Procure IQ

Traditionally, Sourcing Innovation would chronicle the wit and wisdom of the SpendFool on December 31, but ever since he announced his departure in the seventh comment to a post on SpendMatters last year, he’s been quiet. As a result, there are no comments to base my annual wit and wisdom post, which chronicled the best of the ‘Fool’s comments during the year. So instead, I bring you “Ode to the SpendFool” in the hopes that the ‘Fool will accept my offer and return to the space (as a[n anonymous] contributor on Sourcing Innovation should the ‘Fool …

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As I noted in my recent post on Why You Need Visibility, if you put an energy meter inside a home and show people total usage in real time, a miraculous thing will happen: they will use about 10% less energy. And, more importantly, you can use this behaviour to drive savings, revenue, and innovation in your business. How? Consider these five uses courtesy of Andrew Winston and the Harvard Business Review which give you a green advantage. Usage Reductions If you provide operations with information on resource use, they will …

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A lot of supply chain 20xx lists are produced each year, and while many aren’t worth a second glance, Dan Gilmore over on Supply Chain Digest has one of the best top 10 lists on what supply chains will look like in 2015 that you’re going to find. But what’s even more important than the items on his Supply Chain 2015 is why supply chains are being forced to change. I’ll attempt to answer that a bit in this post. Fuel Prices Will Spike Again … to $200 a barrel Global demand …

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The purpose of Basel II, the second of the Basel Accords (which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision), was to create an international standard that banking regulators can use when creating regulations about how much capital needs to be reserved to guard against financial and operational risks. In essence, the goal was to reduce risk and insure trade even in the event that a series of major banks collapsed.But did it, in fact, accomplish the exact opposite? In two recent articles in the financial times which addressed the …

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Accenture’s recent white paper on taking control in the new era or price volatility listed the following as the four most important success factors for managing commodity risk. At a high level, they’re spot on. Procurement & Finance AlignmentA risk policy needs to underlie all activities in both departments to insure the risk appetite of the buyer matches the risk appetite of the corporation. The mitigation strategies have to be implemented appropriately. These means that some risks cannot be ignored while others have to be carried. Expertise in Managing …

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Many of our customers ask us to handle their Supplier data enrichment data.  This is a natural fit to add and integrate this informative data to all the supplier and Spend data that is collected.  Supplier enrichment data packets build additional ana…

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In a recent (guest) post over on @ Risk, I quoted Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire from his Storm Front album which was released as a single twenty years ago. I did so because each reference in two of the later verses represent significant potential risks to your supply chain that haven’t changed much in the last twenty years; since what your supply manager would be signing about today would more-or-less have the same underlying risks. In honour of Billy Joel’s masterpiece, which chronicled headline events during the …

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Supply Chain Brain recently ran a decent article on 10 Steps to Green Packaging in the CPG Industry that had a few insights that are worth a closer look. Replenish Purchase raw materials from suppliers who employ sustainable resource management policies. Re-explore Use recyclable material. Reduce Use ergonomic design and optimization to minimize the use, and size, of packaging material. Replace Replace hazardous and harmful substances with eco-friendly materials. …

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Besides the fact that you’re probably as fed up as I am at the ridiculous compensation packages that many Executives are getting these days despite the fact that they are on their way out the door having just tanked the company, there’s also the fact that their focus on short term gain is hurting the company and your ability to do your job. You want to switch to sustainable sources of supply, because you know that the long term savings (as energy, water, and carbon costs are all poised to go through the roof) will dwarf any short term …

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It’s Boxing Day! And you know what that means … at Sourcing Innovation, it’s Spend Rappin’ time! To the Tune of “Christmas Rappin’” by Kurtis BlowDon’t you get me all that JIVE about code you used before I’s alive, Cause this ain’t 1965 – ain’t even 1999! Now I’m the guy named Lamoureux and Spend is one thing that I know. So every year, just about this time, I celebrate it with a rhyme! Gonna save it, gonna shave it, gonna make it good, Gonna take it all down through your neighborhood. Gonna wring it, gonna sling it till …

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