Robert Van Brederode of Ryan (a tax strategy firm that is an Ariba partner) shared his insights into the opportunity and risk posed by VAT at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam. Robert recommends that companies look beyond income tax since there is “too much money involved” in VAT and customs duties to ignore them.
Justin Fogarty is [...]
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As many of you know, the Category Managers who contribute to Supply Excellence also create a quarterly report called SupplyWatch. The Q2 issue is posted and includes detailed category breakdowns for…
Metals
Plastics, Rubber & Raw Materials
Transportation
Electronics, Electrical & IT Hardware
Paper & Packaging
Services & Capital Goods, Construction & Engineering
This quarter’s feature article is on Working Capital [...]
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With the economic challenges many companies are now focused on concerns that key suppliers will not deliver due to financial challenges. Well what happens when a Volcano in Iceland erupts and shuts down your supply chain? That’s exactly what happened to BMW and many other companies impacted by the recent eruption.
As I sit here in [...]
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We have all read about how the volcano has disrupted millions of peoples lives. It has stymied logistics systems worldwide. The economic impact to companies globally have been devastating. Especially to industries already hit hard by the economic downturn. What can we do going forward?
We need better contingency planning, that is pretty evident based on [...]
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Spring has sprung. The markets, manufacturing and perhaps even … employment may be emerging from hibernation. And while we’re all happy to see the economy awakening from a brutal recession (please don’t hit the snooze button), it will mean some changes as we shift from buyer’s market conditions. Indeed, we’re already seeing commodity prices rising, [...]
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Corrugated packaging has seen prices rising due to a host of factors, including winter weather, raw material prices and a rise in manufacturing activity.
In the recent Top 5 Categories to Source Now webinar, Kimbely Davis explained why this category is still among the most active right now, despite rising prices (full webinar replay here).
Kimberly’s four [...]
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Supply Watch report subscribers likely know about this (and have hopefully registered already), but the Category Management team is holding one of their Top 5 Categories to Source Now webinars tomorrow. The details:
Thursday April 1st at 11am Eastern Time (3:00 GMT)
Register here.
On the agenda tomorrow are:
Mike Petro, Lead Category Manager, North America
Loriann Andersen, Category Manager, [...]
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C-SPAN has never been known for their riveting programming line-up. Even die hard political junkies like myself shun the channel these days in favor of alternative sources of news and analysis. But C-SPAN’s value changes dramatically if you can cut out the bloviating and get to the meat of what you would like to see. [...]
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An interesting article appeared in Bussinessweek.com regarding the new approach that the Chrysler Corporation is attempting with its supply base. Chrysler Chief Procurement Officer Dan Knott is attempting to undo the past few years of hardship that the economy and Chrysler has bestowed on its suppliers. Collaboration around accelerated payments and working capital management will [...]
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If you’re not already familiar with the Sourcing Interests Group (SIG), you should be. The organization has spent the last 19 years striving hard to accomplish their mission; to “assist companies in strategy development, the improvement of goods and services sourcing, and the implementation and management of corporate services through outsourcing, offshoring, insourcing and shared [...]
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