eWorld Purchasing and Supply - London Day 1

February 21st, 2006 at 12:09pm Sean Delaney - Iasta UK

First day at eWorld and it’s been busy. A delegate informed me that a local branch of CIPs (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply) held a seminar recently asking….”Reverse Auction Fact or Fiction”. After today’s responses I can safely say, it is definitely Fact!

The event opened with a Barn Storming performance from The Hackett Group. Loads of slides with up to date industry analysis which left some of the delegates for dead! However the basic theme was that purchasing departments must get the processes right before engaging the technology and this theme continued through the day in a number of seminars.

I am not sure I agree as a multi-layered approach will create results far quicker, i.e, run auctions on categories you understand, create the traction and as a default the software will create the processes for you. Too often the focus is on process and we lose site of the ultimate goal which is saving money.

Another common subject discussed today was “beyond eAuctions” or “beyond eProcurement” which in my opinion is extremely premature. The market is clearly evolving at a break neck speed but many of the delegates are being left behind and have yet to reach first base. As one of our regular blog visitors said to me today…”if I have £1000 to spend on learning to play golf I would rather spend £800 on lessons and £200 on equipment than spend £1,000 on equipment and not know how to play” (Strategic Category Manager for Abbott Laboratories).

Tomorrow I will be posting quotes from delegates over the 2 days.

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Entry Filed under: General, Reverse Auctions, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology / SaaS, e-Sourcing Marketplace