Procure IQ

A recent article from ChainLink Research noted how never before have companies been so dependent on the performance of their suppliers as a result of today’s companies becoming so lean, fast, and outsourced that monitoring and responding quickly to deal with and continually improve suppliers’ performance has become a key determinant of success or failure. This article on Supplier Performance Management had a number of great tips for managing supplier performance, including the following: Automatic Initiation of Corrective Action Workflows Not only must metrics …

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In our last post, we talked about Rollstream’s new workspace capability and how you could steamroll your compliance problems into submission. We also mentioned how Rollstream was in the finishing phases of a new dispute management and resolution solution, as part if it’s overall supplier development and performance management solution. While the problem may sound simple, and while the solution isn’t all that complicated compared to other supplier management solutions, for a large Multi-Billion dollar company, the administrative costs alone to resolve disputes can exceed millions of dollar a year. (One of their beta customers, an 8 Billion …

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On July 6, 2009, Dave Carroll shared his story with the world about how United Airlines carelessly smashed his guitar on March 31, 2008, when he was on the way to a week-long tour of Nebraska, and how United refused to accept any responsibility or fix it. (Full story.) As you may recall, his story, first expressed in a music video on YouTube, was an overnight sensation that quickly received over Three Million views in the first week. It was such a sensation that it even inspired the Harvard Business Review to do a case study on how …

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Every since the Toyota Production System (TPS) made Toyota famous for efficiency, there’s been a lot of talk about six sigma, lean, and TPS for a reason — because efficiency is good, and quality (which can be obtained when the systems are implemented properly, like they are in Asia, and not like Toyota chose to implement them in the US and Europe) is even better. But do you know how much better quality is? More specifically, when you buy an inferior product, do you know how much this costs your organization? Chances are, poor quality products cost your …

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In our last post, we noted that Basware recently released its annual Cost of Control study for 2010 and pointed out that Finance’s top 10 challenges could be easily solved with good, modern, spend analysis and e-Procurement solutions. The study also outlined the top 10 strategic finance priorities for 2010 … which can also be addressed by the adoption of good spend analysis and e-Procurement systems. For example: Spend Analysis would address: Increasing Profits and Top Line Performance Profit = Cash In – Cash …

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I caught up with Procurement Leaders‘ Mark Perera at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam earlier this month. A year after our first 2 interviews (Part 1 and 2) on working capital management, Mark gave us an update on managing cash trends, priorities and success stories.

All of the interviews with attendees and speakers (about 40 videos) from Ariba [...]

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The Sourcing Innovation Resource Site, always immediately accessible from the link under the “Free Resources” section of the sidebar, continues to add new content on a weekly, and often daily, basis — and it will continue to do so. The following is a short selection of upcoming webinars and events that you might want to check out in the coming weeks: …

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Today’s guest post is from Matt Gersper, founder and president of Global Data Mining, who will be hosting a webinar on Trade Optimization on Thursday, July 15, 2010 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, EDT. New government regulations and ineffective supply chains are costing U.S. businesses millions of dollars in unnecessary fees and expenses, destroying company profits and eroding global competitiveness. Understanding risk factors associated with international business transactions can help companies estimate the financial impact these risks may have on their business and provide a framework for fixing the problems and restoring lost profits. …

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A recent article in Logistics Management contained 6 Network Redesign Tips designed to help you reduce distribution costs. The following three tips are particularly relevant regardless of the type of supply chain you operate: Being Green Can Bring More Green If it’s truly green, it saves you money. If a solution that purports to be green increases costs, then you can be sure it’s another example of greenwashing, because truly green solutions reduce the requirements for energy, water, and other natural resources, which ultimately …

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David Suzuki recently gave the keynote at SAP Canada’s Sustainability in Business Summit. ComputerWorld has been kind enough to put the most relevant part of his keynote on the web on the ITBusiness.ca site. In brief, he says nature has to be the bottom line, and he’s right. Think about the following facts: Every time you use a gallon of water, that costs you money. Every time you use a watt of energy, that costs you money. …

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