Spend Matters

Personality Modeling Can Be As Important As Cost Modeling

- March 5, 2015 9:04 AM | Categories: Learning / Research, Procurement, Procurement Commentary

Have you taken the small snap poll we are doing in conjunction with the Institute for Supply Management regarding procurement’s personality? This 3-4 minute practitioner poll closes this Friday. If you are a practitioner, check it out and see how you compare to your peers. The results, which you will receive if you participate, should be very interesting. Immediately after posting an article on the survey earlier this week, there was a comment that this topic is basically all pseudoscience and irrelevant to procurement. The comment is telling – and is itself at the core of the problem that I’m trying to address. Let me be more succinct in presenting my 3-part argument…

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We Are All Spend Mavericks At Heart: Indirect Spend Challenge No. 3

Jason Busch

- March 5, 2015 6:31 AM | Categories: Analysis, Spend Analysis, Spend Management

With apologies to an unnamed friend and expert in the sector who goes by the nickname “spend maverick,” one of the major challenges of indirect spend is that we’re all truly mavericks at heart about our buying activities. And no one e-procurement tool would change this. Seriously, ask yourself (take off the procurement hat for a minute), isn’t circumventing policy (or pleading ignorance) often much easier than following the rules? It absolutely is. And we can often find better pricing by circumventing rules and system rather than following them, especially for less frequently purchasing items and services.