E-Sourcing Forum

Retailers Are in a Price War to Get Their Goods Delivered

2010-07-29T20:58:38Z

A recent article from the New York Times on the state of shipping around the globe caught my eye. It seems as though retailers are feeling the pressure. Retailers are now seeing an even larger effect from the recession: they are in bidding war to ensure that their goods are delivered to store locations. “The grills shaped [...]

Procurement Leadership in the Perfect Storm – Webinar

2010-07-27T20:44:07Z

The current economic crisis that continues to negatively impact global markets has dramatically altered the competitive landscape for corporations. Every day, the news is the same. Demand, revenue, profits, and shareholder value are all down while the costs and risks of doing business are all up. This “Perfect Storm” of economic conditions [...]

Iasta titled the 10th Fastest Growing Private Company in Indiana for 2010 Third time honored on Indianapolis Business Journal

2010-07-22T15:36:23Z

Iasta, the leading provider of eSourcing software and solutions, was titled as the 10th Fastest Growing Private Company in Indiana for 2010 by the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ). A third time honoree, Iasta boosted its three-year growth rate at 134 percent. The report profiled Iasta’s founding’s, current offerings and future [...]

Supplier Performance Management (SPM): What Has Caused SPM to Be a Huge Factor in Supply Chain Management?

2010-07-20T17:29:42Z

This is the first in a series of posts discussing the history of, business case for and strategy behind supplier performance management. Before we can get to the end goal of creating an SPM strategy, we must understand the factors in our supply chains that have caused SPM to become an enormously important part of our [...]

POSSIBLE NEW EURO CURRENCY DEMANDS FOCUS ON PROCUREMENT, SAYS ADR INTERNATIONAL

2010-07-15T14:15:07Z

Speculation that Germany and other northern European nations may launch a new breakaway euro means businesses must focus on how they buy goods and services, say procurement experts ADR International. Robin Jackson, CEO of ADR International, says exchange rate movements present risks and opportunities for procurement professionals. In the latest issue of the ADR International eBulletin, he [...]

A Conversation with Cognizant on Cloud Computing Implications on BPO

2010-07-13T18:34:34Z

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 [...]

Preparing your organization for HIPAA-compliant Cloud Computing

2010-07-08T18:16:23Z

By: Jim Kane Healthcare providers have an opportunity to take advantage of new, advanced technology in cloud computing. Given the heavy industry regulation, it is important for health professionals to determine if cloud computing can provide them a secure, reliable, scalable, and inexpensive computing platform that can be used to facilitate healthcare customers’ HIPAA-compliant applications and [...]

The Senate Finance Bill and Potential Implications for the Outsourcing Market

2010-07-06T17:26:11Z

The Senate bill that would overhaul U.S. financial regulations at a level not seen since the 1930’s. The legislation proposes to close holes in regulation and curtail some trading practices that many believe led to the 2008 crisis in the financial markets. The Senate bill differs from the House bill in that the Senate eliminated [...]

US Government – Leveraging their spend

2010-07-02T16:15:47Z

According to Peter Orszag, head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and contributor to the Office of Management and Budget blog, “Federal agencies usually rely on hundreds of separate contracts for commonly used office supplies that vary in price. Purchasing supplies through separate contracts does not leverage the government’s buying power across all agencies, providing [...]

Wireless Costs: Detached From Mainstream Cost Containment Processes

2010-06-24T13:54:57Z

A category of spend with the highest probability of achieving savings is Telecommunications. The primary reason is that individuals managing Telecom expenditures are usually technical specialists without experience in strategic sourcing or possessing an intimate knowledge of telecommunications billing practices. Effectively managing wireless expenditures can be the most daunting. Wireless Services have the following characteristics: • Each voice/data [...]

Center-Led Procurement: Part 2

2010-06-22T07:32:59Z

Today’s post is the second on Center Led Procurement. In these next few paragraphs, I would like to examine the benefits of center led procurement. Center Led Procurement: What does it mean and what does it look like? A center-led model of procurement is where a procurement center of excellence (COE) focuses on corporate supply chain strategies [...]

Center Led from chaos to a well oiled efficient process: Part 1

2010-06-17T15:25:15Z

One of the ongoing topics in sourcing today is the continued trend toward center-led procurement organizations, where strategic decisions are coordinated centrally while transactional activities are decentralized across the organization, especially in large enterprises (>1B). This post is will be 1 of 2 designed to be a brief introduction to center led purchasing for those readers interested [...]

Expand Your Organization’s Sourcing Knowledge With Focused Workshops

2010-06-15T18:58:12Z

By Steven Hall How do I work with the Service Provider? Should I interview the offshore resources? What are SLAs? What can I do to improve quality? These are questions we hear repeatedly from our customers. In response, we’ve developed a series of workshops to address these pressing needs. The content is structured to be delivered [...]

Long Term Bullish – Future Bodes Well for Services Outsourcing

2010-06-08T13:52:34Z

by Dinesh Goel If you think of general business process services trends, it is no different from using vendors for several other goods and services to run an enterprise. These may range from mail/courier services and car rentals to facilities management or procurement of raw materials, peripheral equipment, etc… The rationale, at its simplest, is that [...]

Supply Chain Management: Coordinating the puzzle to fit together at the perfect time and place.

2010-06-03T20:35:00Z

I recently had a conversation with one of my employees about his trip to Seattle where he shared about his trip to the Boeing museum and a tour of their facilities. This immediately made me think of a video story I watched about Boeing’s supply chain. The news story went into detail about the lessons they [...]