Category Archives: General
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
It’s Super Bowl week here in Indianapolis. More than 11,000 volunteers are prepared to make Super Bowl XLVI an amazing experience for the fans, tourists and locals. Just today I heard that the NFL experience attracted a record 42,000+ visitors on Saturday. And as the teams are arriving Monday, it comes to mind how making the Super Bowl is a huge victory for any football team; think of it like accomplishing the executive mandate of the sourcing world. So, what … 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
CIOs seeking to optimize operational efficiency often rely on strategies and frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT. But deploying a process improvement initiative or set of tools isn’t enough. True enterprise-wide process maturity is characterized by clearly defined activities, functions, roles, and responsibilities. This enables the IT organization to quickly address performance issues, identify root causes, and prevent recurring problems. Perhaps more importantly, process discipline enables demand management and flexible, usage-based pricing – essential components of cloud and utility computing … More
In the past few years, the procurement world has developed better ways to level the playing field between new suppliers and incumbent suppliers. Buyers have successfully driven costs down by embracing processes and technologies that increase competition between suppliers. Generally this trend has made it easier for suppliers to get “introduced” to buyers. Supply relationship management technology has also increased the pressure for incumbent suppliers to maintain competitive pricing. Clearly the risks associated with switching suppliers are commodity dependent. It’s … More
Since the turn of the century, they have experienced the wrath of volatile price fluctuations (mainly price up) in their commodity markets. The Holy Grail in procurement is to achieve a position in the firm where its function is no longer justifying its existence and focusing on an internal sales job. This goal is made a lot harder to achieve when procurement must defend why costs exceed expectations. I can only imagine how many CPOs have been hauled into boardrooms … More
Over the last several years, health care providers such as physician offices, clinics and hospitals have seen a dramatic increase in costs to run their facilities. The new HIPA regulations and the much anticipated “Obamacare” will continue to raise costs in the coming years while reducing reimbursement payments for services rendered. These changes will make it even more critical to find ways to reduce costs and maintain a high quality of service to patients. A Practice Management and Healthcare Billing … 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
As organizations transition to more “e-enabled” platforms to conduct business ¬— whether it’s e-sourcing, supplier Web portals or conducting business meetings via WebEx or Skype — they will benefit from more opportunities to use these technologies to supplement workforce capability. Recently, I had the opportunity to collaborate with an academic colleague at Indiana University in Indianapolis (IUPUI), Dr. Peggy Daniels Lee, who was teaching a sourcing class. At the time, I was teaching a B2B marketing class at Indiana State … More
As the year comes to an end, we crunched the numbers to see which blog posts were the most popular. We’ll use the data to continue providing content that is relevant and useful. We thought you might be interested in knowing too so here they are. In ranked order, the top 5 blog posts on eSourcing Forum were: 1. Three Lessons Sourcing Can Learn from Firework Shopping 2. Procurement Fraud: A Costly White Collar Crime on the Rise 3. What Procurement Can Learn … More
As procurement departments are trudging down the path to becoming best-in-class, Integrated Category Management organizations, it can help to take a step back to look at the big picture. Putting out fires and maintaining laser-like focus on cost reduction and other tactical activities can consume our days and force us to put more strategic endeavors on the back burner. So, before you move into the holiday season and start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, do what you can to … More
Discussions around cloud security tend to be framed in terms of lonely ships sailing into uncharted waters: “You don’t know what you’re getting into,” we’re routinely warned. Actually, we do. The fact is, the fundamental security challenges confronting a company seeking to source IT infrastructure services in the cloud are essentially the same as those faced in traditional outsourcing. Various potential risks – data center vulnerability, network intrusion, unauthorized system access, data privacy, natural disasters, etc. – must be assessed … More
The North America payroll administration outsourcing market is constantly evolving. Different types of clients require different solutions, and providers continue to refine their offerings to meet the diverse needs. In recent years North America payroll providers have been stretching their outsourced payroll services so that what was once a specialized “service bureau,” fulfilling functions such as tax filing and check printing, is now broadened in scope to include traditional payroll processing as a basic package. Heritage payroll providers, such as … More
