One thing you’ve probably noticed as a long-time reader of this blog was a lack of coverage of Aberdeen Research for the past year or so. To be honest, I haven’t been that thrilled with the work coming out of Aberdeen since the Harte-Hanks acquisition, which culminated a year long departure of some of [...]
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I found a recent Industry Week article that discussed how private equity [is] helping mid-size manufacturers thrive in [an] increasingly competitive global marketplace quite interesting. The article, which noted that help from the right private equity firms can allow mid-sized manufacturers to bring more efficient and productive systems into the organization that are designed [...]
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It’s that time of the quarter again when I get a chance to take a step back, gather my thoughts and scour through the data as I write the metals category article for SupplyWatch. As you can guess…there’s a LOT to talk about this quarter. Plummeting commodity prices, a global credit crisis and an underlying [...]
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When we left the Sourcing Maniacs, they had just finished learning about Co-exprise and Sourcing Lifecycle Management. We join them wandering the streets somewhere in Pittsburgh, PA. Yakko Enterprise Cost Management and Predictive Analytics. Wakko [...]
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Ryan Walicki of National City Bank leads a procurement team with some very aggressive savings goals. With their focus on indirect spend (a bank, after all, can’t print money), they’re tasked with a 500% ROI on their efforts this year and a whopping 700% next year!
Despite those massive goals, procurement has actually taken a lead [...]
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When we left the Sourcing Maniacs, they had just finished learning about BIQ and the true meaning of spend analysis. We join them wandering the streets of Southborough, MA. Yakko, Wakko, & Dot We’re the sourcing-maniacs We’re [...]
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Dropping commodity prices have buyers salivating at the prospect of saving some money, especially in the face of top line stagnation. But where do you start? What categories are ripe for the picking vs others that are either a lower priority or best left alone?
Ultimately the goal is build a prioritized sourcing pipeline that meets [...]
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Yakko I really don’t know why we’re here. Spend Analysis is so yesterday, all the analysts say so. I think the doctor needs to give himself a check-up for recommending it to us.Wakko Really?Yakko Anyone can build a Spend Analysis system, all you have to do is follow the old [...]
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When asked for his thoughts on emerging low-cost country sourcing (LCCS) opportunities during an online Town Hall forum last week, Larry Welch cited an unusual contender; Indonesia. Welch, the former VP of Indirect and Services Procurement at Hewlett Packard, said Indonesia is making strides towards becoming a regional and global player. It was an intriguing [...]
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At the end of Part I, the Sourcing Maniacs had just completed their Aravo visit, the first stop on their journey. After Aravo, they took a trip to Massachusetts to visit their old friends Pinky and the Brain, but were unsuccessful as their friends were under lockdown until the annual user conference. However, [...]
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