Category Archives: Interviews
With a new year upon us, I hope you’re all taking the opportunity to assume a few risks, embrace some stretch goals, and try out a some fresh strategies to take yourself and your organization a little further than you went last year. As everyone revs into high gear to launch their 2012 initiatives, it’s a perfect time to incorporate some knowledge and experiences from those who have gone before you. With that in mind, we here at Iasta are … 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
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
Don’t forget to register for Iasta’s Webcast next week featuring Andy Bartels from Forrester Research and Seth Balsam from Ciena, Using Spend Analysis to Smooth the M&A Path: 4 Steps to Consolidate Your Purchasing Power, on September 21, 2011 at 11 AM – 12 PM EST. You will learn how to: Expedite M&A decisions through use of spend analysis Determine the taxonomy system that best fits your organization Tackle complex issues associated with importing data from multiple ERP systems, locations & … More
How can CPOs help their organization deal with supply chain disruptions, talent shortages, communication gaps, globalization, increasing commodity prices and many other challenges invading their supply chains? Iasta recently sponsored an Aberdeen Group report that investigates this question. The report titled, “Dynamic Procurement: The CPO as a Collaborator, Innovator and Strategist,” is written by Constantine Limberakis. You can download the full report at no charge for a limited time. More than 120 finance, operations, procurement and supply chain professionals were … More
Does having no Internet for nine days take a country back to the Middle Ages? Maybe. Does shutting down the Internet country-wide disrupt outsourcing operations and create supply chain risks? Absolutely. Egypt hasn’t left the global headlines within the past week, and one reason is because the country cut off access to the Internet on January 26th in the wake of civil protests and unrest. The Internet went live again on February 3rd. The Government shut down the Internet to … More
Today’s post is the second half of Iasta’s interview with Ed Kuyon, Director of Sales Operations for Aeroxchange, as he goes into more detail about PMA parts, finding additional cost savings in the airline industry and future plans for Aeroxchange. The manufacture and sale of aircraft parts is highly regulated, and there are a large number of sole-source suppliers in the industry. Over the past 10 to 15 years, however, PMA parts have gained a wider acceptance in the industry. According to the … More
For the first nine months of 2010, operating profits for domestic airlines were more than $7.1 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2010, the airline industry proudly reported its most profitable year in nearly a decade. The financial situation for many airline companies was dramatically different just two years ago. In 2008, the recession hit travelers’ wallets hard, causing demand for airfare to decrease to record lows. Oil prices also peaked to all-time highs during this time. … More
by: Bill Huber, Director, CFO Services I recently had the opportunity to chat with Cognizant’s Ramesh Gudalur, Head, Global BPO, and Paul Roehrig, Director of Strategy for Cloud Business Solutions, regarding the implications of Cloud Computing for BPO. Bill Huber: Frame the big picture for our readers… How does Cognizant see the cloud impacting the way in which BPO services are delivered? Paul Roehrig: Broadly speaking, multiple converging contextual forces such as the reset economy, intense businesses pressures, the increase … More
By: Cynthia Batty, Global Competency Lead, Service Management, TPI You are in the second year of a service provider relationship, and your first relationship manager is ready to roll off to a new assignment. Your service provider has offered two candidates to interview – what should you ask them? You’ll want to know how they perceive the service provider’s role: you need someone who is experienced and smart, with the wits and wisdom to discern when things need to be … More
I have been desperate to take some time to read this article in SM on the A to Z of SRM. It is a big topic anyway but I was still hoping that It would offer some clarity on what is SRM. However, it gave me a lot more. The speakers highlighted at the SRM conference in Geneva outlined how they interpreted SRM within their organisations and what benefits it gave. Let me summarise, by speaker: BP, Bill Knittle – … More
Procurement Leaders spoke to Kris Timmermans, managing partner of sourcing and procurement at Accenture, about the role procurement has to play in a recession. In the interview, he highlighted four areas the procurement leaders can differentiate themselves. “If I see how some of the leaders are really differentiating themselves, I would highlight four elements. First, they are looking at cutting non-working money in a strategic way, refer to it as strategic cost management. I also see that they are preparing … More
Knowledge@Wharton had an interview with David Lee, of Boston Consulting Group, on the topic of China sourcing, covered on Supply Chain Brain. The interview is very in-depth on the issues with managing the sourcing process where China is involved. One particular area of focus was regarding supplier identification and outreach. Chinese suppliers do not always have the same capabilities and the quality level can be highly uneven. But on top of that, we have a very non-transparent supplier market. We … More
Last week I found a great interview about eSourcing. It is available on NLP blog, administered by Charles Dominick. Seriously, I could not have said some of those things better myself. It was nice to do a little cross-pollination with NLP blog. Charles has built a great business in an unlikely place, and much like Iasta, finding these types of solution providers can be very beneficial to a procurement team in the long run. We hope you enjoy the perspective.
