Category Archives: Enterprise Irregulars
Social Collaboration and Information in Procurement Applications
Over on Spend Matters PRO, we’re busy wrapping up four-part analysis exploring the future of social collaboration and information within procurement applications, including an current available capabilities and those which more advanced providers are planning for tomorrow. It’s a useful primer on the topic for technology providers, practitioners and consultants alike keen to explore and learn about social media, social tools and social collaboration in the context of procurement applications, routine and process. Below, we feature Part 1 of this series from Spend Matters PRO. Not yet a member? Subscribe, test it for a week for free, or request a [...]
[More...]
Comments (1)
Is Apple Manufacturing in the US an Important Move?
Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from David Simchi-Levi, MIT engineering Professor and OPS Rules Chairman. On December 6th, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced a plan to invest $100M in manufacturing a line of Mac Computers in the US. While cynics may say that this is only assembly, will create only 200 jobs, and is partly motivated by public relations, there may still be practical considerations for the move and it may ultimately have some positive unintended consequences for US manufacturing. In the last year, there has been a lot of discussion and excitement around reshoring. In parallel, a growing [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Sourcing and Procurement Measurement: Metrics That Fail To Deliver
The trip out to Chicago O’Hare hotels or the airport for morning breakfasts or meetings always reminds me about the importance of timing and data in making decisions – procurement and sourcing decisions, to be exact. From my apartment, it takes about 20-25 minute to get to Rosemont if I leave at 5:45 AM on most mornings. If I leave at 5:55, add another 30 minutes (at least). So when I can, I’ve learned to leave early and camp out at Starbucks before the airport sessions begin. Aside from my travel learnings, we’ve all heard that procurement needs to become [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Source-to-Pay: Selecting More Than One E-Sourcing Tool
Later this week, Spend Matters will publish our latest Compass research brief covering the source-to-pay technology market: Next Level Sourcing and Commodity Management: Evaluating the Capabilities of ERP Providers Compared to Independent Vendors. This paper isn’t an in-depth research analysis and comparative ranking effort based on a large-scale data collection, demonstration/review and customer validation effort (that will be coming later in Q1 for Spend Matters PRO subscribers). Instead, it’s a relatively quick-hit effort to explain how ERP e-sourcing tools (including SAP, Ariba and Oracle) can fit next to best-of-breed vendors. While we will feature several important takeaways for e-sourcing users [...]
[More...] Comments (4)
Constantine Limberakis — Former Industry Analyst Now 100% Focused on Supplier Management (Part 2)
Please click here for the first post in this interview series. Spend Matters: What will the catalyst be for supplier management to “cross the chasm”? Constantine: The catalyst is twofold. The first, as I already mentioned, is around risk and compliance concerns. This will always be on top of everyone’s agenda in the foreseeable future. Second, there is a view that procurement needs to evolve beyond just being the “lemon squeezers.” More and more CPOs are realizing that managing supplier relationships in an integrated way is not dissimilar to a sales manager managing customer relationships. It is clear that these [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Friday Rant — Outsourcing and Pornography: We Know It When We See It
Perhaps the most famous Supreme Court quip to be quoted out of context is Associate Justice Potter Stewart’s commentary on hard-core pornography: “I know it when I see it.” Such a line could be applied to outsourcing, including procurement BPO, despite the fact that the industry has now “voted out the ‘O’-word” according to the results of an informal poll conducted by my colleague Phil Fersht’s firm HfS Research. According to HfS’ blog, two-thirds of the providers and buyers at a recent NASSCOM event decided to banish the O-word to the rubbish bin. Yet they couldn’t think of an alternative. [...]
[More...] Comments (1)
Ariba and SAP: Integration, Planning and Solution Roadmaps (Part 1)
Earlier this week, SAP announced that it had closed its acquisition of Ariba, following the deal’s clearance by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). We covered this announcement on Spend Matters and Spend Matters PRO on Monday. Of course what really made the deal real to us beyond the press release was looking at Ariba’s listing on Google finance (or lack of it) on Wednesday. Written in virtual stone forever is the final market capitalization of $4.58B, a valuation representing over eight times forward revenue. Source: Google Finance, ARBA stock quote look-up I must admit, even though I was familiar [...]
[More...] Comments (1)
Friday Rant: Don’t Hire Strategy Consultants For Procurement/Sourcing (Part 2)
In the first installment of this rant, I began to offer my scattered thoughts on why you should never hire one of the strategy consultancies to oversee a tactical procurement or sourcing study, let alone a sourcing transformation. I’ll list some additional reasons below, including many of which I’ve personally lived or seen over the years. I’m sorry for the laundry list of items, but with apologies to my first manager in consulting, there is no 80/20 rule for describing why it’s best to keep strategy firms as far away from your spend as possible. All the reasons count equally, [...]
[More...] Comments (2)
Proxima: Procurement BPO With a Category and Customer-Intimate Twist (Part 1)
Earlier this year, two members of the Spend Matters team (Peter Smith and Jason Busch), had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time getting to know Proxima, the procurement business process outsourcing (BPO) formerly known as buyingTeam. In a multi-part series introducing Proxima to the Spend Matters community, we’ll aim to cover quite a bit of ground, beginning with figures, facts and background information. We’ll then consider Proxima’s approach to procurement BPO on a more in-depth basis, including examining the client experience. We will conclude our series on Spend Matters PRO, with summary analysis, recommendations, and comparative assessments [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
The Case for Procurement Hazing (Part 3)
Click here for Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. I previously tossed out the first of three suggestions exploring why the procurement universe needs a type of hazing to elevate its capability and status. Outside of top performing organizations, a newfound level of visibility and respect for the profession is desperately needed (despite what some may think, we have a very long way to go). Consider how the UK government is attempting to more narrowly redefine procurement by creating a whole new class of public servant outside the function (who in fact is still “procuring”). In this brave [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Friday Rant: Bridge the UI and Design Gap or Die
Earlier this month, I sat through a software demonstration with a highly capable vendor that has grown materially in recent years to look at their new user interface. This is a provider with not only a wide footprint, but also significant depth in rather complicated areas in the broader P2P space. Coming off a long summer vacation where I spent zero time working in enterprise applications but quite a bit of time in the iOS world, the 45-minute or so walkthrough of the new user experience and interface reminded me just how far we’ve come in designing enterprise applications for [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
Why CIOs Secretly Hate Procurement And Other VMO Tales (Part 3)
Click here for Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. Now that we’ve covered the rise of IT-focused vendor management offices (VMOs) — OK, I admit, we did not do the topic of VMOs justice, nor did I give credit to the many dozens of VMOs which are actually run effectively and for the right reasons — we can get to the crux of my argument: why CIOs secretly hate procurement. Or, to be more accurate, I should label the title of this series and the centralized argument theme why some, lesser-performing CIOs hate procurement. The non-collective opinion from [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
The Case for Procurement Hazing (Part 2)
In the first installment of this series, I covered a brief history of ritualized hazing activities, beginning to build the case for what I believe is a need for procurement hazing, to truly welcome those who are worthy into the profession and create a bond worthy of a lifelong career. In terms of hazing implements, I’m not talking about keg stands here, or branding a recruit with a hot metal implement. No, my point is that professional hazing, done right — and certainly not called by its name! — could bring significant benefits to the industry, not only furthering the [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
The Case for Procurement Hazing (Part 1)
The concept of hazing goes back hundreds (if not thousands) of years as a form of initiation into a formal or informal group, or even a profession (more on this in a minute). Wikipedia defines hazing as “the practice of various rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group.” Hazing can also cross the line, as Wikipedia also suggests, including the 18th century example that novelist Francisco de Quevedo includes in a book, showing “a scene of students hazing one another.” In the military, an example of hazing [...]
[More...] Comments (3)
Why CIOs Secretly Hate Procurement And Other VMO Tales (Part 2)
In the first part of this essay, I tried to provide a first-person account of the evolving world of IT spend from both a CIO and procurement perspective from roughly 1995 through the mid-2000s (don’t nail me down to an exact date — after all, the margin of successful go-live errors for ERP implementations and large upgrades at the time could be measured in multi-year spans, not quarters or months). Hopefully I succeeded in explaining the spend evolution of the era and how, at least to some degree, procurement started down the path toward IT influence. Yet the untold story [...]
[More...] Comments (0)
- Hanging Out with Hubwoo in the Belly of the Beast at SAP Sapphire (Part 1) : Jason Busch said: Perhaps the interest in Hubwoo is not so much a reflection on Hubwoo as it is SAP customer... more
- Having an ERP System Doesn’t Mean You Know How to Source : Having an ERP System Doesn’t Mean You Know How to Source | Cooper Lomaz News said: [...] Read More [...]... more
- 6 Ways Supplier Networks Simplify Supplier Relationship Management : Four Benefits of Supplier Networks | Front Page Talk said: [...] According to Spend Matters, three critical areas of process are order placement, pay... more
- PMOs Have Failed in IT: Should We Really Use Them in Procurement? : Ramesh said: The business world is aggressively reeling under outsourcing wheel than ever before. Hence... more
Spend Matters Compass research is based on a year-long editorial calendar, exploring bigger picture areas and issues
Next Level Sourcing and Commodity Management
New Paper P2P and Working Capital
Services Procurement Innovation
ERP Procurement and Spend Management Applications
Spend Matters Perspectives research is focused on targeted topics that impact specific areas in procurement
