E-Sourcing Forum

Will new regulation curb outsourcing/offshoring by banks?

2010-03-09T16:00:13Z

By Brian Smith, TPI The Administration has proposed a set of new rules to increase regulation of the banking industry. While we don’t know what the final outcome will look like, we do know that changes will be focused on lending, bank structure, and the separation of investment banking from retail banking. None of these changes [...]

Iasta honored with 4 honoree’s as 2010 “Pro’s to Know”

2010-03-09T13:15:46Z

Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine, the executive’s user manual for successful supply and demand chain transformation, this week announced the tenth annual listing of Pros to Know in the Supply Chain Industry. The Pros to Know is a listing of individuals from a software firm or service provider, consultancy, or analyst or research firm who [...]

Iasta Makes Strong Entrance in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites

2010-03-08T14:43:15Z

Iasta, a leading provider of eSourcing software and solutions, today announced that Gartner, Inc., a leading independent provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, has positioned Iasta in the “Challengers” quadrant of the “Strategic Sourcing Application Suites.” (i) The report assesses the top software providers by a list of criteria that [...]

It’s what you don’t know that costs you part 1: Why ERP Systems Are Not Enough for Spend Analysis.

2010-03-04T16:36:04Z

ERP systems have been historically good at processing and recording transactions, but mining data for spend visibility was not one of them. Spend Analysis started in the early 1990’s at progressive companies like GE and at consulting firms like McKinsey. The idea was to mine existing spend data to identify areas where sourcing effort would [...]

Spend Category Management – What Is It, and Why Is It So Valuable?

2010-03-09T14:30:14Z

Category management is very valuable to organizations that conduct sourcing initiatives and want to capture key knowledge around that specific sourcing category, integrated with the corresponding organizational Spend. This allows for ongoing category-specific measurements, such as rebate programs, Diversity Spend relative to specific items, and managing the overall status of the sourcing program to continually [...]

Beam-Up More Data Scotty! I Need More Spend Visibility!

2010-03-02T18:39:29Z

One of the big cost and “choke” points in Spend Analysis has been the difficulty in collecting the many different sources of Spend related data. Spend data typically resides in disparate systems, including ERP, AP, PO, Pcard, Suppliers, Supplier enrichment, Expenses, Invoices, Freight Bills, financial systems, sales systems, and more. Spend data can also be [...]

Is the National Healthcare Debate about Cost Reduction Or Cost Avoidance?

2010-02-24T13:20:05Z

The current political debate about Health care made me think about how this debate is relevant to Cost Reduction and Cost Avoidance. To provide a baseline of how I am defining my terminology I will use these definitions: Cost reduction unquestionably creates value for an organization, by lowering costs compared to prior-period actual costs. Cost avoidance means [...]

Utilizing outside warehousing and distribution with new acquisitions

2010-02-18T13:44:20Z

2010 should bring a flurry of new acquisitions with many established companies looking to expand product lines and increase growth within the organization. Of these companies looking to expand through acquisition, raising capital expense to fund the newly acquired business unit will be a challenging experience in ramping-up operations with manufacturing and warehousing distribution. Many companies will [...]

“Dynamic Database” Technology Significantly Advances Spend Analysis Capabilities

2010-03-02T18:39:01Z

In the world of Spend Data Management and Spend Analytics, not much new technology has come forth over the past 5 years, until now. We have been stuck with ETL’s requiring structured data templates, fixed databases, reporting cubes, and manual data classification to name a few. Each of these technologies had less-than-desired automation and difficulties, [...]

Logistics effectiveness and impact

2010-02-11T13:45:15Z

Effectiveness, is key to competing in today’s business environment. Logistics is a process, a supply pipeline which connects you with your vendor/supplier and your customer. Whether you compete domestically or globally competitors, vendors, suppliers and customers are worldwide. The significant cost of logistic/distribution effects the entire supply chain. Logistics importance integrates and develops long-lasting alliance is between [...]

Experience (and value) that Spend Analysis Vendors Provide, Beyond Internal IT Personnel

2010-03-09T14:30:38Z

To approve Spend Analysis projects, project Sponsors often need to justify to their management why they need to utilize Spend Analysis providers to do the project, as opposed to internal IT resources. Some companies may not have this problem in that they don’t have IT resources available, so it is obvious they need to use [...]

Are you experiencing declining yield from your Six Sigma or other process improvement projects?

2010-02-04T14:07:49Z

An article in the Wallstreet Journal provides a wonderful example of how implemented best practices and process improvement programs like Six Sigma can go astray after experts move to other projects, Managers relax accountability and excitement fades. The cartoon depicted below by Leif Parsons, gives the perfect illustration of what happens in the progression of [...]

The Rest of the Story

2010-02-02T14:22:08Z

In my April post entitled “Take A Long Term View”, I described a client facing a sourcing dilemma. They were purchasing materials from a distributor who had installed “free” equipment in exchange for a commitment to buy the related supplies. They had previously solicited bids every two years and believed their “supplier partner” was competitive. [...]

Do you know enough about Telecom Sourcing?

2010-01-28T14:48:39Z

Telecom is normally one of the largest spend categories that is over looked within large multi-national corporations. Most CIO’s don’t have the knowledge or background to understand the spend they have in Telecom. This lack of understanding leads to very ineffective Telecom sourcing projects. According to research conducted by Forester Consulting, “80% of all telecoms sourcing [...]

ITIL V3 – Bridging your ITSM and Outsourcing Strategies

2010-01-26T13:22:38Z

by Claudia Tropp, – TPI. While ITIL, the most widely accepted collection of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM), has taken an important first step in evolving its guidance on outsourcing within the context of ITSM in its 2007 Version 3 release, it may have fallen short on providing the breadth of advice required in [...]