Spend Analysis
While the economy has become the top issue for business and supply management executives alike, there remains some debate on how best to address it. Recent research of over 160 global procurement, finance, and supply chain executives offers some answers.
As its title suggests, the third-annual Spend Management Priorities and Challenges study reveals strategies and approaches [...]
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A recent article in Information Week on The Road to Making BI Available to Everyone noted that, on average, only 25% of workers use BI. Considering that we’re in the information age, this is rather pathetic. Why is this?According to the article, there are five major reasons for this: The tools themselves [...]
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Just like we did in the X-emplification series, we’re going to continue with Spend Analysis as we tackle the generic questions that you should be asking every vendor, and the types of answers you should be expecting. 1. What do I have to do to get a good handle on how to make effective [...]
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In a previous entry I talked about how the utilisation of Spend Analysis software makes the rational of a vendor reduction programme less relevant. When reading the latest report from The World Economic Forum on the risks for 2008 I am convinced this logic will now start to gain more momentum.
According to the WEF [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Eric Strovink of BIQ who, in his contribution, reminds us not to overlook the importance of verifying we actually achieve the savings we negotiate, because that’s the foundation of a sustainable business. Even though this might not be the definition of sustainability that most of us have in mind, [...]
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As the doctor mentioned in his last post, there are a lot of elephants hiding in the sourcing and procurement war room! There are so many, in fact, that the doctor is having problems figuring out how they all fit! However, as the doctor was in-depth scanning and reviewing some vendor web sites [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Bernard Gunther of Lexington Analytics, a specialist consultancy in spend analytics based in Lexington, Massachusetts. How well do you understand the pricing you actually get from your vendors? Many companies don’t know as much as they should. Think about a typical situation:Last year you finished a sourcing project [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome back Eric Strovink of BIQ.Baseline recently put a slide show on their site illustrating “5 Ways Companies Screw Up Business Intelligence — And How To Avoid The Same Mistakes,” with data drawn from CIO Insight. The slides are an excellent example of how mainstream IT thinking misses the essential problems [...]
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Now that the ball has dropped and you’ve bid adieu to 2007, you are probably being bombarded with news reports and e-mails telling you what to expect in 2008. Supply Excellence is also throwing its hat in the prognostication ring, except with a twist. I’ve spent the past few months speaking with supply management executives [...]
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We’ve all heard stories of procurement managers turning their hard-earned negotiation tactics on the Sears salesman to shave a few bucks off that new stainless fridge or flat panel LCD. But a new Web 2.0 service called Mint aims to bring spend management to the common man. (Hat-tip to Fast Company for turning me onto [...]
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