Category Archives: e-Sourcing Marketplace
The 12th Annual ISM Services Conference, this year held in Phoenix, AZ December 1-2, focused on many topics dealing with the challenges involved in sourcing things like temporary labor, marketing agencies, and legal services. The conference had a full agenda, covering topics such as Building a High-Impact Indirect Sourcing Function and The Five Golden Rules of Negotiation. Several of the sessions are summarized below: Enlightening Marketing Procurement: Maximizing Investment. Minimizing Waste. Presenters: Chuck Hatsis: President of Surge Consulting and Shannon Puhl, … More
An article in the September issue of Inside Supply Management, entitled “Market Intelligence Matters,” compelled me to think about the reasons why we manage the supply chain proactively and develop sourcing strategies. Fundamentally, we engage in these activities to ensure that our businesses can continue to provide world-class goods and services in a global marketplace. Moreover, we want to demonstrate that purchasing adds significant value to our organizations. In his article, Joseph Mullan references some market intelligence best practices: • Supply … More
As service delivery destinations have become increasingly globalized over the years, selecting the optimal location for a sourcing engagement has become a more and more complex process. While the number of possible locations has grown dramatically, each destination is also busy self-promoting, creating a competitive atmosphere that further magnifies the difficulty of your decision. What might appear to be a relatively straightforward choice based on general awareness of popular countries and cities, selection is — in reality — a much … More
The next generation of strategic sourcing solutions has enhanced greatly over the past few years, allowing purchasing teams to become more strategic within their company. By following best practices to drive user adoption of these tools, these teams are quickly gaining traction and increasing their sourcing credibility. Jason Treida, Chief Operating Officer of Iasta, will participate on a panel discussion about this topic at the 2011 Finance Transformation Conference in Dallas, Texas on September 22. The panel is titled, “Expanding … More
As my colleague Bobby Neil and I wrote earlier this year, if you’re looking to buy Software as a Service (SaaS), it takes diligence. It’s important to understand whether you’re buying a true SaaS solution or simply a repackaged, “on-demand” version of the software. The same can be said for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). A true IaaS service can, at times, be difficult to discern from a more traditional managed service. Unfortunately, many vendors continue to market and sell … More
As Steve Jobs walks away from his CEO position at Apple, the financial and technology world has been speculating about Apple’s future. Steve Jobs is largely credited with supplying the magic that made Apple products so successful. He brought an alien vocabulary to the consumer electronics business when he spoke of people wanting poetry in the objects they use. He built Apple’s brand based on the premise that not only would people pay for that poetry they’d pay a premium … More
You’ve just completed a competitive bidding event with large potential savings for at least equal quality and service. Congratulations! However, to capture the savings you must move significant business from an incumbent supplier. Do the following scenarios sound familiar? Scenario 1: You approach the incumbent supplier to break the bad news. They offer to meet competing pricing if you leave the business with them. Scenario 2: You go to internal stakeholders to sell the award recommendation. They ask you to … More
In the third of the 4 part series, we will dive more deeply into the second possible approach to finding savings in indirect goods and services: Sourcing. You can also read part 1 and part 2. Can you centrally source two or three key categories–waste management or security, for example–and show significant savings? Although retailers generally cannot often mandate contract usage, sourcing and sharing those savings at an operating company level on a pro-rata basis often gains buy in and … More
It seems that there are still some misunderstandings in the marketplace about the place of reverse auctions in eSourcing. I’ve noticed that several procurement professionals are facing resistance from their internal stakeholders to using eSourcing platforms. This puzzled me, so I decided to put on my detective’s hat. In my investigation, I determined that many procurement professionals: • Use a rigorous sourcing process or “playbook” • Have a common platform that provides a centralized place for everyone to collaborate and gain visibility … More
Implementing a multi-provider sourcing strategy across multiple countries requires tight coordination between business units, finance, legal and internal contract management. Success depends on an appropriate commercial structure, well-managed multiple-provider service delivery, smooth invoicing and allocation processes, and optimal service levels. Note these TPI Top 5 questions and their answers, which will be unique to your organization, when considering a multi-provider, multi-country sourcing strategy: 1. How do we create a suitable commercial structure? Cross-border taxes and cross-subsidization are key factors in determining … More
Looking back fifteen or twenty years, large corporations utilized low cost country sourcing (LCCS) in order to maintain their competitive edge in their respective marketplaces. As time progressed, smaller companies followed suit. In many cases, finding/developing/investing in LCCS suppliers resulted in cost savings of 50% or more. Initially, most LCCS activity centered around the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As China’s infrastructure & labor costs increased steadily over the past ten years, India and several countries in Eastern Europe became … More
A recent article from the Iasta Insights sourcing newsletter listed twelve symptoms or indicators that your organization might be ready for a procurement transformation. According to the article, procurement organizations with five or more symptoms were probably ready. Read the complete article here: Diagnosing the Spend Patient: Twelve Symptoms that may Suggest a Procurement Transformation. The very first indicator, reverse auctions have become a strategy and not just a tool or tactic in a broader sourcing program, made me pause. … More
When following the wireless industry, one is cognizant of the never-ending churn; services, companies, technologies, rate plans. Current examples are: (1) the pending ATTW and T-Mobile merger in 2012 (2) Sprint’s many issues with its investment in 4G Wi-Max provider Clearwire and new agreement with LightSquared (3) industry movement to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, thereby antiquating current equipment and (4) resellers positioning for the mergers and growth of their larger facilities-based competition. Now more than ever before, effectively … More
Last week, Iasta received the 2011 North American Product Line Strategy Award in the Strategic Sourcing Industry from analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan. “Iasta is honored to receive this prestigious award that recognizes our strategy, innovation, product line and equally important, our commitment to customers,” said David Bush, CEO of Iasta. “This past year, we have built a sustainable strategy that has allowed us to continue growing with our customers, without letting the business outgrow its founders. We have taken … More
