Category Archives: Suppliers
Drive Innovation Using Collaborative Supplier Relationships (Part 2)
Click here to read the first post in this series. Building Supplier Collaboration Capabilities The four primary steps to drive innovation through supplier collaboration are identified in Figure 2. For each of the steps, tactics are identified that enable supply chain leaders to successfully collaborate and execute the innovation strategy. Figure 2: Four steps to build supplier collaboration capabilities Develop Innovation Strategy To keep the organization focused, executives must identify innovation priorities and objectives for each of their product categories. For example, they could be segmented by product into the following categories: (1) Transformative, New to the World Innovation (2) More Info »
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Advanced Supplier Management: Advanced Closed Registration (Part 2)
This post is based on material contained in the following Spend Matters Compass Series research: Beyond One-Off Initiatives and a Virtual Vendor Master – Advanced Use Cases for Supplier Management. Please click here for Part 1 of this series. Another key element where advanced supplier management processes can support cross-procurement efforts includes contract management and services procurement (SOW) linkages. These types of integrations enable the dissemination of change orders, milestones, deliverables, and specifications. The ability to engage vendors directly via supplier management tools or integration with contract management systems (and in the case of services procurement, these are tightly connected More Info »
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New Research Paper: Advanced Supplier Management
All too often, we believe companies don’t put enough emphasis overall on supplier management aside from pet initiatives (e.g., supplier diversity) and fire drills (e.g., supply risk). The problem lies with a silo-driven mentality toward vendor management initiatives that permeates too many procurement, supply chain and finance organizations today. Fortunately, there’s hope, and companies can model an idealized supplier management function based on what’s possible – not just an urgent need that needed to be addressed yesterday. Our latest Spend Matters Compass Research paper, Beyond One-Off Initiatives and a Virtual Vendor Master – Advanced Use Cases for Supplier Management tackles More Info »
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Advanced Supplier Management: Advanced Closed Registration (Part 1)
This post is based on material contained in the following Spend Matters Compass Series brief: Beyond One-Off Initiatives and a Virtual Vendor Master – Advanced Use Cases for Supplier Management. It’s important to note that what we’re calling “closed registration” elements of supplier management also can apply to open registration processes – i.e., supplier “walk-ups” to a portal. The good news is that since properly implemented open registrations seamlessly intersect with the onboarding process of closed registrations, these tactics and capabilities deliver the best of both worlds when you guide suppliers through the hoops. Integration – the integration of internal More Info »
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SAP and Ariba in Madrid: What’s First Out of the Acquisition and Network Box?
In the past few months, we’ve kept Spend Matters PRO subscribers abreast of the developments and planning taking place inside SAP and Ariba following the deal’s announcement through closure (with customer and market “edge” we’re known for – we’re fully aware this does not always thrill certain parties!). We’ve also attempted to keep our regular readers (e.g., Spend Matters, Spend Matters UK/Europe, etc.) up to speed as well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to the first public coming-out-as-one-entity party for SAP and Ariba: Sapphire in Europe (which is happening this week). While Spend Matters is not physically in More Info »
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Monitor Group: A Failure of Scenario Planning
Monitor Group’s bankruptcy raises a number of questions around supply risk management, services firm internal controls, scenario planning failures, and more. Below, we feature a guest post from Azul Partners and Cartegic Group scenario planning expert, Art Hutchinson. Art worked for Northeast Consulting (a rival of Monitor Group’s Global Business Network (GBN) scenario planning practice) for many years. He continues to teach and consult on scenario planning for a range of clients. Art and Spend Matters co-founder Jason Busch have worked together for fifteen years. Let me begin by referring to a quote from Victor Cheng, “a one-time McKinsey Consulting More Info »
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Advanced Supplier Management: The Open Vendor Registration and Portal Funnel
This post is based on material contained in the following Spend Matters Compass Series brief: Beyond One-Off Initiatives and a Virtual Vendor Master – Advanced Use Cases for Supplier Management. Organizations starting on the supplier information management (SIM) basics still have much to gain from understanding how more advanced use cases can deliver a level of value that builds incrementally on more foundational deployment approaches and models. We can best describe the vendor registration funnel as characterized by constructive chaos, where supplier records reside in various degrees of completion. Typical features include: Staging by degree of completion: suppliers are automatically More Info »
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Friday Rant: Negotiating Supplier Network Fees
Here at Spend Matters, we believe that it’s time for buying organizations to tackle the network fee question head on. Yet few organizations we talk to have the market intelligence necessary to create strategies to minimize and negotiate supplier network fees as they would more traditional software licenses or SaaS/cloud agreements. Why? First, in looking at the network fee question, it’s important to realize that charges – regardless of whether buyers or suppliers pay them, or both – can come in multiple formats. There are models based on an EDI-like per document model (potentially with minimum commitments which become increasingly More Info »
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Advanced Supplier Management: Building a Strong Foundation
This post is based on material contained in the following Spend Matters Compass Series brief: Beyond One-Off Initiatives and a Virtual Vendor Master – Advanced Use Cases for Supplier Management. Organizations starting on the supplier information management (SIM) basics still have much to gain from understanding how more advanced use cases can deliver a level of value that builds incrementally on more foundational deployment approaches and models. As companies move past the closed registration threshold to open registrations and self-management with workflow and broad integration with other software investments to reuse and enable MDM throughout the enterprise, what should they More Info »
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What The A-Team Can Teach Us About Supplier Negotiations
Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Mason Lee, Manager, and Matt Kucharski, Sr. Consultant, at The Hackett Group. From 1983 to 1987, The A-Team delivered five seasons of action-packed episodes to its cult following. The ex-U.S. Army Special Forces unit, turned mercenaries, were constantly on the run for a “crime they didn’t commit.” The four “soldiers of fortune” who were Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, Lieutenant Templeton “Face” Peck, Captain H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock, and Sergeant First Class Bosco “B.A.” Baracus. The sitcom has left its mark on popular culture through its iconic van and catchphrases. But the creators of More Info »
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Creative Supply Chains: Lessons from Walmart and Liz Claiborne
Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Dean Vella, who writes about supply chain management topics and best practices for University Alliance. Despite signs of a recovery, albeit a slow one, retailers are still feeling the effects of the recession as higher prices for fuel, freight and raw materials drive up the cost of doing business. In order to stay competitive in this climate, retailers have had to develop better efficiencies and innovative management processes. In other words, they’ve had to get creative with an increasingly complex supply chain. The supply chain has long been a point of vulnerability for More Info »
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Communication in Offshoring Relationships
Spend Matters welcomes a guest post from Vantage Partners. Click here for Part 1 of this series on managing performance in offshoring relationships. Failure to communicate about service issues may exacerbate problems. In a 2010 survey, the majority (57%) of respondents who said cultural differences impact their ability to effectively manage performance also noted that directness of communication poses a challenge in their relationship (Vantage Partners, Managing Offshoring Relationships: Governance in Global Deals, 2010). In general, customers believe they tend to communicate directly, but that their provider communicates indirectly, perhaps avoiding discussion of problems for fear of being penalized. For More Info »
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