Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Pierre Mitchell, Director, Hackett Advisory Group.

Over on our World Class Procurement LinkedIn group (all practitioners welcome), we shared some of the summary findings from the 2012 edition of our annual Procurement Key Issues study we did a few months ago, and I thought the Spend Matters readership might be interested. So, to quote the Bud Lite commercial, "here we go"...

[More]

Someone asked me this week: "Why should I go to Commodity Edge when I'm already committed to a bunch of events this Spring?" I responded that the event, taking place March 19th and 20th at the Intercontinental at Chicago, O'Hare, is probably not for everyone in procurement (especially those entirely focused on areas like P2P systems). But I also noted the content and takeaways would be absolutely invaluable for those in a category/commodity management or sourcing role, not to mention those that they report to.

The discussion sparked my interest in creating a list of reasons why people should attend the event or, at the very least, stay current with the topics we plan to address. These topics include an up-to-date view on the directions of commodities (e.g., metals, energy, indirect, packaging, and many more), forecasting strategies and approaches for procurement, technologies to support negotiation, contracting and hedging and the overall direction of the domestic and global economies and their impact on procurement and supply chain strategies. Incidentally, the complete program will count for 9.75 continuing education credits/hours with ISM.

[More]

Please click here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series.

In our final installment of this series, we'll close with our final five predictions looking at how a falling euro may impact sourcing strategies, focusing primarily on the increasing linkages between IT, procurement and treasury strategies. The early posts in this series have been well received, so we're likely going to flesh out the thinking a bit more and combine these four separate posts into a paper for access in downloadable format. Be sure to check back in the coming weeks if you'd like to see some additional thinking on the topic. Continuing on with today's installment:

[More]

I must admit, we're not big "cruise people" in the Busch/Reisman house. But we're planning on taking our second Disney Cruise with the family this winter (if you're on the fence, I'll go out on a limb to say that Disney does everything right, even if you hate the whole concept of getting on a floating city with thousands of families and screaming kids). Yet of course like many others preparing for a trip in the coming months, the tragedy in the waters on the coast of Italy caught our attention as more than just another sad human-interest story.

Rather, it reminded us that we're putting our own lives at risk by getting on any type of boat without fully explaining to everyone coming with us the importance of both following safety instructions and going with your gut instinct in times of crisis (i.e., not waiting around to be told what to do). Under less moribund circumstances than watching the death toll climb from the Carnival Costa Concordia tragedy, our dinnertime conversation preceding a planned trip would be more inclined to discuss the economics, procurement and supply chain operating procedures of cruise lines rather than their approach to safety.

[More]

See previous posts in this series here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4-A
Part 4-B
5-A
5-B

The fifth and final scenario in our procurement predictions for the next decade is certainly the most dismal on our list. Simply put, this scenario posits that Core Procurement is Absorbed. It's something we've been thinking about at Spend Matters for quite some time, and one could argue that it's happening already. Consider, for example, core procurement's absorption in such areas as corporate Six Sigma or operations functions taking on supplier quality and development initiatives. Or look at how IT is often increasingly controlling larger amounts of spend that go beyond just software and hardware (e.g., broader BPO, call centers, etc.) These examples, alone, suggest that procurement is already having less and less of a role in core quality, buying and category management areas in certain organizations.

[More]

Earlier this week, we provided extensive coverage (Part 1 and Part 2) of ISM's recently announced acquisition of the North American practice and assets of ADR (ADR North America) and ADR North America's China business. For some, our coverage raised more questions than it answered about the future of ISM, including how it views itself on the global stage alongside organizations like the UK's Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), which appear to have a much more imperialist -- or would that be mercantile -- approach to fulfilling their mission by prioritizing for-profit initiatives at the expense of what some might argue is in the best interests of a charitable organization.

For example, CIPS has ironically offended the relationship it has built over the years with folks like Peter Smith, a former CIPS Chairman nonetheless! CIPS' for-profit media arm views Peter's blog, Spend Matters UK/Europe, as competitive with their own publications (since when money grubbing journalists/publishers in the trade publishing world trump senior executives in the profession in relationship decisions, I'm not sure). Regardless, as a result, they've banned Peter and Spend Matters from active reference or participation in their own material.

[More]

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.

[More]

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.

[More]

Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Ryan Graham, Director in Procurement Practice at Archstone Consulting.

The New Year is upon us and it is time to start making the January promises that we will most likely break in February. Not surprisingly, I found the same areas we focus on in our personal lives also need attention in our professional lives. Take a look at the list of resolutions I compiled below and use the comment section to weigh in (or add any resolutions I missed).

[More]