I realized I hadn't done a UK round-up in quite some time, and if you're not reading the UK site regularly, you should be! Here's what Peter's been up to of late:

Our readers speak on outsourcing – an evil menace, or a force for good? -- A couple of readers came at it from the "all outsourcing is rubbish" angle. Well, it is simply too much of a fact of business life to reject the entire process completely. No organisation can do everything itself – the days of Henry Ford buying his own steel mills are long gone, and whether it is cleaning, audit, IT support, web hosting – we all "outsource" in some way. When you buy a ready meal from Tesco you're outsourcing something that our grandparents would have done themselves. So I don't think we can simply say, "outsourcing is wrong" or "the public sector shouldn't outsource". I do accept though, as Final Furlong pointed out, the success rate is way lower than it needs to be in both public and private sectors.

OB10 and why you should care about e-Invoicing -- We've promised (threatened?) to cover e-Invoicing a little more enthusiastically in 2012, so let's start now, with a word about OB10 and the recent announcement of the formation of the European e-Invoicing Service Providers Association (EESPA). The link between the two incidentally is Charles Bryant, who works with OB10 and is also the newly elected Vice-Chair of EESPA – the Chair is Esa Tihilä from Basware.

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In the first post in this series, we shared a number of the basic details surrounding ISM's acquisition of the North American practice and assets of ADR (ADR North America) as well as ADR North America's China business. Continuing our coverage of the acquisition, we'll tackle a number of additional elements of the transaction, and most important, what it means for the ISM mission, its members and its global presence. Starting first, I think it makes sense to quote my colleague from across the pond, Peter Smith, who is also covering the news on Spend Matters UK. Peter suggests that ISM expansion into China -- and the operating company ADR North America had established in the Chinese market, which was part of the transaction -- was surely a strategic factor in the deal.

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In the first post in this series, we offered up the initial three items on a list contained in a Spend Matters UK/Europe research paper, Managing Indirect Services -- Procurement's Greatest Opportunity?, describing the reasons complex services procurement is often so difficult (and of course we provided our own commentary as well). Today, we'll feature four additional points from Peter Smith's paper, plus some additional thoughts. To begin, Peter's fourth observation is, "Services are often 'personal' to the budget holder, even in a corporate environment. Personal relationships can add a markedly different dynamic to procurement decisions compared to those made on purely objective business grounds."

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As we discussed earlier this week, my British partner in crime Peter Smith recently published a research paper titled Managing Indirect Services -- Procurement's Greatest Opportunity?. In it, Peter leverages some of the concepts from a book he recently co-authored, Buying Professional Services: How to Get Value for Money from Consultants and Other Professional Service Providers (Economist Books). One of the more succinct and refreshing aspects of his coverage of services procurement is his seven-step rationale for why organizations find it so hard to tackle services procurement and complex services categories for the first time compared to other direct and indirect spend areas. The first three items on Peter's list are:

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Being mutually keen on music (though I haven't sold him on Canadian rapper Drake yet), Spend Matters UK's Peter Smith and I are always trading emails about the latest this-and-that around new artists, albums, etc. But Peter one-upped me earlier this week when he introduced an entirely new genre that will undoubtedly shake the United States much as the British Invasion of the 1960's did. Move over, John and Paul. See his email, below.

"We're always interested to find hidden talent in the procurement world, so we were pleased to come across Ed Baxter, an Implementation Consultant with UK-based P2P and catalogue management specialist Science Warehouse. Ed is also a talented musician, and he's put his skills to work in the service of eProcurement, as you can hear. And we've obtained the full lyrics, so you can all sing along at home...eat your heart out Lady Gaga!"

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We're excited to announce our latest Spend Matters research brief (coming from the UK): Managing Indirect Services -- Procurement's Greatest Opportunity? Likely relevant for most Spend Matters readers in different industries -- from manufacturing to the public sector -- the genius of Peter Smith's latest paper is that it takes a non-technologists view at the knowledge, platforms and skills required to get more from services spend. As we suggest in the introduction, "Improving procurement across indirect services categories offers significant opportunities for savings. However, executives need to recognise the challenges, understand the value drivers for each category and identify the right strategies. Data, tools and capability must be carefully chosen to be appropriate, and in particular, specifically designed to meet the needs of these spend categories."

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Across the Atlantic, my colleague Peter Smith recently authored a paper with the curious title: If It Ain't Broke, Fix it!. In this great, readable op/ed, Peter pens a lively piece that examines the need for constant innovation in procurement. A bit superficial as research papers go, yes, but probably one of the most useful pieces of work we've published in the past year -- and that's saying something. We begin the argument in the whitepaper by suggesting that there's a big temptation when things are going well to just keep going, to accept the status quo. It can seem like nothing can possibly go wrong. All through history we've seen examples of people, companies, even whole civilizations who have thought 'everything's fine as we are, we don't need to change'. But if you're not changing or growing, we make the case, you're declining -- or dying.

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Across the pond, my colleague Peter Smith penned a thought provoking post last week exploring how, in his view, an EU bailout would do little to help contain supply risk in the PIGS countries. Knowing Peter, his personal definition of supply chain risk planning here is probably weighing the cost of booking travel to a favorite destination in Europe against the risk that a the Michelin-starred restaurant he was planning on visiting -- which would be cheaper than in recent memory, given the slide of the Euro -- on the trip going bust right as he planned to show up like other suppliers in the same market. Alas, whether your supplier is a purveyor of haute cuisine or more on the castings or forgings side, the same fate might awake those operating in the at-risk regions. Here, Peter asks some great questions we should ask regardless of whether the banks have to write off their debt or take fifty cents on the dollar for it.

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I'm headed off to London later today to catch up with my UK counterpart, Peter Smith, and to prepare for our one-year anniversary celebration on Thursday evening. That's right -- Spend Matters UK/Europe is already a year old. Thursday promises to be a good party. We've booked two bands (including one led by the President of CIPS, who moonlights in a most excellent cover band), and a few vendors/providers are underwriting the festivities. A special thanks to Coupa for being Lead Sponsor and to Adomise and Science Warehouse for underwriting the two bands! Peter and I are excited to celebrate a great first year. If you'd like to attend the event, we may have a few spots left, so drop Peter a line (email below) and we'll try and get you in if space permits. There are a few folks coming after the ProcureCon event in Brussels. So if you're at ground zero -- geographically speaking -- of the policy debate surrounding the EU currency meltdown earlier in the week, consider hopping a flight to the safety of the country which smartly sat out the silliness of this common currency thing to begin with.

As to the anniversary and event itself, I'll let Peter's words do the talking:

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