Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner at Verian.

Though the stories broke a couple weeks ago, I can't help but discuss the all too painful reminders that some government entities have an extremely hard time managing spending. We are referring, of course, to the GSA and Secret Service scandals. The details of how thoroughly the Secret Service and military explore the local brothels on advance trips, and who pays for it, are still coming to light.

The lavish GSA spending was only exposed because two years later the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) decided to investigate excessive spending and produced a report. What did the OIG find out about the GSA conference?

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

Have you ever wondered why something as straightforward as paying invoices for fair-priced goods and services is so complex?

Incrementalism, or "firefighting", is a planning process normally found where a large strategic plan has failed to develop. Incremental decisions are made based upon the information at hand when a crisis occurs. It often results in rigid work systems which are unable to deal with the actual problems faced at the grassroots level. Sound familiar?

The decision to have the person who ordered the product receive the invoice makes sense. It makes sense to order office supplies from one vendor and MRO supplies from another. It also makes sense for marketing to pick the printing vendor. Each decision is very sound and logical.

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Danny Ertel, of Vantage Partners. Check out previous posts in this series over on Danny's blog.

I'll refrain this time from recapping the prior posts in this series. Suffice it to note that I've had more than a bit to say over the past handful of weeks about how lawyers and clients negotiate their fees. In this post I want briefly to address the question of how well (or not) we communicate about this topic.

One of the problems I have noticed in how many law firm partners negotiate fee arrangements with their clients is that they tend to communicate at a fairly conclusory level: "I estimate this will cost between $X and $Y." Or "If all goes well, we should be able to get this one done for about the same as the one we did last year." Facing internal pressures to bring legal costs down, clients are often equally abstract: "We need you to do it for less." Or "There is no way we can pay that much."

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

It's an uncomfortable topic.

There are some people who become irritable, demanding, and yes --somewhat emotional, for about a week at the same time every month. Their physical demeanor changes, they look tired, break out, and sometimes crave chocolate or chips more than usual.

They are accountants.

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Spend Matters would like to welcome a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

As I sit down after the holidays to write about services spend, in-laws come to mind. Managing services spend is a lot like dealing with in-laws -- complicated. For example, dealing with the alienated cousin is pretty easy, like consolidating spend on contingent general labor. However, saying no to a mother-in-law is like suggesting the CFO switch law firms -- fraught with danger.

We all know that in-laws can be difficult, but why is managing services spend so hard? Well, the spend is highly fragmented and rarely PO driven, making it difficult to track, control and analyze. In addition to flying under the spend radar, each service comes with its own unique set of availability, quality and political issues.

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

Although many would have you believe otherwise, the cloud cannot create world peace. It can't end hunger, lower taxes, or make your coffee taste better.

Although these specific claims haven't been attributed to the cloud just yet, the cloud has been so exaggerated and misunderstood that the average organization isn't really sure of what the cloud is.

If the cloud is not a panacea, what is it? The best and most accurate description I've ever heard came from our CTO, Bilal Soylu. The cloud, in his words, is simply another utility, delivering computing as a service, rather than a product.

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

No internal department is harder to buy for than IT. Because of highly technical specifications, countless requirements, and a trove of IT-specific vendors, many organizations essentially get their IT department's wish list, cut it by 10%, and let them buy what they need on their own.

We know this is a bad idea, but we also like to keep the guardians of our wired worlds happy. In the end, the not-so-best practice of letting IT "go rogue" when purchasing goods and services causes more pain for everyone -- including IT.

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mark Schaffner, VP of Marketing at Verian.

Every holiday season, I think about years ago when I sent personalized coffee mugs to all our customers -- convinced it was a great way to keep our brand top-of-mind (and top-of-morning). A week later, I got a call from a large customer who I also considered a close friend. I eagerly picked up the phone anticipating a warm thank you. He didn't even say hello, he just asked, "Why did you spend $4 to send me a $2 coffee mug?" I didn't have a good answer.

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Fort Bragg recently announced that 14,000 rounds of ammunition for M-4 and M-16 assault rifles went missing. After a base lockdown and thorough search, investigators came up empty handed. Under the guise of national security, I am sure we will never know what happened. However, I do believe someone's head will roll and new procurement technologies are coming to this North Carolina base soon.

Wachovia Bank is also in North Carolina, and I recently read with great interest about a purchasing manager employed there who is making a move from a big lake house to the big house. Apparently, money from 11 million dollars in fictitious invoices he approved found their way into his personal bank account. I'm curious if his personal bank account was with Wachovia or if he added insult to injury by keeping the funds at cross-town rival Bank of America.

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