Category Archives: Functionality
At month end, many families struggle with too many bills and not enough cash. What to do? Financial planners suggest that families start a log of all expenses so that at the end of the month they can see where the cash went. Families that do that find opportunities to cut back. “I didn’t realize I spent that much at Starbucks” is a typical revelation. Businesses face the same situation; cash seems to disappear: Financial statements show expense categories, but … More
Greg Henkin Managing, Partner iXchange, has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry. He has held senior management positions in several major insurance brokerages, owned his own brokerage and risk management consulting firms, and now owns and operates the iXchange. In his experience, reverse auctions in the insurance space are most successful when the sourcing event follows these six steps: Establish goals and parameters. Agree on the timing and date of the auction. In addition, you should … More
In Part 1, I covered the model and value of free tools. Click here to read Part 1. In Part 2, I will cover another important component of free tools, support. Another hard truth about free eSourcing tools is that many of them do not come with much support. Perhaps you get some online manuals or a video tutorial, but don’t expect live, experienced user support to help guide you during critical events. The onset of an eSourcing program is … More
Many companies these days are providing free services and technology to different markets. This is not a new trend. Over a decade ago, I got my first free, Web-based e-mail account. It was a Hotmail account and, in fact, I still have it today. Free storage, free tools, free address book, etc. – it’s pretty cool. Today, you can find dozens of free, Web-based e-mail solutions, each having its own hook but all looking pretty much the same. The one … More
As sourcing organizations mature, it becomes more and more challenging to deliver significant savings across well-sourced categories. However, it has been Paladin Associates’ experience that there continue to be opportunities in both direct and indirect categories. Recently a client engaged Paladin to lead the sourcing process for Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs). While the process was not unusual, its rigor demonstrated efficiency, effectiveness and the capability to deliver not only savings, but to provide greater understanding of and continuity of … More
The use of reverse auctions has significantly reduced the costs of many commodities that corporations purchase. The “art” of spend management and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO’s) using reverse auctions is becoming common among private equity firms. The principal focus of spend management is on goods and commodities. The successful application of reverse auctions to such corporate service “spend” categories as legal, accounting and insurance is relatively limited. A few large corporations have experimented with the use of reverse auctions for … More
Cast a Wider Net Using World Class Bid Gathering and Bid Analysis Tools Optimization is the process of collecting and evaluating supplier proposals to arrive at the best possible sourcing solution that meets all the buyer’s needs. This process reaches out to current and prospective suppliers encouraging all to be creative and innovative. Optimization uses state-of-the art computer based tools that give suppliers an online platform for submitting proposals in a “non-auction” environment and enabling buyers to thoroughly evaluate hundreds … More
In the modern, data-centric world we live in, dashboards are all the rage. In fact, a dashboard is one of the most powerful tools that business-intelligence software can bring to users. The accessibility and user-friendly data offered by well-designed dashboards can increase transparency into key projects and improve resource tracking, to name only a couple advantages. As BI software continues to evolve, three key characteristics have emerged as best practices for developing successful dashboards: • Simple, but meaningful: The data should … More
Today, many children will roam the streets trick-or-treating, and people of all ages will attend costume parties and decorate their homes with all things “scary.” This spooky holiday got us thinking about what fears keep procurement professionals restless and awake all night. Below are three of the scary situations we came up with for procurement: 1. Supplier risk – Risk should always be taken into account as part of good supply chain governance. Without having a process in place to track and … More
Last week, Seth Balsam, Director of Global IT Sourcing at Ciena, contributed to Iasta’s Webcast, Using Spend Analysis to Smooth the M&A Path: 4 Steps to Consolidate Your Purchasing Power. When Ciena acquired Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks, Ciena literally doubled its size overnight: twice the revenue, twice the customers, and twice the employees. All those doubles don’t come for free. Even though spend data doesn’t get a lot of headlines in M&A news, the merger also resulted in twice the … More
During the first half of 2011, more than 4,100 merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions took place, according to a recent article on Open Forum. These transactions were valued at more than $620 billion. In the second quarter of the year alone, more than 2,000 M&As were successfully completed, with a transaction value exceeding $260 billion. You don’t see only big companies participating in M&As, either. According to the article, “People are attracted to larger numbers and that’s why those deals … More
Did you know post M&A spend analysis efforts typically yield a savings of 7-10 times the project investment? Spend visibility is critical in helping your organization consolidate its purchasing power. Without spend visibility, you could be missing out on significant cost-savings opportunities. You never know where your organization’s true and best opportunities are until the majority of spend data has been analyzed. Join Iasta, Ciena and Andrew Bartels from Forrester Research for a free Webcast titled Using Spend Analysis to … 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
Everyone in procurement knows that spend analysis is important. The problem is they also know that it’s hard. It means getting a lot of data that may come from multiple sources, determining a hierarchical classification system, and classifying each piece of data (usually each financial transaction). You’re also going to need software tools to compile the data in meaningful ways so that you can see spending patterns and identify opportunities for savings. It’s not about getting the data one time; … More
In the second of the 4 part series, we will dive more deeply into the first possible approach to finding savings in indirect goods and services: Spend Visibility. Although most companies realize how important spend visibility is, many companies struggle with three common issues: 1. How do I build a business case to prove we need visibility? 2. I have an ERP system, can’t I use that? 3. I have a spend visibility provider, but I am not sure if it is giving … More
