Editor’s Note: Today’s post is from Dick Locke, Sourcing Innovation’s resident expert on International Sourcing and Procurement. (His previous guest posts are still archived.) Back in August I posted a blog suggesting that contract language should be tested for readability. I pointed out that it’s especially important for international contracts, because the chances for confusion are higher than when both parties are in the same country. (The original post Blogging on International Contracting, is in the archives). I suggested using your word processor’s grammar checker with “show readability statistics” turned on. The Microsoft Word grammar checker gives two figures: …
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March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Contract Management, Dick Locke
When I say “casino”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Probably for most of you, it’s money. Actually more like MONEY. Money being spent, won and lost at breakneck speed. And although you’ve possibly had trips to Vegas where you were up against The House (and ask a gambler, and they’ll always tell you [...]
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February 26th, 2010 | Posted in Best Practices, Contract Management, Costing, Sourcing, Spend Analysis, Supplier Management, Supply Management, recession, supply market dynamics, supply risk
Friday’s group discussion on Vested Outsourcing led by University of Tennessee faculty member Kate Vitasek went very well. For anyone unfamiliar with her work, Kate literally wrote the book on Vested Outsourcing, a model that utilizes incentives to create more strategic relationships between buying organizations and their outsourcing vendors. So when she stepped up and [...]
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February 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Best Practices, Contract Management, LinkedIn, Outsourcing, Services Procurement, Sourcing, Supply Management
Last month, I told you how BravoSolution Collaboratively Optimized Its Way onto the doctor’s Short List. Today, I’m going to discuss their (Spend) Analysis, Supplier Performance Management, and Contract Compliance Solutions to give you a broader view of their solution suite.To get straight to the point, their spend analysis (console) solution, which takes a standard reporting-based approach, and which includes over 60 standard report templates, is nothing special, but their analysis administration tool, the Transformation Designer, is one of the most powerful administration interfaces I’ve seen in a web-based analysis solution. Most providers tout their “leading auto-cleansing, auto-classification, …
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February 16th, 2010 | Posted in Contract Management, Spend Analysis, Supplier Management
A recent article in Integrated Solutions noted that the time has come to apply reduce, reuse, and recycle thinking to electronic business information because embracing a more strategic, “green” approach to information management will deliver a number of benefits, not the least of which is a dramatic reduction in the cost of storage. These days, there are a number of technology offerings that can reduce storage demands and improve real-time access to business-critical information. For example, on-demand conversion of print-stream to PDF eliminates the unnecessary storage of large-format documents and lessens internal network congestion during the …
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November 22nd, 2009 | Posted in Contract Management, Technology
A recent article over on Cracked listed 7 Secrets Only Two Living People Know (for some reason … that the doctor must admit he doesn’t understand in a few of the cases). While entertaining, it did cause me to ask why there are so many truths in sourcing that most people still don’t seem to get. Since some days I feel like only 2 people know the following, I decided I should do my own post on 7 sourcing secrets more than 2 people should know. Because you really, really, really should know the following sourcing “secrets”. …
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October 26th, 2009 | Posted in Auctions, Best Practices, Contract Management, Decision Optimization, RFX, Spend Analysis, rants
Today’s guest post is from Vinnie Mirchandani of Deal Architect and New Florence. New Renaissance. Vinnie, a founding member of the Enterprise Advocates, is a tireless advocate of trends and technologies that can help buyers get more for less. Ray Wang gives us a timely reminder that “Labor Day (US & Canadian Holiday) traditionally marks the end of summer BBQ’s, the beginning of the fall conference season, and yes, the time to begin a review of your software maintenance contacts that expire at the end of the year.”I would say start with that — and then keep going. Take …
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October 22nd, 2009 | Posted in Contract Management, Cost Reduction, Guest Author, Technology, e-Leaders Speak
Share This on Linked In Editor’s Note: Today’s post is from Dick Locke, Sourcing Innovation’s resident expert on International Sourcing and Procurement. (His previous guest posts are still archived.) Back on August 1 of this year, I posted an article that included these paragraphs:Here’s the tactic for the day. Run a grammar [...]
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August 27th, 2009 | Posted in Contract Management, Dick Locke
Share This on Linked In Ray Wang of Forrester recently released Version 2 of their Enterprise Software License Bill of Rights and Vinnie Mirchandani did an excellent revision over on Deal Architect that not only outlines what your rights should be but identifies some key issues you need to be aware of [...]
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August 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Contract Management, Technology
Share This on Linked In Editor’s Note: Today’s post is from Dick Locke, Sourcing Innovation’s resident expert on International Sourcing and Procurement. (His previous guest posts are still archived.) After I made a brief comment on international contracting, the doctor suggested that “maybe I could write an expert piece about international contract [...]
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August 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Contract Management, Dick Locke, Global Trade
