Category Archives: Supplier Performance & Risk Management
In the past, we’ve taken a close look at how procurement’s maturity curve affects its focus. Two recent posts addressed issues concerning the evolving role of procurement savings, compliance and enterprise alignment. In this blog series, we’ll consider risk. First, we look at supplier risk and methods to monitor and mitigate it; then we’ll examine internal vs. external risk sources. Procurement: Sourcing risk mitigation. After procurement has dealt with the primary internal spend management needs of the enterprise —savings generation … More
[Note: This article was originally posted on CPORising.com. Determine is pleased to contribute regularly to Ardent Partners blog on the topics of procurement and supply management. You can read the original post and other content from Ardent Partners HERE.] Needless to say, the start of year has hardly been one for celebration. Recent volatility in the stock market has been driven by the Chinese bubble economy, oil prices hitting a 13 year low of $25 a barrel, and crisis in … More
This is the fourth in a five-part series discussing the obstacles and potential paths forward to achieve visibility – essential to any Procurement organization. The article was initiated based upon the following Ardent paper – HERE. In the first, second and third installment overall Spend and Savings were discussed. Let’s examine the third key area or leading indicator of procurement success: Risk. Risk For the past couple of years, I have been talking to prospects and customers about the topic … More
In the past, Supplier Information Management (SIM) systems have focused on, well, managing supplier information. They kept everything in one place and made supplier data available to those who needed it. But that’s essentially where it ended. And that old SIM method is no longer enough. Sourcing is increasingly complex, forced to satisfy a growing number of regulations and strict compliance requirements, in addition to constant directives from executives to trim waste wherever possible. As a recent Spend Matters™ paper points … More
ISM’s annual supply management conference is just around the corner, May 3 – 6 in Phoenix. If you haven’t yet made plans to attend, there’s still time to look into it. If your travel plans are all in place, then you have to make some tough decisions about which breakout sessions to attend. This year, the tracks at ISM 2015 are decidedly strategic and value oriented, making it harder to determine which sessions offer the processes that can best benefit … More
Just a couple of days ago, Gartner published its Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Suites, February 2015. We are proud to note that we have been recognized by Gartner as a visionary in the latest Moving from the leader’s quadrant into the top portion of the visionary quadrant, we take into account our adjustment from the previous report in July 2013. The elimination of many other vendors from the pool should also be noted. One could argue the changes in … More
As kids enter Kindergarten, one of the basic lessons we teach them is learning how to play well with other children. Almost any kindergartner will tell you, “If you play nice with others, they will play nice with you.” But as adults, it seems as though we’ve forgotten this basic lesson we teach children – especially in the daily routine of our working relationships. Procurement is no exception. For instance, from a procurement perspective, it has often been argued that … More
I can rattle of many reasons why teams should consider implementing a modern sourcing solution. Even though each company will have different challenges, needs, and goals; if your team is experiencing any of these eight signs below, now is the time to adopt a modern sourcing solution! Sign #1: Limited Or No Visibility Into Your Company’s Spend If you have limited or no visibility into your spend, you are likely missing out on hard dollar savings. A spend analysis solution … More
The emergence of Big Data has created a demand in the ability to understand and make sense out of an increasingly amount structured and unstructured information. The increased interest in analytics has given rise to a “culture of analysis” where procurement now sees: More data is being collected with an increased portion of this data to be analyzed coming from unstructured data sources such as pdf files, PPTs, emails, blog entries, wikis, word processing documents, photos, graphic images, videos, streaming … More
Welcome back! Just joining in? In Part 1 I discussed two trends that we should look for in Procurement in 2014. Today, I’ll share the final two trends: 3-Increased consolidation of procurement and supplier data analytics –Analytics will continue to drive improvements in the ability to take action in business, probably more than any other technology medium for procurement and business at large. Due to the “Big Data” phenomenon, Analytic / BI platforms will increasingly need to accommodate third party … More
Welcome back! Just joining in? Check out Part 1. In order to better understand the trend towards cost avoidance, consider traditional cost containment questions in sourcing which may include: What is the historical price of what we are buying? What discounts / savings can we get from buying now? What is our existing contractual relationship with that supplier? However, when addressing cost avoidance, the questions become much more complex. A cost avoidance mentality drums up sourcing questions such as: What … More
What happens when disaster strikes your supply chain? As a modern sourcing pro, you understand your role in your company’s supply chain operations and supplier risk program. Even though you can’t avoid ALL supply chain disasters, having a plan in place and being proactive when responding to changes in your marketplace and your supply base is a critical to your company’s success. If you aren’t sure where to start in developing your supply chain disaster plan, start with these four … More
Years ago, Prego televised a commercial for their spaghetti sauce with the catch phrase, “it’s in there.” The commercial went something like this… A father enters the house for a spaghetti dinner and condones his son’s wife for using sauce from a jar. The father continues to talk about garlic, herbs and onions to which the son replies, “it’s in there.” For those not familiar with the commercial, you can view it here. So, how does a can of Prego … More
