Posts filed under 'Technology'
May 9th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
There is still time to sign up for the second annual user conference. That is, if you are an Iasta SmartX user. This year, will again be held in Indianapolis, for a 3 day span on eSourcing best practices.
The structure was overwhelmingly approved last year, and will be repeated and improved with the feedback we received. Monday is all day training with a large number of workshops to focus on particular functionality or strategies. Tuesday is a combination of round tables and presentations, which will include some great topics from outside speakers. Finally, Wednesday is a networking day out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fortunately, weather looks like it will be pretty nice, after a very rainy last few days here.
Two of the speakers that I am looking forward to include Infosys and Next Level Purchasing. Infosys will be discussing global procurement strategies and the values of outsourcing. Charles Dominick, of blogging fame, will be presenting about the value of purchasing certifications.
I will have a couple posts next week about these. I am looking forward to kicking this off, we have a lot of new faces in attendance this year.
Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace
April 22nd, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
I guess it would not be a month in supply management without some tale of woe coming from the vendor community. This time it comes in the form of Davaco Sourcing (notice website does not exist any more). At one time, this company was pretty strong in eSourcing for the retail vertical. They originally started as a fixtures procurement application, but switched to general sourcing functionality in 2003. We had beaten them head to head, but the battles were tough, as they were backed by Davaco Inc., in Dallas.
As described by themselves: “DAVACO is the nation’s leading provider of retail services, specializing in the quality management and execution of high-volume rollouts, retrofits, resets and new stores. Our range of comprehensive services helps retailers from concept to grand opening and beyond.”
From everything I know, Davaco is highly successful and a well run company. I think I even remember seeing their signage on a building in Dallas. However, this did not make the eSourcing venture sustainable. In this instance (to the best I can figure out), the company just did a full shut down, not even announcing it publicly. I would suspect they will keep their IP for the sourcing advisory practice, since it appears the SaaS business model had become unworthy of continuation.
This industry is highly competitive. Anything less than full commitment to the success of a company is adding even more pressure and stacking the deck against your chances of survival. I know they had lost at least 2 major clients to Ariba within the last year, and it was no longer viable. I do not know any one there, but from the outside, this looks 100% financial, as the revenue was not supporting the operation. Since they did not liquidate the company, it is likely that the software is much more valuable to them internally, than to any one else.
The drum beats on. The strong will survive and make this industry stable, some day. The question is, how long will it take?
Entry Filed under: General, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace
April 17th, 2008
Agatha Degasperi - Iasta Europe
I took part in a webcast this week entitled “Bringing Contract Management into the 21st Century – 5 Principles Every Procurement Executive Should Know” sponsored by Procurement Leaders.
It is quite clear that Contract Management is starting to add real value to companies. Problem is, too many are still stuck in old practices that result in a lack of visibility, control and inability to manage compliance. I thought it would be worthwhile to highlight some of the key takeaways from this hour long webcast.
What is CLM:
CLM stands for Contract Lifecycle Management and refers to a technology platform(s) that can manage the full lifecycle of a contract (i.e. All governing activities of how contracts are used) which are:
a) Contract Drafting
b) Contract Negotiation
c) Contract Storing and Repository
d) Contract Compliance and administration
e) Contract Renewal
f) Contract Optimization
What are the advantages of implementing CLM (summary of presentation given by Andrew Bartels of Aberdeen Research)
Phase 1 - Contracts reside within one single repository – making it easier to search, analyze and increase visibility into renewals. Already here, there are major cost savings to be had!
Phase 2 - Ability to generate reports and analyze current data – this helps identify duplicates, inconsistencies, and any other potential risks/issues with ongoing contracts
Phase 3 - Automatic contract creation – this helps only use legal staff for critical tasks and shorten the contract cycle times.
Phase 4 - Contract repository integrated with existing transaction systems – this clearly is the ultimate, long term goal of CLM. Where there’s a real time ability to verify that pricing is compliant & meets agreed service levels every time purchases are made – leading to greater conformity of contracts.
Key considerations for successful implementation
a) Aim for some early wins. In other words, don’t try to take on too much in one go. While the ultimate goal is to get all contracts on the system, it is best to go with a phased approach. To prioritize, the key variables to consider are: contract size and degree of activity (start with the contracts driving transactions as these are the renewals you don’t want to miss!)
b) Have a clear system & tool in place for importing existing contracts: ensure the technology you choose accounts for this and establish a system for importing the contracts. Many companies opt to have temps work on this so buyers aren’t bogged down with low value tasks. Furthermore, this step tends to take much longer than expected, so it is good to prepare the resources!
c) Develop best practices around how contracts will be set-up, structured, the verbiage that will be used and the controls that will be in place to manage the contract templates.
d) Maximize buy-in by involving all regions, relevant business units and stakeholders early on in the process. Particularly those close tot he market who are being directly impacted by the lack of visibility and compliance with contracts. Having some early wins with these groups can help serve as a “pull” for those less willing departments.
e) Consider assessing the potential cultural/attitude obstacles to adopting the tool and tackle this early on.
Some other interesting stats presented were that geographically, US appears in the lead of implementing CLM, but Europe is close behind & gaining ground. While the ultimate goal is to reach this phase 4 of integration with transaction systems, the majority of the companies currently find themselves in phase 1: Document Repository. The good news is that there is already tremendous value & ROI to be had with just implementing the first phase, as the increased visibility given will already create savings by helping to not miss renewals and minimizing other possible savings leakage from a lack of contract compliance.
Entry Filed under: Contract Management, General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
April 15th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
I am a little late getting to this report from AMR, which is reserved for members only (although SCDigest did provide a little insight, as did Spend Matters).
High level take aways stated that supply management technology is a key enabler for value chain success, reflected by an anticipated 14.5% increase in spending in 2008. Cost savings and procurement efficiency are two of the primary goals desired by purchasing respondents, and also, it was noted that the spend visibility and contract management were ranked 1 and 2 in the list of Most Strategic Investments.
Another interesting statistic showed that Sourcing tools were the most commonly deployed applications at companies over $1b in revenue, at 67%. That is a very strong show of acceptance of eSourcing. It also showed that an additional 27% of respondents intended to deploy sourcing application, which would total 94%. That seems a little odd to me and possibly I am missing the relationship between those two questions.
One of AMR’s key conclusions drawn was:
Our study identifies a shift away from ERP platforms over the next three years for most supply management segments in favor of best-of-breed and custom applications that are expected to provide the greatest innovation, functionality, and transformational capability in supply management.
This was backed by:
The largest supply management budget segment is internal head count. Tied with the ERP platform as the main supply management application, one definitely questions the use of technology and services to integrate and streamline processes in supply management. With high dollars in these three segments, the opportunity for integration, cycle time reduction, and savings is significant. This is good news for supply management technology vendors, service providers, and business process outsourcing firms.
…
While most of the 15 segments in the United States were sourced using ERP platforms, custom and best-of-breed vendors continued to be deployed and appear to be cutting into ERP market share, specifically in the areas of travel and expense, services procurement, supplier connectivity, SPM, supply visibility, supplier portals, and financial settlement.
Clearly, AMR is very bullish on supply management spending patterns, but also are touting the trend of BoB vendors digging into the ERP meat and potatoes.
Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, Contract Management, General, Spend Analysis, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace
April 14th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
Sourcing Handbook from Iasta.com, baaaby.
Occasionally, a new resource comes along that is really worth spending some time on. A few weeks ago, Iasta Publishing Co, completed its first publication of original work. Most of which is written by Sourcing Futurist and Supply Chain Guru, Michael Lamoureux, who maintains his own blog and is a regular contributor to ESF and ESW.
This is not your typical vendor marketing schlock or PowerPoint clip art. This is a real book, packed with hundreds of pages of powerful best practices content on sourcing and sourcing technology. We decided to release this as an e-book first, with plans to publish in hard copy soon, for easier reading. I am currently working on some ISBN needs, cover design and printing requirements to officially put this on Amazon for purchase.
The e-Sourcing Handbook is a modern guide to Supply and Spend Management Success which utilizes and enhances strategic sourcing technology and best practices. Covering the full spectrum of the e-Sourcing cycle, the handbook helps you understand not only what spend analysis, e-RFx, e-Auction, decision optimization, and contract management are, but where and when to apply these technologies for maximum benefit.
Building on the resounding success of the e-Sourcing Wiki and the e-Sourcing Forum and Sourcing Innovation blogs, the handbook takes the concept of open access to knowledge and best practices one step further by compiling the best information on e-Sourcing to appear on all three public information sources into one definitive source. Furthermore, by mixing content from factual and informative wiki articles with blog postings that are both controversial and opinionated in an innovative manner, the juxtaposition of the two in the handbook allows the reader to see where the boundary lies between information and advocacy. It is the goal of the authors that, through this ground-breaking effort, the reader will gain a better understanding of e-Sourcing and how to take their supply and spend management efforts to the next level.
You may download the e-book version FOR FREE,
from the Iasta website.
Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
April 10th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
Wikis harness the wisdom of crowds, serving as virtual commons where participants can wrestle over ideas and information until something approaching consensus - or the truth - emerges.
Gardiner Morse, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on making the most of company wikis, Harvard Business Review.
I found the above referenced article to be informative and accurate, as Iasta not only maintains the e-Sourcing Wiki in an effort to disseminate knowledge and best practices throughout the e-Sourcing world, but, like thousands of
organizations from Microsoft to the FBI, uses a wiki to aggregate the knowledge of it’s global solutions delivery team, collaborate on new developments, and improve its overall day to day operations. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, had some good insights.
With half of all companies expected to have wikis by 2009, whether approved by management or not, it’s important to understand what wikis are and what they can do. They’re a great tool for open, flexible, rapid collaboration and a great tool to help people reach consensus quickly, negating the need for the meeting pre-meeting to plan the meeting agenda that plagues Dilberts the world over.
To take full advantage of a wiki, make sure to stimulate the right managerial climate. If people are afraid to modify a page written or edited by senior management, the full benefits will never be realized as the best ideas may never be collected, discussed, modified, and adopted. Managers don’t always have the best ideas, and a good manager is one who is able to identify the best idea generated by his subordinates. He’s there to lead, not to do.
Hat tip to the doctor, who wrote an ode to the Wiki Wonderland, for digging up this article.
Entry Filed under: General, Technology
April 9th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
If you are in procurement and in the retail industry, you have benefited from a large focus of attention recently. Aberdeen has released a new report, Business Intelligence in Retail: A Best-in-Class Roadmap for Performance Improvement, which deals with improvement on spend under management. And AMR, is having a retail research bonanza in 2008, with the most recent, Sourcing Revs Up Retailers, recently coming out.
These are great reports for the specific industry mentioned. In particular, AMR describes the differences of the retail environment for sourcing:
- Sourcing scale—A retailer often designs and sources tens of thousands of new products or SKUs every year, with sourcing changes across multiple seasons adding to the complexity.
- Consumer centric—Consumer-driven sales place significant demands on the sourcing process, especially in the area of quality assurance and social responsibility.
- Process and systems complexity—Retail sourcing processes and systems tend to be more complex than those found in other sourcing environments.
They mention that this industry is moving into integrated PLM, product design, visibility and collaboration and vendors need to support this functionality. I see this transformation taking a long time, as many retailers are still trying to get a handle on these parts one at a time. However, the point is valid and most companies should be looking long term for advanced, integrated technology.
Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
April 1st, 2008
Michael Lamoureux
It’s hard to come up with a good definition for supplier enablement. Depending on who you ask, it is either supplier networks, catalog management and / or ((c)XML-based) punchouts, e-Document Management, a Supplier Portal that enables e-Procurement and / or e-Sourcing, or some (often proprietary) combination thereof. The common thread between most of the definitions that one encounters is a greater utilization of technology solutions to streamline procurement and / or sourcing processes by seamlessly connecting the buyer to its suppliers through a common application or platform.
However, none of these definitions really get to what supplier enablement should be. Supplier enablement should be about providing a buyer’s supplier with the solutions that the supplier needs to more efficiently and productively do business with the buyer in such a way that the buyer is also able to conduct business with the supplier more efficiently and productively. It is true that such a solution will need to be based on one or more technology solutions, but the focus needs to be on the business processes required and the capabilities of the supplier, not on the capabilities of the technology supplier. The best technology in the world is useless if the supplier doesn’t have the technical capabilities in-house to make use of it.
Supplier Enablement is relevant as it can significantly increase performance metrics such as spend under management and enterprises that leverage supplier enablement solutions enable their suppliers faster, better, and more efficiently than those that do not. Well executed supplier enablement reduces administrative errors, increases inventory turns, eliminates parallel processes, reduces cycle times, maximizes value, and improves compliance.
To this end, it’s important to understand the four core capabilities that will be required in any end-to-end supplier enablement solution.
- Catalog Management
If the goods and services the intended users of the e-Procurement system need to order on a regular basis are not in the system, this will just result in the system being by-passed and proliferation of the maverick spending that the organization hoped to avoid through the acquisition of the e-Procurement system. Thus, catalog management is quite important.
- Supplier Network
A supplier network, which is becoming a staple offering of many of the larger e-Procurement providers, is a single point of integration that provides a many-to-many connection between buyers and suppliers, allowing them to transact in real time. The major selling points of these networks is pre-enabled suppliers and the ability to find new suppliers almost instantaneously if you are a buyer and the ability to support multiple buyers through the same technology platform and win new opportunities for business if you are a supplier.
- e-Document Management
The most critical, and most often overlooked, component of enablement, regardless if the trading entity is acting in a buyer or a supplier capacity, is that of information and document management. These days, each trading party needs to maintain a host of information on each party it trades with, including incorporation information and status, owners, home country, operating countries, financials, products, services, contacts, CSR status, regulatory compliance, and current contracts as well as a slew of documents including RFx’s, purchase orders, shipping receipts, goods receipts, invoices, payment receipts, product information sheets, and trade documents.
- Supplier Portal
A supplier portal is a web-based interface designed to allow a supplier to easily conduct business with a buyer by providing them with a one-stop-shop access point for receiving and replying to RFX requests, participating in auctions, receiving and returning contracts, providing catalogs, receiving purchasing orders, replying with shipment receipts and invoices, and receiving goods receipts and payments. It also allows the supplier to maintain and update all of their information as required by the buyer and to check order and payment status at any time.
For more insights on #, check out the Supplier Enablement: The Secret to Sourcing Success wiki-paper over on the e-Sourcing Wiki which includes more detail on the core capabilities, an overview of buyer-side and supplier-side challenges that will need to be addressed, and some best practices to help ensure a successful project.
Entry Filed under: General, Supplier Performance, Suppliers, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
March 20th, 2008
Dave Cravens - Iasta
Back in the go-go days at the turn of the millenium, digital marketplaces were taking the world by storm. Everywhere you looked, industry groups were creating business-to-business marketplaces. Sales at Commerce One and similar software companies were exploding by selling to digital marketplaces and exchanges. Millions of dollars in revenue were anticipated by charging transaction fees to suppliers. Large amounts of venture capital poured in for just about any market segment imaginable.
Unfortunately, “the music stopped” when the suppliers rebelled and the revenue did not materialize. The VC’s closed the money spigots and it all came crashing down. After the dust settled, a few of these marketplaces actually survived. How? By evolving their business models to one that adds value for their members, not creating friction between buyers & suppliers. The survivors use their domain knowledge and category-specific expertise to help aggregate spend across multiple companies and source group contracts based on greater volumes and economies of scale. The buyers save money, the suppliers increase revenue and the marketplaces earn consulting revenue. Everyone wins in this scenario. This is one of the many ways that these organizations have adapted for survival in the current supply management landscape.
In this new business model, eSourcing tools play a major role in driving value, as opposed to the eProcurement tools used in the old paradigm. By tying the wisdom of their industry veterans with the productivity of an SRM platform, these companies provide their clients the benefits of authentic supplier consolidation and cost take-out.
What’s next? Advanced Sourcing Optimization will enable them to extend their reach beyond the “low hanging fruit” captured in reverse auctions or comprehensive RFx’s. By targeting complex categories that historically take weeks, or months, of analyst time, marketplaces will increase their applicability to more strategic categories and continue to drive value to their members. Ultimately, vertical marketplaces are not only responsible for delivering ROI to their members but also acting as a trusted advisor on new opportunities and best practices. We see this first hand and the survivors have learned the lessons of the past well.
Entry Filed under: General, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace
March 10th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
Occasionally, it can be difficult to see the forest through the trees, especially as economic pressure is stripping away extra budgets. Supply Chain Brain published findings by AMR last month that advised the opposite.
“Companies that have invested in sourcing and procurement technologies did so to improve operational performance and align with CEO objectives, according to AMR Research analysis in Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies magazine’s 2008 Resource Guide & Executive Yearbook.
Improving operational performance is vital for organizations striving to grow top-line revenue and reduce overall costs. This requires CEOs and their organizations to execute in the present and innovate for the future. Doing so means the CPO initiatives must become imperatives.”
Of the four CPO imperatives identified:
- Ensure reliable supply
- Mitigate risk
- Improve working capital
- Reduce and contain the costs of goods and services. Spend analytics, e-negotiations, e-procurement workflow, expense management, and catalogs help reduce and contain the costs of good and services.
The article goes on to forecast the technology industry for these tools by claiming:
All imperatives are driving sourcing and procurement technology investment and in turn the market, which AMR predicts will grow from $2.4bn in 2006 to $3.5bn in 2011. Buyers are calling for a transformation from traditional, localized sourcing and procurement practices to demand-driven and efficient ecosystems that exist in a global economy.
It is a tough road but one well worth traveling.
Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
March 7th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
Recently, Eric Strovink on Sourcing Innovation had a good write up on building momentum with an eSourcing roll out, which amounts to a quick start guide to success.
Eric explains that you can get off the ground with a very small budgeted amount of money, dedicate minimal resources (1) to effectively test, and to target spend analysis. Certainly, all quality recommendations and Michael adds that spend analysis results may provide funds to:
“pay for that new system that will greatly increase your efficiency, and savings, and allow you to go from running a few projects (that could require an almost painful amount of time and effort because - where e-RFX, e-Auction, and optimization are concerned - you get what you pay for) to running a few dozen or more! And that’s when the real savings will begin.”
I would add to this discussion, by saying that companies also need to assess what they want out of an eSourcing platform. Although you can certainly get benefits by taking a low risk approach (a scenario that was not available years ago), it is equally important to commit to the process. If you want to seriously impact how this technology will impact the bottom line, there should be a comprehensive implementation plan and execution which targets categories, training and sustainable adoption. More expensive? Absolutely. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology
March 4th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
On-demand, whatever. This comes from an article I found on Supply Chain Brain by Jeff Kaplan, titled: Top Ten Reasons Why On-Demand Services Will Soar in 2008.
His reasons in summary:
- Services are Recession Proof
- Everyone’s Going Virtual
- Amazon, IBM and Google Bet on Utility Computing
- Nick Carr Returns
- SaaS Solves SOX
- Managed Services 3.0, Unified Communications Services and Service Automation
- Carriers and Channel Companies Find Success With New Services
- Failure Doesn’t Matter
- IT Discovers Services are the Solution
- Wall Street Buys Into Services
You can read the article for details as he describes them. Three of the ten stuck out a little more than the rest.
First is the #1 point, which states:
“The ability to adopt on-demand services on a pay-as-you-go basis will be a perfect sourcing strategy for businesses seeking greater cost-controls and flexibility.”
This is very self explanatory and the SaaS model has ALWAYS been easy for everybody to “turn on and go”.
Next on point #5, which states:
“A year ago, most publicly traded companies and other large-scale enterprises rejected the idea of SaaS because they thought they needed to take greater responsibility for their own compliance requirements. Now, they view the process controls, auditability and offsite hosting features common in most SaaS applications as a perfect solution for their Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) needs. As a result, enterprise adoption of SaaS will accelerate.”
That is a huge shift of opinion and could be one of the most important foundations possible for a SaaS model. Maybe corporations are starting to listen to and understand the messaging that has been coming out for years from vendors.
Lastly, point #10:
“Wall Street loves the predictability of subscription services and now that it has a solid set of market ‘comps’ to measure business success in the services market, it will be encouraging more privately held companies to go through the IPO door.”
A couple points here. First, we have no intention of going public, but there appears to be many in SaaS that do plan this route. Also, it might give some indication as to why Ariba bought Procuri. Many have said they were looking for a mid-market story and more SaaS revenue.
Finally, point #9 is interesting but I will never bank any value on making IT departments happy. I think the only time they are truly happy, is when they can mope around the office telling everybody how miserable they are because they are too busy to have fun like everyone else.
Entry Filed under: Functionality, General, Technology
February 26th, 2008
Sean Delaney - Iasta UK
In a recent poll for supply management 77% of the respondents were planning to make cuts to their vendor list.
In soccer terms this is the equivalent of a route one i.e., kick the ball as far up the field in the hope that somebody inadvertently nudges it in the right direction and scores a goal. There is not much technique involved but it’s still a goal. However when you try a second time the likelihood of scoring is far less. Sourcing in my opinion is the same, let me explain…..
Global risk factors are no greater than ever before, raw material prices are rising, availability is falling and product life cycles are growing ever shorter.
Procurement should be wary of these factors and in my opinion decisions to reduce the number of suppliers should not be made by simply (as a respondent to this survey suggests) looking at the aggregate spend against the number of suppliers and then picking a number.
I strongly believe — more than ever before — now is the time for a much more measured approach to identifying the optimum number of suppliers. Other factors should be considered:
- Required lead times – do all items need to be delivered at the same time, or are suppliers dictating terms?
- Supplier Sourcing – it’s no longer enough to have two suppliers; we now need to understand the shape of their supply chain, i.e. from where are our suppliers sourcing? Do they have the same source? If so, supply risks are not reduced.
- KPI’s (key performance indicators) – should be constantly measured and automatically collated. These measures should be regularly factored into forward orders and commitment i.e. signs of low OTIF percentages should be tackled immediately and plans executed to reduce risk and maintain continuity.
- Goals of the business (i.e. product life cycles) - How long is a product due to run and what are the forecasts? What is likely to replace existing revenue? What is currently being trialed?
- Customer profiles and spend patterns - For example if customer expenditure patterns are likely to be more price sensitive, then there could be a shift in demand patterns. Therefore reducing commitments on high-value buys will reduce exposure and risks.
I’m sure there are plenty more factors which should be considered but these are the first ones that come to mind.
Basically I think this is no longer just a simple decision and the total cost of ownership is now key. However I can’t see how this can be done without up to date management information and therefore decent spend analysis software which tracks all these factors.
In summary route one i.e. reducing supplier numbers is too risky and is now less likely to reap the rewards of past rationalisation. To mitigate the risks and still deliver benefits buyers need to adopt a more measured approach in much the same way as the most successful Premiership Managers. Real time Spend Management information is the imperative.
Entry Filed under: Analysts/Research, General, Sourcing News, Supply Management Best Practices, Technology, e-Sourcing Marketplace
February 21st, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
Industry Week recently ran an article on 7 strategies for implementing a successful corporate wiki which I found illuminating not for the strategies, as Iasta has already gone down the road of implementing wikis both internally and externally, but because it recognizes the importance of the wiki as a collaboration and knowledge sharing tool within an organization.
The article notes that businesses must enlist technologies that will help workers stay connected while they collaborate on internal projects. This is especially important if your workforce is geographically spread out. Furthermore, in today’s workplace, workers come and go, and it’s important to capture their knowledge before they retire, resign, or move on to another position in the company.
As the author notes, before you start off down the markup-tagged road, you need to assess for yourself what can be done to ensure employees use wikis productively and for the larger good, and design your wiki to meet the criteria you identify. To help you with this, the following strategies were presented:
- integrate the wiki as one of several tools in the collaboration architecture
- define, monitor, and enforce the wiki rules of conduct
- optimize the use of wikis for collaborative knowledge creation
- assign a champion to encourage adoption and use of each wiki
- realize that the largest barrier will be convincing your employees to edit the work of their peers
- incorporate small scripts that structure and automate repetitive behaviors
- constantly encourage collaboration in the work place
Entry Filed under: General, Technology
February 15th, 2008
David Bush - Iasta
I was actually starting to get used to my daily email from Reuters, which I was eventually able to set up with a better topic rule list. So, in the middle of December, I scratched my head a couple times trying to remember the last time I got my sourcing news. Finally, I took the time to email Maud Larpent about it, who graciously replied.
Hi Dave
Yes the daily emails have been stopped… Reuters has moved to the next stage of development of the Reuters Insight service and as a result has closed the pilot on Monday 17th December 2007. The team will use learnings, and your feedback, to drive the next stage of developing the business.
This approach will ensure we are able to concentrate on providing the best service possible. We appreciate your commitment to and support of the Reuters Insight service. We’ll continue to keep you up to date with our plans for the future and please continue to contact us, at go.global@reuters.com.
Kind Regards
Maud
I really liked that service, although I never understood what Reuters was getting out of it. Although, I thought the filters could be improved, it did a pretty good job of sending me about 1-2 articles of interest per day.
So, that’s the update, if any one else was getting those and wondered what happened, since I never got a notice of suspension. Maybe it will be back with more features and push traffic into more Reuters affiliated sites. If I could have drilled into more specific categories, it would have been a really slick way to automate my sourcing news.
Entry Filed under: General, Technology
Previous Posts
