment.

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Spend Matters and MetalMiner have published extensive research in the area of supplier management. But nearly all of our analysis and primary research to date has focused on vendor level information, aside from coverage of conflict minerals (Dodd-Frank) and related registration. Now, we're hoping to dig deeper into the area of supplier management, vendor/material risk and supply chain traceability by conducting a survey and additional primary research that takes an even deeper view of the extended products and vendor supply chain.

This survey aims to examine the potential demand for supplier information and enrichment content primarily on the item/material level, including products/components/chemicals that may be subject to regulation or restriction based on their base components, inherent hazards or intended usage. It will be used to judge the broader marketplace interest in these new solutions and the findings may be shared, in the aggregate, with a range of organizations as well as Spend Matters and MetalMiner readers.

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We did a combined birthday party for our oldest kids this past weekend. One of the other fathers in the group, who served as a chaperone for the party, has a similar finance, procurement and operations background to many of the readers of this site. Before the party (a trip to the play Pinocchio at our local Shakespeare theater) we got into a heated exchange. We share it now for your reading pleasure in its unedited form:

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Here at Spend Matters, we believe the skill sets required of sourcing professionals and commodities traders are beginning to blur -- at least as it relates to the knowledge and technology that procurement organizations must adapt to survive in today's volatile age. In a post from earlier this week on Spend Matters' sister site, MetalMiner, Lisa Reisman shared a number of strategies that commodity managers might deploy in a situation where commodity markets are in moderate to deep contango, citing steel as an example. But perhaps we should first start by explaining contango, which Wikipedia defines as "the market condition wherein the price of a forward or futures contract is trading above the present spot price."

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You know commodity prices have reached a new stage of importance -- beyond trading floors and procurement departments -- when French Prime ministers take aim on the financial injustices wrought by speculators and the like rather than spending their hours seeking out new lady friends and the like (incidentally, Carla Bruni is just as gorgeous as ever in her Cameo in the new Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris). Aside from taking care of his lovely wife, Nicolas Sarkozy recently used his floor time during a G20 speech to rail against commodity price inflation and those parties helping put upward price pressure on the market. A Financial Times article captures the essence of his argument and recommendation of a "three-pronged" approach toward remedying the situation. His ideas include "boosting production; increasing transparency in commodities derivatives markets by standardizing contracts and forcing more deals on to exchanges (most are currently bilateral); and setting a minimum amount of collateral that parties must post when they enter into a derivatives transaction."

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I'm not sure if it's the current lunar cycle or what, but I don't often find myself having two weeks worth of rants for this (or any) site. Maybe it was because Jason had traveled out of the country and I stayed behind to manage our growing and somewhat chaotic household, or maybe something stirred my inner sense of personal sourcing justice and fairness in this world (I really don't know) -- but I sadly find myself needing to tell yet another auto purchase scam story. This time, however, we'll start with the conclusion: Nissan USA ought to pay close attention to how its dealers (Western Avenue Nissan here in Chicago, in particular) treat its customers. We'd welcome readers and potential new clients of this dealership to see the overwhelmingly glowing reviews (sarcasm intended) this dealer has managed to earn. And though Spend Matters readers know a swindle when they see one, not everyone has the knowledge of a procurement professional.

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One of my favorite new responsibilities (sarcasm intended) of my new role running Azul Partners, the parent company of this site as well as MetalMiner and Spend Matters UK involves streamlining the proverbial back office -- making sure the company has the appropriate policies and procedures in place to create efficiencies, visibility (into our books and business), and last, scalability. And though Jason has done a tremendous job growing our little rag-tag business (and team) as he likes to call it, he probably had good reason to shift some of these operational tasks to me (I can't operate as effectively, shall we say, as Jason does in a fire-hose type environment). As our team has grown we've obviously needed to add folks to payroll, supply health care, a 401k etc.

In addressing the tasks at hand, my experience with Compupay has been...well...I'll let you read below.

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Earlier this week, MetalMiner interviewed Dr. John Henke, President and CEO of Planning Perspectives, the world's leading authority on buyer-supplier relations, according to their website. The firm conducts an annual in-depth analysis of North American automotive OEMs and their Tier 1 suppliers. This year's results, released last Monday, are a must read for any metal supplier to the automotive industry. Dr. Henke is also a Professor of Marketing at Oakland University in Rochester Michigan.

To read more about the study, its key findings, and parts one and two of the interview, please click here and here .

MetalMiner: Collaboration may be overused in supplier relationship management circles. In other words, some people may consider this "fluff." Can you anecdotally talk about these benefits such as higher quality, lower prices and more technology sharing?

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