Correction: 2007 ISM R. Gene Richter Awards for Leadership and Innovation in Supply Management

July 20th, 2007 at 08:17am David Bush - Iasta

The procurement organization used to be a back-office function, considered of little strategic value to the company. But with the Chief Procurement Officer now taking a seat at a company’s helm and supply management increasingly becoming a bottom line issue, it’s finally getting the respect it deserves.

Technology: The procurement and logistics team at Alltel Wireless, a $7.9B telecommunications company, designed a workflow management tool without the assistance of IT. The tool provides visibility from budgets to sourcing to forecasting. It tracks projects, savings, and has run more than 490 sourcing events.

People: British Petroleum (BP), the $245B energy giant, established the “Rapid Sourcing Team” as part of its efforts to not only find and recruit new people, but also give them skills that greatly enhance BP’s efforts while cultivating a new generation of valued employees.

Process: Johnson and Johnson, the $5.3B consumer products company, concentrated on lean sourcing initiatives. The company rallied 30 leaders from across its organization, representing all the operating companies of J&J in North America, to help focus spending management and create a sourcing process. The result was a “standardized process to understand the spending, a process to source consulting, and the basics for supplier relationship management. J&J created a competitive advantage by improving the sourcing and commercial competence of procurement, and procedures to make and manage business commitments.”

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Sorry, its a Friday post and I have been traveling all week. At this point I just dont have the energy to put much more into this. Plus, I wasted over 2 hours of prime blogging time reading about the worst guy in the world, Ron Mexico…errr, Mike Vick.

Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology / SaaS